NVIDIA and MediaTek appear to be working on multiple projects together that span from mobile to desktop applications. It was roughly three years ago that MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai announced the two tech giants were working together to develop an ARM-based processor for gaming laptops that would feature NVIDIA graphics. It now seems that the fruit of their labor is about to be revealed but that it won’t just be for gaming laptops anymore but PCs in general and the part is rumored to cost around $300. Hardware information leaker XpeaGPU has confirmed this but added that the two are also working on a gaming handheld SoC.
Yep and Mediatek is also working on gaming handled SoC with Nvidia GPU as Jensen is frustrated by Nintendo and he sees a good market potential.
— AGF (@XpeaGPU) May 15, 2024
PS: its different than the new NV semi-custom div that tries to reenter the console market (some CN clients are already interested) https://t.co/sBuYVLJILc
A potential new custom SoC from NVIDIA purposed exclusively for a gaming handheld would come as a surprise given the GPU manufacturer’s longstanding relationship with Nintendo. Nintendo has used a custom NVIDIA TEGRA processor in its Switch gaming consoles since their first introduction in 2017. Seven years later Nintendo has yet to release a successor but is believed to reveal one very soon. It is also believed that a successor would continue to be powered by a custom NVIDIA chip but it would still rely on the older Ampere design launched four years ago.
NVIDIA wants to reenter the console market
According to the rumor, this has frustrated NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang who sees a much greater sales opportunity in the gaming handheld sector with more modern technology. It’s already known that NVIDIA is seeking to re-enter the console market and has been courting console manufacturers Sony and Microsoft in an attempt to get them to switch from AMD to NVIDIA.
While NVIDIA has enjoyed market dominance with its GPUs on the PC front it has not managed similar success in the console sector. Add that while Nintendo does have a measure of global popularity its largest sales base is limited to Japan and the NVIDIA CEO is known for his global strategies for overall product sales. NVIDIA will be doing a keynote speech soon at Computex, technically right before the event begins, and it’s possible it might reveal one or both of these products then.