Nvidia Challenges Apple Silicon With New RTX Spark PC Chip

[TimmyNoInnovation]

If I run the GPU at 100% on my M5 Max 18/40 MBP 14”, I get 55 minutes of battery life from full battery to auto shutdown.

How is that workload relevant the others battery life claim?

They were making a joke referring to a user with a mobile workflow.

Your workflow is stationary, run on a platform that enables you to move it or have a battery backup should the power go out. 🤣🔌

Not the same. I am also using a smidge of humor with a dose of distinction.

 

[iGMX]

DLSS to make sure they can fake the graphic performance 🤭

 

[PBG4 Dude]

How is that workload relevant the others battery life claim?

They were making a joke referring to a user with a mobile workflow.

Your workflow is stationary, run on a platform that enables you to move it or have a battery backup should the power go out. 🤣🔌

Not the same. I am also using a smidge of humor with a dose of distinction.

They said the battery life will be terrible. I pointed out the MBP can have equally terrible battery life. What’s not to get?

 

[TimmyNoInnovation]

They said the battery life will be terrible. I pointed out the MBP can have equally terrible battery life. What’s not to get?

“Battery life” that is marketed is comparing controlled environments and settings between different devices to see which is better than the other.

Look into any of those metrics which are art and not a science. None of those comparisons peg the GPU or CPU.

But yes, if you peg the CPU or GPU on an extremely advanced config, ignore the real life benefits of OSX over Windows independent of ARM or x86, you will have terrible battery life.

Just like if I take a Toyota Corolla and rev the engine and race between every stop light. I’ll get crappy gas mileage for that use case… Lot’s people out there proving Corolla’s can experience poor gas mileage…

 

[rishey]

Sounds great! All it needs is an operating system.

 

[Spock]

Apple has such a huge influence over the PC market with the Mac having such a small amount of market share. Until Apple Silicon, Intel was just coasting along without a care in the world. Apple released the MacBook Neo and suddenly all the PC manufactures are scrambling to have the next Neo killer, I love it.

 

[LightProtector]

Doesn’t matter because there’s nothing competing with the lower end chips. I’m not spending more than $1800 on a laptop.

Also, Windows is terrible.

 

[Corefile]

I think NVIDIA’s new AI-focused hardware could create an opportunity for Microsoft to introduce an entirely new consumer operating system rather than continuing to evolve Windows. Windows remains deeply entrenched in the enterprise, where backward compatibility and stability are critical, but a new platform could focus on personal computing and be designed from the ground up for modern hardware architectures that combine CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators. It could support existing Windows applications through a compatibility layer while encouraging developers to build native applications optimized for the new platform over time.

If you own the education market then people will stay loyal to you if your system isn't trash. The Neo will produce a new generation of Mac-only folk through education. Windows will eventually become eroded as legacy users die off. I don't see an NVIDIA AI OS get traction because they have no experience with consumers at this level.

 

[rgwebb]

Probably will be surpassed by the M6. Feel like we've seen this PR scam before: getting release in on the backend of the Apple product cycle, so they can compare their product against essentially "last-gen" tech. A tradition unlike any other in consumer technology.

 

[SactoGuy18]

That's great, but dealing with Windows 11 25H2 and getting full Linux hardware support...

 

[satchmo]

There have been faster PC's than Macs since the dawn of personal computers.
What has kept me with Apple has always been about the OS.

Despite John Ternus' hardware background, I hope one his first goals is to improve software reliability and user experience.

 

[Siliconguy]

Huh? Nvidia's linux drivers have been great

My experience differs greatly. I had to ditch the Nvidia card and put in an AMD one which does work properly.

Note too that Nvidia drops support for their old cards in the same way as Apple does with their old hardware. No more Nvidia for me. They can take their super-secret drivers and...

 

[mikebenton]

If you own the education market then people will stay loyal to you if your system isn't trash. The Neo will produce a new generation of Mac-only folk through education. Windows will eventually become eroded as legacy users die off. I don't see an NVIDIA AI OS get traction because they have no experience with consumers at this level.

I was referring to Microsoft creating a new OS - focused on the consumer market, not Nvidia. I don't think they would get anywhere right away with enterprise, but if they focused on the non-enterprise market....they could get build something better and get traction.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

Not interested in Windows. But this things could get interesting running Linux. Competition is good! The winner in the end is the consumer.

Linux on ARM is worse that either Windows or MacOS. It does not have an emulation layer, like Windows and MacOS, so all apps have to be ported, or they do not run.

 

[Happy_John]

Oh wow, finally some competition after....6(?) years?

It will only be "competition" if the price point is comparable. The way Nvidia has been going, this could have a price tag that means it is not in direct competion with the majority of MacBooks.

 

[Paulsukhu]

I went to bare metal Debian last year on my primary workstation that has a 5080. Nvidia’s Linux support is great. If they can sell a laptop that has Linux support on par with Windows 11 Enterprise, then this could be damaging to MS’s OS business.

 

[mrgrdn]

hell no, windows os is horrible. Never in my life will I use one of their systems and windows os in my private time again.

 

[jeremyw013]

I am not going to lie, the proart 14 and surface ultra have my attention, but if you cannot turn off the agentic stuff, I probably won't bite. Can I remove that version of windows and install basic as I am using now, I am in like flynn.

the ultra is rumored around $3K based on pricing history with surfaces. i would not pay any more attention to that. people think macs are expensive but never look at surfaces. they’ve always been significantly more expensive than macs.

 

[tong_si_nan_pei]

Enjoyable to watch Intel’s death spiral.

 

[DaniTheFox]

So Microsoft will have an Ultra too.

 

[DaniTheFox]

I’m curious, what do you think? Will the M6 Max come with 256GB of memory?

 

[tenthousandthings]

Probably will be surpassed by the M6. Feel like we've seen this PR scam before: getting release in on the backend of the Apple product cycle, so they can compare their product against essentially "last-gen" tech. A tradition unlike any other in consumer technology.

The sleight-of-hand is more than just that -- this is Grace Blackwell, so it is itself "last-gen" tech, coming two years after Blackwell went into volume production. It's fair to compare it to the 128GB M5 Max, but for most of its run, it will be competing with M6 Max.

 

[nikaru]

You say this as if Apple didn't live for a decade in a shadow as the slow in comparison models to the PC market

Apple has always had top in class Intel chips, the same that PC community had. Future is ARM and future is SoC. Apple realized it first.

 

[chrono1081]

It will only be "competition" if the price point is comparable. The way Nvidia has been going, this could have a price tag that means it is not in direct competion with the majority of MacBooks.

Yea I'm not optimistic that it's going to be true competition. I think if it performs comparable the price will be much higher.

 

[120FPS]

NVIDIA coming into it is more serious than the macOS vs Windows argument. CUDA runs a lot of these things, so it could be a problem for Apple. Apple was never geared toward CAD users specifically (they have a customer base, though), but they could lose them if this makes their work easier or much more productive.