Skip to main content

Nvidia to bring GeForce RTX graphics to ARM-based Chromebooks and Linux PCs

At Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference, CEO Jensen Huang announced that the company was working with industry partners to make its graphics technology more widely accessible. Specifically, Huang mentioned that it is looking to bring its GeForce GPU graphics technology to ARM-based processors that are popular on Chromebooks today.

“We’re announcing a partnership with MediaTek to create a reference system and SDK for Chrome OS and Linux PCs,” Huang said during his keynote presentation at GTC while highlighting the power efficiency and popularity of ARM processors due to their open licensing model. “Combining Nvidia GPUs and MediaTek SoCs [systems on a chip] will make excellent PCs and notebooks.”

He added that MediaTek is the world’s largest SoC maker.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In a presentation slide, Huang and Nvidia noted that MediaTek’s Arm SoC would be paired with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics, the same Ampere-based GPU that’s found in high-end gaming rigs today.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Though Nvidia didn’t offer additional details about the partnership, an ARM-based MediaTek processor coupled with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX technology will have the power to potentially supercharge smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, Linux PCs, and even future Windows on ARM releases. With more graphics power headed to ARM processors, we could begin to see more games and creative apps on more devices, operating systems, and form factors. This could even make serious gaming a reality on Windows on ARM systems.

Nvidia rival AMD is also eyeing the ARM processor market. AMD is said to be partnering with Samsung to potentially bring its Radeon graphics technology to Samsung’s ARM-based Exynos processor.

With Nvidia’s GeForce GPU — and even AMD’s Radeon GPU — headed to ARM, this could have the potential to disrupt Intel’s tight grip on the processor space. Apple has already migrated away from Intel silicon, opting to forge ahead with its custom ARM-based M1 processors for the Mac that are coupled to its own graphics solution.

Nvidia’s support for ARM shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given that the company has announced its acquisition of ARM from Softbank in a deal valued at $40 billion in cash and stock.

Nvidia also announced its Grace data center CPU, also based on ARM, that would couple the processors with Nvidia’s GPUs. Nvidia is still awaiting regulatory approval for its acquisition of U.K.-based Arm.

Editors' Recommendations

Chuong Nguyen
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
Even Nvidia’s partners don’t believe in the new RTX 4060 Ti
RTX 4060 Ti sitting on a pink background.

Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is reportedly just days away from launch, but rumor has it that there may not be a lot of GPUs to choose from. This isn't a sign of another dreadful GPU shortage, though. It's more that the RTX 4060 Ti has very little chance to rank high among the best graphics cards you can buy.

We've just recently seen the release of the RTX 4060, but Nvidia still has another card up its sleeve -- a clone of the existing RTX 4060 Ti that comes equipped with twice the VRAM. However, due to certain factors, the GPU might be doomed to a life of subpar sales and unsatisfying benchmark results.

Read more
This mysterious Nvidia GPU is an absolute monstrosity — and we just got another look
Two Nvidia GPUs side by side.

The beast is back. Several new photos of what appears to be a quad-slot Nvidia GPU emerged today, revealing a monstrous prototype that's still yet to receive a name. In this iteration, it's more of a cooler than a GPU, as it doesn't appear to have a PCB.

Today's leak brings a lot of questions about what could one day be Nvidia's best GPU ever. Is Nvidia really working on a Titan GPU, or is this the RTX 4090 Ti?

Read more
Nvidia’s RTX 4060 might not be such a disappointment after all
Nvidia's RTX 4070 graphics cards over a pink background.

Nvidia's RTX 4060 is right around the corner, so it's really no surprise that the first benchmarks are already starting to leak out. Today, two tests have been spotted, and they bode pretty well for the GPU. The RTX 3060, which is still a favorite among Nvidia users, might be around 20% slower than the upcoming Ada Lovelace model.

Will the RTX 4060 become one of the best GPUs, or at least one of the most popular models in this generation?

Read more