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NVIDIA challenges Intel and AMD with the new Grace CPU: impressive performance and energy efficiency

NVIDIA has recently unveiled its new Grace CPU based on ARM architecture, promising to redefine standards in data centres and high-performance computing (HPC). Featuring 72 Arm Neoverse V2 cores, the Grace CPU stands out for its unique combination of performance and energy efficiency, rivalling solutions from Intel and AMD, particularly the 96-core Threadripper 7995WX.

The Grace CPU was designed to meet the growing demands for high-performance computing in servers and data centres. It integrates LPDDR5X memory, offering up to 53% more bandwidth than traditional eight-channel DDR5 designs while significantly reducing power consumption. This combination allows maximizing resources dedicated to CPU cores while keeping costs low and doubling the density of DIMM-based solutions.

The technical specifications of the Grace CPU are impressive: built on the TSMC 4N process node, it offers 117 MB of L3 cache and supports up to 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes for I/O connectivity. The Superchip design, combining two Grace CPUs for a total of 144 cores, promises performance comparable to today’s high-end dual-socket servers, with 2x improved efficiency in data centres.

NVIDIA has already showcased some impressive benchmarks of the Grace CPU, highlighting its ability to come very close to the performance of AMD’s 96-core Threadripper 7995WX, a chip with significantly higher clock speeds. These results were achieved using the Supermicro ARS-111GL-NHR system, confirming the Grace CPU’s potential in high-performance server contexts.

Future expectations are high, with NVIDIA planning to launch ARM-based consumer CPUs for the "AI PC" segment in the coming years, along with new developments in the server market with the introduction of next-gen Vera CPUs in 2026.

Highlights:

• Performance and architecture: The Grace CPU utilizes 72 Arm Neoverse V2 cores, supporting Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE2) and Advanced SIMD (NEON) for HPC applications such as machine learning and genomics.
• Energy efficiency: LPDDR5X memory allows significant energy savings, increasing density and reducing costs compared to HBM2e memory.
• Advanced connectivity: Supports 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes, offering 128 GB/s bidirectional bandwidth for each of the 8 PCIe x16 links.
• Compatibility and flexibility: Grace is compatible with a wide range of Arm operating systems and software, supporting optimized tools and libraries for Arm, including Clang and NVIDIA HPC SDK.