Nvidia’s highly anticipated ARM chip begins to reveal its potential with leaked results showing competitive performance against the best processors on the market.
With just weeks to go until the Computex 2025 event, Nvidia’s new superchip, the GB10 Grace Blackwell, has appeared in the Geekbench database. Four distinct results published on May 6 confirm that the chip is already undergoing real-world testing, and judging by the scores, its performance is noteworthy.
Initial Scores: Up to 2,960 in Single-Core and 10,682 in Multi-Core
Though these are still preliminary results, the GB10 achieves between 1,909 and 3,000 points in single-core tests, and up to 10,682 points in multi-core tasks. These figures place it among some of the most powerful ARM and x86 chips available.
The CPU identified as GB10 is based on 20 ARMv8 cores (though it is believed to internally use ARMv9 architecture) with a base frequency of 3.90 GHz, organized into two symmetrical clusters of 10 cores each. The tested system included 128 GB of LPDDR5X memory and ran Windows 11 Enterprise Insider Preview (64-bit), on a platform yet to be identified by the manufacturer.
The Beginning of a New ARM Era in PCs?
These results come after Nvidia showcased its Project DIGITS at CES 2025, a mini-computer designed for artificial intelligence researchers that incorporates this chip. According to Nvidia, the system will be available starting this May at an estimated price of $2,999.
What sets the GB10 apart is not just its power, but the fact that it is an ARM CPU designed for workstation environments, not just for mobile devices or servers. The company is working in collaboration with MediaTek, and variants such as N1 and N1X, aimed at high-performance desktops and laptops, are expected to be announced at Computex.
What Does the GB10 Offer Compared to Other Options?
Unlike Apple with its M series or Qualcomm with its Snapdragon X Elite, Nvidia is designing an ecosystem focused on workloads of generative AI, scientific computing, and large data modeling, all with NVLink connectivity between CPU and GPU to accelerate performance.
Additionally, the chip has been conceived as part of an integrated system, with support for M.2 NVMe SSDs, software based on DGX OS (Linux), and the capability to run AI models with up to 200 billion parameters.
An Uncertain Future for the Competition
Nvidia’s entry into the world of CPUs for PCs and workstations adds pressure to traditional competitors like Intel and AMD, while threatening to disrupt the current duopoly of the ARM consumer ecosystem, dominated by Apple and Qualcomm.
While independent tests and official details about the Blackwell GPU that will accompany the chip are still pending, what has been seen so far positions the GB10 as one of the most eagerly awaited releases of the year.
Source: HardwareLuxx