Nvidia's long-rumored N1X Arm CPU surfaces again in Dell laptop leak
An Alienware N1X laptop could still emerge this year
by Daniel Sims · TechSpotServing tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.
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Connecting the dots: After more than two years of rumors, Nvidia has yet to unveil its plans for Arm-based consumer hardware, but new leaks suggest that the chip is on the way. Dell, one of the companies closely tied to the rumors, likely considered using the part for a premium laptop – and might still deploy it in an Alienware device.
Well-known leaker Orlak recently shared a shipping manifest suggesting that Dell experimented with Nvidia's long-rumored N1X processor last year. Team Green is expected to unveil products featuring the Arm chip sometime in 2026.
The manifest describes a 16-inch OLED laptop from Dell's "Premium" label, which it renamed XPS at CES. The N1X is usually described as an AI PC chip, and Dell attempted to retire the classic XPS name in a pivot to AI branding last year. However, the company reversed the decision at CES last week, admitting that AI has failed to attract consumers.
Dell has been linked to the N1X since 2024, when CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang advised everyone to stay tuned amid rumors that the Team Green was developing Arm CPU devices to compete with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite. Those rumors later included an Nvidia APU intended for a laptop from Dell-owned Alienware. Subsequent leaks indicate the chip may compare favorably to some of the fastest mobile processors from Intel and AMD, while the iGPU features the same number of CUDA cores as the RTX 5070.
Meanwhile, the N1X is also expected to appear in a cheaper variant of the DGX Spark mini AI PC, a mini supercomputer that Nvidia and MediaTek unveiled last year. The $4,000 kit, equipped with a 20-core CPU, allows enterprise users to run AI models without relying on cloud services, while a new model would target consumers.
While the Arm instruction set is typically employed for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, Qualcomm and Microsoft recently began promoting Arm-based Windows laptops, following Apple's shift toward in-house Arm chip designs. The Snapdragon-powered netbooks have experienced limited commercial success thus far, but Qualcomm and Microsoft have continued to improve their software, with gaming as a primary focus.
The Windows x86-to-Arm translation layer now supports most games and nearly all anti-cheat services. Additionally, Arm-native Windows games are expected to arrive this year, potentially in time for Nvidia's rumored devices.