NVIDIA’s highly anticipated N1X chip is generating increasing buzz as a potential game-changer in the Windows on ARM ecosystem. Designed in collaboration with MediaTek, the N1Xa system-on-chip (SoC) could present serious competition to Qualcomm’s processors, and potentially shift the landscape for ARM-based laptops and even desktop PCs.
According to a recent Geekbench OpenCL benchmark leak, the N1X chip will feature two clusters of 10-core Grace ARM CPUs, totaling 20 CPU cores. On the GPU side, it includes 48 Compute Units, equivalent to 6,144 CUDA cores—the same configuration found in the desktop-grade RTX 5070, which is built on NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell architecture. The leaked benchmark score shows the N1X achieving an OpenCL score of 46,361 points, significantly outperforming both the Apple M3 Max and AMD Radeon 890M, which hover around 37,500 points, and nearly doubling the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite Adreno’s 23,955 points.
Though the prototype appears to be clocked at just 1,048 MHz, limiting current performance to roughly RTX 2050 levels, the similarities to the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip suggest substantial headroom in the final product. Leaks from the Moore’s Law Is Dead YouTube channel showed engineering samples consuming between 80 to 120W, suggesting the final version could rival a laptop RTX 4070 in performance—without requiring a separate GPU and consuming far less power.
If NVIDIA can successfully combine its efficient ARM-based CPU architecture, powerful Blackwell GPU, and AI features like DLSS into a single SoC, the result could transform the design of productivity and gaming laptops by 2026—ushering in a new era of lightweight yet powerful ARM-based devices.
That said, there are challenges ahead. The release timeline remains uncertain, with Digitimes reporting delays due to Microsoft’s current Windows on ARM roadmap, which has been tightly aligned with Qualcomm’s architecture. Additionally, silicon revision cycles at NVIDIA and weaker-than-expected laptop demand are also contributing to the postponement. Nevertheless, insiders suggest that an official unveiling of the N1X chip could take place in the first quarter of 2026.
If these leaks and projections hold true, the NVIDIA N1X could represent one of the most significant ARM-based advancements yet for Windows systems.
