Dominant chipmaker Nvidia is the latest corporation to claim it has reached the coveted milestone where home console-quality graphics can render on mobile devices.
Speaking at the CES keynote on Sunday, Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang took to the stage to reveal the Tegra X1–which he claims is “a mobile super chip” that’s twice as powerful as the Tegra K1 introduced in 2014.
The Tegra X1 is built on Nvidia’s Maxwell PC architecture, the same architecture used in desktop GPUs like the GTX 980 and GTX 970. It packs a 256-core GPU (compared to the 192 cores of Tegra K1), which is the same core count and architecture as a GeForce 830M. The GPU sits on top of an 8-core ARM-based central processing unit that, together, pumps out one whole teraflop of computational power.
“We’re able to run any application that relies on the architecture of Maxwell,” he said, as quoted by GameSpot sister publication CNET. Indeed, like desktop Maxwell chips, the Tegra X1 supports DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.5, and will support DirectX 12 on release.
Huang said the X1 was powerful and energy efficient enough to bring console and PC-grade graphics to handheld devices such as tablets–a routine claim by chipmakers when it reveals new tech for portables. This time, however, Huang backed up the claim by showing the Unreal Engine 4 “Elemental” demo (above) running on X1.
The Elemental video, first showcased at the Game Developers Conference in 2012, was pitched as a demonstration of what developers could do with next-gen consoles and a capable game engine.
Creator Epic Games would later reveal the engine working on PlayStation 4.
On stage, Huang claimed that the original demo required 300W of power, and the next-gen console versions consumed 100W. Today, he said, the demo can run with the X1 at just 10W.
Interestingly, the Tegra X1 doesn’t make use of Nvidia’s own 64-bit dual-core “Project Denver” CPU, instead using an off-the-shelf combination of a 64-bit ARM Cortex A57 and A53. Speaking to Arstechnica, Nvidia explained the commission was down to it taking a “tick tock” approach to launching processors.
“Since TX1 is on a brand new 20nm process we decided to use off the shelf ARM cores,” the company said. “But Tegra K1 was on a well understood [28nm] process and hence we decided to use Denver on it. We still have Denver on our roadmap and will be using it in our future chips as processes mature.”
Nvidia has some distance to go in its ambition to be a significant force in the mobile games hardware market. Currently, Qualcomm snapdragon devices dominate the Android market, while Apple relies on its own line of custom A8 chips.
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