It's official: Nvidia and Intel are partnering up, and is set to bring a fusion of Intel CPUs and Nvidia's RTX GPU power into a new breed of SoC (System on Chip): Intel x86 RTX silicon.
Two rival juggernauts of the industry are now in alliance, with Nvidia throwing $5 billion at Intel to kick-start a new era of chips in PCs. With Team Blue's massive share of laptops in the market and Team Green's dominance as a GPU maker, this is arguably the dream scenario not just for both companies, but for the rest of us, too.
Having an Intel SoC fitted with an Nvidia RTX graphics chip should deliver more thin, lightweight Windows laptops made for productivity and gaming. It truly would be a leap forward for PC gaming, even if it may be putting Intel's own Arc GPUs on thin ice.
But there's one player who may feel the sting of this partnership — AMD. Team Red has been gaining momentum with its latest suite of CPUs and GPUs, showing off incredible performance with its AMD Ryzen AI Max 390 in the Asus ROG Flow Z13, which shows off its integrated graphics prowess.
That's the kind of might Nvidia and Intel appear to be striving towards with their new investment into SoCs, but it isn't just desktops and laptops that are on the line here. With AMD's hand in powering the best gaming handhelds and the latest consoles, including the PS5 and Xbox Series X, we could see a change in the future of gaming consoles, and AMD may have a serious fight on its hands to remain the go-to chip maker.
Gaming laptops and beyond
Despite many of the best gaming laptops today coming equipped with Intel's latest CPUs, they only manage to be top-of-the-line machines thanks to discrete GPUs, whether it be from Nvidia or AMD.
Laptop manufacturers can do their best to make them more portable, with the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 or Razer Blade 14 being fine examples, but they can't match the ultra-lightweight design or power efficiency of, say, a MacBook Pro sporting the latest M-series silicon that, for the most part, acts as a work laptop by day and a gaming machine by night — with a battery that lasts.
And so, having Nvidia and Intel's next venture into a CPU with integrated graphics would potentially solve that problem. But AMD has already been chipping away at this for a while. In fact, AMD put the scare in Intel with its Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, surpassing Team Blue's Lunar Lake chip (the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V) in gaming handhelds.
That's why you'll find AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme in the most popular gaming handhelds arriving, including the ROG Xbox Ally X and MSI Claw A8. It simply pulls ahead of its competition, and there's a very good reason behind Sony and Microsoft continuously using a custom AMD chip to power their consoles.
The PS5 Pro managed to become the most powerful console on the market thanks to AMD, and as we learned from lead architect Mark Cerny, it will continue to push ahead with FSR 4 (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and Project Amethyst, the multi-year partnership with Sony and AMD.
But what if Nvidia and Intel's newfound partnership disrupts AMD's current journey into different platforms? Nvidia has an edge in the GPU market, with its GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards bringing DLSS 4 (Deep Learning Super Sampling) upscaling tech, and it's taken the lead on how games can perform on PCs, whether it be on a desktop or laptop.
Since Nvidia and Intel's x86 RTX silicon should deliver more powerful and efficient performance for gaming and AI on laptops (as tech analyst Avi Greengart told Tom's Guide), if this expands onto other platforms like handheld PCs and consoles, then who's to say tech giants won't make a shift in chip makers?
Now, when this upcoming Nvidia/Intel chip will arrive is anyone's guess, and AMD already appears to have plans in place for its next-gen SoC in the rumored AMD Medusa Ryzen CPUs tipped for 2026. What's more, the long-rumored PS6 is expected to be powered by an AMD chip capable of being 8x faster than the PS5, with 4K at 120 FPS.
But with this shift in the tech industry, the future of gaming on different platforms could see a new name powering these devices, and Team Red may not be the first choice much longer.
Nvidia has its own card to play
During the chat to confirm the deal, Huang made it clear that the partnership has nothing to do with President Trump (as pointed out by The Verge) or Nvidia's own chip plans. If anything, that means Team Green is still pushing ahead on its expected Nvidia N1X chip.
Interestingly, that appears to be another deal Nvidia is striking up with MediaTek, which hints at bringing Arm-based CPUs for desktops and laptops. Again, that means slimmer, more powerful gaming laptops thanks to the might of Nvidia's latest graphics cards. Apparently, this SoC could arrive sometime in 2026, and it's looking to leverage the power of an RTX GPU.
There have been hints that the N1X will come with RTX 5070 desktop GPU power, boasting a 20-core CPU and 6,144 CUDA cores. This is exciting to hear, considering this is just from a single chip. If this is the performance we might expect, then Nvidia is setting itself up to shake up the industry.
Of course, without an official announcement, we won't know what kind of consumer-grade SoC we can expect from Nvidia until it's revealed. The performance of Nvidia's new lineup of silicon is still up in the air, but the implications of the top GPU maker venturing into the CPU world should put AMD and other chip makers on their toes.
The takeaway
It's not like Nvidia hasn't made its own custom chip for consoles before. The Nintendo Switch 2 is powered by a custom Nvidia processor featuring a GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores. But an all-new SoC with Intel by its side could drastically shift the type of chips we see in not just PCs, but handhelds and consoles, too.
Sure, it's not like we haven't seen Arm chips for Windows in action before, with Snapdragon X Elite laptops impressing with their long battery life and fast speeds. That said, we've tested Snapdragon X Elite PCs for gaming, and while impressive, they aren't quite built for demanding titles.
Still, there are other plans from Intel and Nvidia's competitors underway. For one, the AMD Strix Halo APU already delivers close to RTX 4060 desktop GPU power, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Series chip is set to arrive soon.
In any case, we're sure to see some exciting developments in the CPU market over the next few years, and AMD has now found an even bigger rival in a combined effort between Nvidia and Intel — and I can't wait to play on whatever devices come from this battle.
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