As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything to do with GPUs, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-12/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jeffrey Kampman Senior Analyst, Graphics As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything to do with GPUs, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.
Gururu UGLY. Should have wrapped it in snakeskin leather. I'm just going to say what everyone else is saying. Can you open it up and put a picture of the innards in the review? Reply
Pierce2623 I noticed the headline mentions beating Strix Halo, but I’m not sure it’s much of an accomplishment for a $3000 mini pc to beat a $1500 mini pc. If it doesn’t nuke Strix Halo out of existence, then it’s pretty horrible value. Since it’s currently desktop only, it should be getting compared against ITX PCs of equivalent price. Personally, I’d be comparing it against a 9950x3d/5080 ITX system, since that’s equivalent pricing. Lastly it’s a $3000 portable with no USB4/Thuderbolt? That’s next level greedy. Reply
bit_user I'm pleasantly surprised by the analysis on Page 2. I expected to have some notes, but I think that analysis hit all of the main points. Memory bandwidth is indeed its Achilles heel. It's awesome for what was rumored to have been primarily a laptop chip, but it's got nothing on its true datacenter cousins. The article said: … the onboard ConnectX 7 NIC running at up to 200 Gbps. That exotic NIC … Yeah, it's where a big chunk of the cost comes from. I've seen street prices for that card running around $1500. The article said: The preinstalled DGX OS is a lightly Nvidia-flavored version of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Based on Nvidia's prior Jetson platforms, you're really stuck with this as the OS, whether you like it or not. I haven't heard how long Nvidia plans to support it, either. It's a pretty safe bet they'll move to 26.04, but who knows if they'll release anything beyond that for it? The article said: The Spark idles at about 35 W as a headless system Yes, and I think the ConnectX 7 NIC is a big part of that. Sad to see you didn't compare against the Ryzen AI Max 395+, here. Elsewhere, I've seen idle power of the Framework Desktop w/ Ryzen AI Max 395+ measured at a mere 12.5W. It really is just a happy accident that AMD created Strix Halo (Ryzen AI Max), when they did. It wasn't designed to do local LLM workloads, but rather an answer to Apple's M-series Pro. The fact that it can hang so close to GB10 is mostly a testament to just how memory-bottlenecked both are, since the GB10 has way more AI compute horsepower. Reply
kealii123 Pierce2623 said: I noticed the headline mentions beating Strix Halo, but I’m not sure it’s much of an accomplishment for a $3000 mini pc to beat a $1500 mini pc. If it doesn’t nuke Strix Halo out of existence, then it’s pretty horrible value. Since it’s currently desktop only, it should be getting compared against ITX PCs of equivalent price. Personally, I’d be comparing it against a 9950x3d/5080 ITX system, since that’s equivalent pricing. Lastly it’s a $3000 portable with no USB4/Thuderbolt? That’s next level greedy. I'd recommend reading the entire article/review Reply
kealii123 Now I'm super curious how this chip is going to perform in the rumored consumer-oriented laptop that's supposedly shipping soon. Reply
kealii123 I wish the review included the mentioned comparable mac studio in the benchmarks section Reply
colossusrage Pierce2623 said: I noticed the headline mentions beating Strix Halo, but I’m not sure it’s much of an accomplishment for a $3000 mini pc to beat a $1500 mini pc. If it doesn’t nuke Strix Halo out of existence, then it’s pretty horrible value. Since it’s currently desktop only, it should be getting compared against ITX PCs of equivalent price. Personally, I’d be comparing it against a 9950x3d/5080 ITX system, since that’s equivalent pricing. Lastly it’s a $3000 portable with no USB4/Thuderbolt? That’s next level greedy. A desktop with a 5080 wouldn't even be able to run half of these LLMs, it doesn't have enough VRAM. Reply
Pierce2623 GPTshop_ai said: It is a big pro not a con that is does not run Windows!!! Nobody should use windows. The same is true for gaming, nodody should waste their time with gaming while the elites try to mess over everyone. The only disadvantage of the DGX Spark is that it is a flimsy mini PC, that is overpriced and slow. If you can afford get something better! If it could run normal Linux distros, you would be correct. Unfortunately it can only run special Nvidia distros. Maybe you think being locked to one proprietary OS is good but nobody else feels that way. Reply
GPTshop_ai Absolutely false, any Linux distro will run on DGX Spark, but for best performace you need the special Nvidia kernel installed. DGX OS is Ubuntu 24.04 LTS BTW, but any other (ARM) distro will run just fine. PS: Soon they will rename windows to "operating system for copilot app" and it will hopefully die after that. Reply
GPTshop_ai Pierce2623 said: If it could run normal Linux distros, you would be correct. Unfortunately it can only run special Nvidia distros. Maybe you think being locked to one proprietary OS is good but nobody else feels that way. Absolutely false, any Linux distro will run on DGX Spark, but for best performace you need the special Nvidia kernel installed. DGX OS is Ubuntu 24.04 LTS BTW, but any other (ARM) distro will run just fine. PS: Soon they will rename windows to "operating system for copilot app" and it will hopefully die after that. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-dgx-spark-review#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.