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Nvidia's DGX Spark has proven itself as a compact, versatile local AI engine thanks to its 128GB of RAM, fast 20-core Arm CPU, and capable Blackwell GPU. We found it equally useful for LLM inference and generative image and video workflows in our review .
But one surprise did rear its head during our testing. Despite its 3nm-class fabrication tech, Arm CPU complex, and Nvidia's long experience with mobile power management, the DGX Spark and its GB10 SoC drew a surprising 37W or so at idle. That's hardly the end of the world for an otherwise efficient system, but now we have some insight into why that number was high to begin with—and an easy fix.
In its most recent system software update , Nvidia has enabled hot-plug detection for the Spark's 200Gbps ConnectX 7 NIC, an exotic networking interface whose controller apparently drew a lot of power at idle until now. Nvidia says that the new update can reduce system power draw by up to 18W when the ConnectX 7 interface isn't active.
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We like to put hard claims like that to the test, so we got out our USB-C power meter and measured idle power on the Founders Edition Spark before and after applying the latest update.
Prior to the update, the DGX Spark Founders Edition indeed idled at the same 37W or so that we observed in our initial review. After the update, the system drew just 25W at idle with our connected display on, a 32.4% reduction. With the display disconnected, as one might do if the Spark were operating as a headless server, idle power fell further, to just 22W.
Not every GB10 box may benefit equally from this update, though. We also tried the new software version on our Dell Pro Max GB10 system , and idle power remained stubbornly unchanged, at 35-37W. We're still toying with the Pro Max and will see if we can get similar reductions in idle power on that system.
Nvidia is also taking this moment to highlight a few ways that the Spark is being used at educational institutions around the world as a local AI accelerator for a range of interesting projects.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-dgx-spark-update-cuts-idle-power-by-32-percent-or-more-hot-plug-detection-on-connectx-nic-makes-for-a-more-efficient-ai-workstation#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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