It was big news when Microsoft announced in 2016 that it was bringing its desktop Windows operating system to computers with ARM chips made by Qualcomm. But seven years later most Windows on ARM computers to date have offered underwhelming performance and/or high price tags (or both), making them niche devices at best.
That could change soon. This week Qualcomm is expected to unveil a new Snapdragon X line of chips that are supposed to bring much better performance. And it looks like Qualcomm isn’t the only company planning to offer high-performance ARM-based chips for PCs. According to a new report from Reuters, both NVIDIA and AMD are developing ARM chips for Windows PCs, and could launch them as soon as 2025. Qualcomm still has a head start, but the next few years could be very interesting in the PC chip space.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
Nvidia to make Arm-based PC chips in major new challenge to Intel [Reuters]
NVIDIA has made ARM-based chips for Windows PCs before… but this will be the company’s first major play for the space in nearly a decade (since the demise of the ill-fated Microsoft Surface RT and Surface 2 tablets with NVIDIA Tegra processors and Windows RT software).Â
Raspberry Pi 5: available now! (Kind of) [Raspberry Pi]
The Raspberry Pi 5 is now officially available, with all “priority boarding” pre-orders set to ship by the end of the week. But most stores selling the little computer still show it as up for pre-order, with estimated ship dates over a month away for new orders.
New games and features on Google Play Games Beta on PC [Google]
Google Play Games Beta for PC (which lets you play some Android games on Win10/11 computers), now supports “more than 3,000 games,” support for search, support for Xbox and PlayStation controllers, and 4K support.
About that NanoPlay handheld gaming PC with Ryzen Z1 Extreme (Update) [Liliputing]
Update: As of October 20, 2023 the NanoPlay website appears to be down, but the Kickstarter preview page is still live. Make of that what you will.
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that’s great. waiting for 8-10″ inch windows tablets for $200 or less.
I’ve been looking forward to a Windows on ARM competitor to Qualcomm. I really hope Nvidia releases something with a really great GPU.