Item: NVIDIA And MediaTek Potentially To Co-develop Gaming Handheld Processors
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Author: Low Boon Shen

NVIDIA And MediaTek Potentially To Co-develop Gaming Handheld Processors

Today’s gaming handheld scene is somewhat varied, as models from major PC OEMs and small dedicated gaming handheld makers each have their offering. However, the processor choice among the major OEMs like ASUS’s ROG Ally, Lenovo’s Legion Go, and Valve’s Steam Deck all have a common ground: they’re all powered by AMD’s semi-custom processors (though Ryzen Z1 is lightly modified).

NVIDIA has very little presence in the CPU side of things – the only NVIDIA CPU you’ll find in consumer hardware is the Tegra X1 series found on the Nintendo Switch (plus NVIDIA Shield TV). To that end, Team Green has called up MediaTek for help to “co-develop an Arm-based AI processor for personal computers (PCs),” according to analyst Dan Nystedt (via a report from UDN Money).

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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.
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

— AGF (@XpeaGPU) May 15, 2024

However, the information provided by leaker @XpeaGPU has given us more insight into the collaboration. Both chipmakers are said to be working on a gaming handheld SoC with NVIDIA responsible for the GPU elements. Furthermore, the leaker claims that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is “frustrated by Nintendo”, likely due to the latter’s slow development pace for its successor.

For some context, Nintendo has recently announced that a successor is on its way, which will be powered by a new NVIDIA chip featuring an Ampere-based GPU (though details on the CPU are unclear thus far). Having a dedicated chip for mobile handhelds will certainly be lucrative for many smaller handheld makers who currently rely on standard mobile processors from both Intel and AMD, and Team Green can expand from here to further grab more market share from its rivals.

Of course, MediaTek has plenty to gain here – its arch-rival Qualcomm has recently made headlines with the debut of its Snapdragon X Elite series, which is making big strides into pushing Arm architecture into mainstream PCs. MediaTek will be keen to compete in this new space for both Arm-based chipmakers, and having the backing of the most valuable chipmaker in the world will certainly be a big help in its efforts.