NVIDIA's N1x CPU Hits New Roadblock: Launch Pushed to Late 2026

[AleksandarK]

NVIDIA's long-awaited entry into Arm-based laptop CPUs has hit yet another obstacle, according to insiders close to SemiAccurate. Despite publicly declaring the N1 and its sibling N1x is in full production, the company now faces fresh engineering challenges that threaten to push shipping dates as far back as late 2026. Sources speaking to SemiAccurate describe that the newest issue may require a modification to the actual silicon. This setback follows an earlier hiccup, reported in early 2025, when some subtle flaws emerged during initial validation. NVIDIA engineers managed to correct those without a respin, restoring confidence and nudging the timetable back to early next year.

Performance teasers we spotted a month ago showed a prototype "NVIDIA N1x" scoring 3,096 in single‑thread and 18,837 in multi‑thread tests on Geekbench 6.2.2. The sample chip, believed to power an HP "8EA3" development notebook with 20 logical cores clocked at 2.81 GHz and backed by 128 GB of RAM running Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, suggested a significant performance in big.LITTLE arrangement built from standard 10 Cortex‑X925 performance cores and 10 Cortex‑A725 efficiency cores. The N1x's integrated graphics and neural‑processing unit would close the gap with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite series and even Apple's M3‑class silicon. Now, with the latest issues looming, OEM partners may have to recalibrate their Windows laptop plans. NVIDIA will need to balance the risk of further delays against the need to demonstrate a polished, reliable experience before its CPU ambitions can truly challenge established players in the laptop arena. Late 2026 now appears set to become the new milestone for when the first N1‑powered notebooks might finally reach store shelves.



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[Rightness_1]

I simply do not understand this push to ARM for traditional PC users. It offers nothing over anything... We will have Zen 6 and whatever Intel pushes out by late 2026, so performance is meh.

And you simply cannot tell me that nGreedia will not sell this thing for an ARM and a leg!!! It also will not be upgradeable. Windows ARM is a joke, and compatibility issues will be a pox on the platform.

I see no reason why ARM should be in high-end consumer PC's and laptops.

 

[Hyderz]

Mr leather jacket gonna cram more Ai stuff into it
On another note nvidia took notes of snapdragon when they launched and has quite a number of issues… not a bad move they need to build up more portfolio instead of being a gpu and Ai hardware provider and are branching into different hardware… soon we will see all nvidia laptops and desktops… team green fans will most likely throw their wallets at nvidia

 

[john_]

I expected two companies like Mediatek and Nvidia, wouldn't have a problem creating such a SoC. For example Samsung managed to integrate AMD's Radeon in it's chips in about 2,5 years after the announcement of the collaboration with AMD. The performance wasn't there, but still the integration didn't seemed so much of a challenge. Probably the biggest problems for Samsung was it's manufacturing nodes. Considering N1 was expected for late this year, I wonder if the problem is really with the silicon, or if Nvidia is too busy with Blackwell Gaming cards and AI, or if Qualcomm's failure to grab the spotlight with Windows on ARM notebooks, discouraged Nvidia and Mediatek.

 

[Simon.J]

I simply do not understand this push to ARM for traditional PC users. It offers nothing over anything... We will have Zen 6 and whatever Intel pushes out by late 2026, so performance is meh.

And you simply cannot tell me that nGreedia will not sell this thing for an ARM and a leg!!! It also will not be upgradeable. Windows ARM is a joke, and compatibility issues will be a pox on the platform.

I see no reason why ARM should be in high-end consumer PC's and laptops.

Well, you are right about that but here’s a big catch and it is about upcoming Intel’s APX extension which in theory would bring x86-legacy closer to RISC design with quite promising gains in efficiency and performance.
On Twitter people talk that after Panther Lake Intel will bring this major evolution design to market.

 

[Pizderko]

Well, you are right about that but here’s a big catch and it is about upcoming Intel’s APX extension which in theory would bring x86-legacy closer to RISC design with quite promising gains in efficiency and performance.
On Twitter people talk that after Panther Lake Intel will bring this major evolution design to market.

It's all bias bro .... ARM will kill x64, after that RISC-V will just clean everything which remains, because at that point nobody would have a reason to stay on ARM by paying for their licensing.
So at the end of the day RISC-V will come at the end of everything, because
- there can be only one!

 

[GeoffreyA]

If x86 must go, which it doesn't, RISC-V should be the successor, not ARM. Unfortunately, there isn't Windows on RISC-V, hindering that.

 

[Pizderko]

If x86 must go, which it doesn't, RISC-V should be the successor, not ARM. Unfortunately, there isn't Windows on RISC-V, hindering that.

You are far away from the reality.
Nvidia has already it's plan B.
Didn't you know that actually Nvidia has it's own RISC-V cores?

Also!
The thing I'm trying to say in the previous comment is:

Everybody from Intel to Qualcomm will switch to RISC-V, because
- why paying ARM if you can get a thing which not only is free, but also rationally better?

 

[john_]

Risc-V looks to me like Linux. Free, great, consumers keep using Windows.

 

[ncrs]

Well, you are right about that but here’s a big catch and it is about upcoming Intel’s APX extension which in theory would bring x86-legacy closer to RISC design with quite promising gains in efficiency and performance.
On Twitter people talk that after Panther Lake Intel will bring this major evolution design to market.

APX is not a revolution, nor is it making x86 RISC-like. It's doubling the number of general purpose registers, modifying the instruction encodings, allows for three-operand instructions, adds new branch and memory operation instructions. If anything it's making x86 even more complex.
There are clear benefits to APX, but it requires compiler modifications and recompilation of software to benefit from it.
Internally modern x86 cores are RISC-like anyway, so the whole RISC vs. CISC debate has long been obsolete due to that, and traditionally RISC architectures like ARM adding CISC-like features to their design.

 

[Onasi]

Everybody from Intel to Qualcomm will switch on RISC-V, because
- why paying to ARM if you can get a thing which is not only free, but also rationally better?

Yeah, no. Not in our lifetime. x86 is not going anywhere, neither is ARM. RISC-V is still basically a meme and nobody except for SiFive was able to release anything that would gain any traction. And even that is a stretch. Xiaomi technically did too, but I am unaware of how actually profitable that endeavor was for them.

Risc-V looks to me like Linux. Free, great, consumers keep using Windows.

Not a 100% on point analogy, but yeah, kind of. There just isn’t much desire or reason for companies to look outside the established x86 and ARM ecosystems. That isn’t to say RISC-V is pointless or anything, it has its uses, but the idea of it overtaking and replacing the aforementioned two is… dubious at best.

 

[ncrs]

You are far away from the reality.
Nvidia has already it's plan B.
Didn't you know that actually Nvidia has it's own RISC-V cores?

Many vendors have their own internal RISC-V cores, and you can't use them because everything about them is proprietary.

Also!
The thing I'm trying to say in the previous comment is:

Everybody from Intel to Qualcomm will switch to RISC-V, because
- why paying ARM if you can get a thing which not only is free, but also rationally better?

Why would Intel switch to RISC-V? It would mean giving up their entire legacy and market dominance. They do not have any licensing costs due to cross-licensing agreements with AMD (for AMD64).
At the moment RISC-V is even more fragmented than ARM, so software support is a problem.
Recently RISC-V RVA23 was deemed the minimum for the next Ubuntu Linux LTS version, basically making most current RISC-V hardware unusable with it.

 

[wNotyarD]

While I agree ARM has little to no place in desktops/workstations (unless socketable/upgradable), I don't really comprehend all the hate it gets in the laptop space.
It has compatibility issues? Yes, it does. Growing pains, and that's on Microsoft and their partners (to this date, Qualcomm only) to take care of.

My X1E device is way more agile than any Intel laptop I've ever had, principally when unplugged. Running on battery, even Lunar Lake loses more performance than the Snapdragons, so I won't get started on any other Intel or AMD arch. So I bet that when NV gets its N1(x) to market it can only be better than what QC has already brought, especially because Adreno drivers still suck big time.

 

[Pizderko]

Many vendors have their own internal RISC-V cores, and you can't use them because everything about them is proprietary.

What kind of no sense is this?
How it's even possible?
How are you even supposed to take open source RISC-V & make it proprietary for internal use?

 

[Tek-Check]

I see no reason why ARM should be in high-end consumer PC's and laptops.

Arm brings a healthy competition to x86 Intel/AMD dominance. Arm designs have already taken over roughly 12-15% if consumer market, mostly in mobility space.

I agree that Arm designs have a major flaw for DIY desktop space and will never be able to chalkenge Intel and AMD until Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm offer a truly modular and socketable CPUs, motherboards and other components. There is just as many mini-PCs and soldered systems they can possibly sell.

It's astonishing that Nvidia and Apple, some of the richest companies in the world, have no offer for DIY desktop segment. They have no courage to enter this segment and will always be on fringes with soldered systems, unless they change this.

 

[ncrs]

What kind of no sense is this?
How it's even possible?
How are you even supposed to take open source RISC-V & make it proprietary for internal use?

RISC-V is open-source and royalty free for the ISA itself. That's it.
Nothing is stopping vendors from making their core designs proprietary, almost all non-toy RISC-V SoCs to date are proprietary. Chiefly because you need a high performance internal bus, PCIe controllers, RAM controllers, USB controllers and all the other misc periphery that makes a SoC work. All those things require years and sometimes hundreds of millions to develop, especially cutting edge like PCIe 5.0 or DDR5. Nobody is going to give that up for free.

 

[GeoffreyA]

Nvidia has already it's plan B.
Didn't you know that actually Nvidia has it's own RISC-V cores?

I didn't. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Onasi]

It's astonishing that Nvidia and Apple, some of the richest companies in the world, have no offer for DIY desktop segment. They have no courage to enter this segment and will always be on fringes with soldered systems, unless they change this.

Why would they bother? DIY desktop is small potatoes in terms of revenue compared to laptops and, for Apple, AIO PCs. The vast, vast majority of PC customers don’t and have no desire to build their own systems. Dedicating resources to something that might not even be profitable for them is a dubious proposition for any company, no matter how big, if they have no legacy presence in this market.

 

[Rightness_1]

It's all bias bro .... ARM will kill x64, after that RISC-V will just clean everything which remains, because at that point nobody would have a reason to stay on ARM by paying for their licensing.
So at the end of the day RISC-V will come at the end of everything, because
- there can be only one!

How?

You are far away from the reality.
Nvidia has already it's plan B.
Didn't you know that actually Nvidia has it's own RISC-V cores?

Also!
The thing I'm trying to say in the previous comment is:

Everybody from Intel to Qualcomm will switch to RISC-V, because
- why paying ARM if you can get a thing which not only is free, but also rationally better?

Again... How?

You keep banging on about stuff that your saying is going to become the standard. But that requires it to offer something over what we already have today, and for the masses to adopt it. It's not going to happen away from the datacentre dude. Not for at least another 15 years because it offers NOTHING TANGIABLE to consumers.

Any replacement to x86 has to be compatible, more performant, cheaper and just as expandable and upgradable. ARM has none of those things. RISC-V does have potential, but it has ZERO compatibility and is going to be slow after emulation and expensive.

 

[Onasi]

Any replacement to x86 has to be compatible, more performant, cheaper and just as expandable and upgradable. ARM has none of those things. RISC-V does have potential, but it has ZERO compatibility and is going to be slow after emulation and expensive.

We’ve been here before already. *cough* Itanium *cough* That didn’t work out too well, did it now? I said it for years - people talking about the death of x86 don’t understand just what that would have to entail. It’s not feasible.

 

[Pizderko]

compatible, more performant, cheaper

Don't worry, the time will rule out everything.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Nvidia getting their hands on another market isn't a "good" thing..... this will be bad.

 

[wNotyarD]

I forgot to ask you.

- How is this APX alone can rule out the current situation if Intel has not yet any valid alternative to replace it's obsolete Hyper-threading which don't know how to fully play on heterogeneous cpu and it's also got plenty of security issues?

How does hyper-threading matter, if Intel itself already removed it from Arrow Lake going forward?

 

[Quicks]

Nvidia getting their hands on another market isn't a "good" thing..... this will be bad.

I have more faith in Nvidia getting a decent CPU running, than I have Intel creating a good GPU.

 

[KLMR]

With this nvidia could canibalize the console market f.e.
Then the handheld.