Nvidia prepares powerful ARM-APU for gaming laptops
By ForGeeks Despite expectations, Nvidia didn’t unveil any new chips for consumer notebooks at Computex 2025. However, that doesn’t mean the company is idle. A fresh leak confirms it – Nvidia is actively working on a new solution.
The information comes from YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead. The published video shows a fuzzy shot of an engineering sample of a potential Nvidia APU for gaming laptops. Technical details are limited, but the first hints look promising.
According to the source, the APU would run in the 80W to 120W power range, and the device is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early 2026. The leak is said to come from an insider who is involved in testing the APU internally at Nvidia itself.
The image shows the «Eng Sample» designation, and there are eight modules around the main chip, which are likely LPDDR5X memory. It’s similar to AMD’s solution with its Strix Halo – where the fast memory is built directly into the APU, which significantly improves performance.
But unlike AMD’s x86 architecture, Nvidia’s APU is expected to be based on MediaTek’s ARM processor. It will be paired with Nvidia’s all-new integrated graphics.
The device, according to the leak, can reach 115 watts at peak loads. That means laptops based on such an APU will be able to forgo discrete GPUs, thereby reducing heat dissipation and cooling requirements — as Windows Central emphasizes. It also promises a significant boost in battery life, historically a weakness of gaming laptops.
Interestingly, Nvidia isn’t the first to go this route. But with its expertise in graphics, including DLSS 4, the company is well positioned to succeed.
If you delve into the terminology, APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) is a term coined by AMD to refer to a chip that combines a CPU and GPU. It’s similar to an SoC (System-on-Chip), but the latter also includes controllers, communication modules and often an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to process AI tasks. An example is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X in Copilot+ laptops.
Rumors about Nvidia developing an APU have been floating around since as early as 2023. That’s when reports surfaced that both AMD and Nvidia were working on ARM processors for Windows devices. That even caused Intel’s stock to drop briefly.
It’s also worth remembering that Nvidia is developing an APU for the Nintendo Switch 2 (Tegra T239 based on ARM and Ampere GPU), and is also actively developing the DGX Spark platform with a powerful AI chip, the Grace Blackwell GB10.
Based on leaks and current trends, Nvidia seems to be getting ready to move beyond traditional GPU expertise and make a name for itself in the Windows notebook market. Of course, there’s no official information yet – so we’ll just have to wait for the announcement.
If the leaks are confirmed, however, we could see a very interesting combination of an ARM processor and Nvidia’s integrated graphics, complete with proprietary AI acceleration and frame generation technologies. This could usher in a new era in the gaming laptop segment.
The article Nvidia prepares powerful ARM-APU for gaming laptops was first published on ITZine.ru.
