On the sidelines of the CES consumer technology show in Las Vegas, American semiconductor giant Nvidia unveiled new chips intended to develop artificial intelligence (AI) in personal computers, after establishing itself as the AI benchmark for remote (cloud) computing.
The group's boss, Jensen Huang, still relatively unknown two years ago, presented these new products in front of nearly 20,000 people, the queue to enter the room reaching, at one time, almost a kilometer.
Prices divided by three
In an attempt to democratize generative AI on PCs, Nvidia has divided the price of its new product by three, compared to the old basic model. It thus goes from 1,599 dollars to 549 dollars. From a technical point of view, the GeForce RTX 50 is based on the new generation Blackwell graphics processor (with higher processing capabilities than a conventional chip). Launched at the end of 2024, it was until now reserved for the cloud and data centers.
These graphics processors, also called GPUs, have made Nvidia famous, which took off with the generative AI revolution at the end of 2022. The company is now the second largest market capitalization in the world. The Californian company thus returns to its first love, because it was initially to improve the graphics of video games that it developed its graphics processors during the 1990s, before turning to the cloud.
“Virtual assistants of a new kind”
In addition to improving the realism of video games and image quality in general on PCs, Nvidia's new processor makes it possible to run generative AI interfaces previously too powerful for a personal computer.
“Blackwell, the AI engine, is coming for gamers, developers and creators”Jensen Huang explained.
The Santa Clara group predicts that its new chip will pave the way for the emergence of virtual assistants of a new kind, capable of supporting the user of a PC from the beginning to the end of his session and in all his activities. tasks. The new configuration should, moreover, extend the battery life of PCs equipped with it by 40%, according to Nvidia. Jensen Huang said the price of a laptop equipped with the least advanced version of the GeForce RTX 50 would be $1,299. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo are among the manufacturers who will integrate this processor into their models and the first will be available in April.
