NVIDIA’s platform, previously codenamed Project DIGITS, is a hit at GTC 2025. Apparently, big customers are asking if they can get a DGX Spark thrown in with large GPU purchases. The reason is simple, this is a mini PC form factor that packs an Arm CPU and a Blackwell GPU that are co-packaged, a 128GB LPDDR5x shared memory, multiple ports of USB4, and even a ConnectX-7 NIC for 200GbE clustering. ASUS is one of the key launch partners for the platform and has the ASUS Ascent GX10 mini PC that will be a hit when these platforms launch in the summer of 2025.
This is the ASUS Ascent GX10 a NVIDIA GB10 Mini PC with 128GB of Memory
We found this unit sitting out in the ASUS booth at NVIDIA GTC 2025. It is slightly larger than something like a NUC mini PC, but is extremely compact. This is one you can easily put into a bag and carry.
Here are the key specs. The 1000TOPS is a FP4 rating.
The front of the system has the ASUS logo and a power button. This may sound strange, but ASUS using plastic on the outside of the chassis in parts versus NVIDIA using more metal is an interesting trade-off. NVIDIA DGX Spark feels in hand much more like the Apple Mac Studio from a density perspective while the Asus felt lighter. If you truly want this to be a portable AI box, then ASUS may have a leg up, especially if you want to cluster it.
On the rear of the system, we get the big features. We get a HDMI port as we see on many mini PCs, but then a lot more. There are four USB4 40Gbps ports. There is a 10GbE NIC for base networking. Then there is perhaps the wild feature, a NVIDIA ConnectX-7. NVIDIA told us yesterday this is going to be an Ethernet version of the CX7 for RDMA clustering. The dual port is there for perhaps more interesting connectivity later, but the initial focus is going to be on clustering two of these together with RDMA for a two node solution with up to 256GB of shared memory.
On the NVIDIA GB10 motherboard, we can see the NVIDIA GB10 chip with 10 Cortex-X925 and 10 Cortex-A725 Arm cores for 20 cores total. That has a C2C link to the Blackwell GPU die. This is the consumer Blackwell, with graphics display capabilities, not the data center version.
There are then packages of LPDDR5X flanking the CPU and GPU package for 128GB of memory. Currently this is rated at 276GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is OK, but not earth shattering. It is still more than using DDR5 SODIMMs in dual channel mode that we see in many mini PCs. The ConnectX-7 then has its own side of the board in its own sizable package.
ASUS and NVIDIA told us that their GB10 platforms are expected to use up to 170W.
Pricing
Currently, the NVIDIA GTC pre-order page has these listed for $2999 which is $1000 less than the NVIDIA DGX Spark at $3999. The ASUS model is listed at 1TB of storage for that price while the NVIDIA model is 4TB, but that with 200GbE networking, there is a clear path to having fast networked storage. We will see what the final pricing ends up being.
Final Words
For some context here, a NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NIC these days often sells for $1500-2200 in single unit quantities, depending on the features and supply of the parts. At $2999 for a system with this buit-in that is awesome. Our sense is that folks are going to quickly figure out how to cluster these beyond the 2-unit cluster that NVIDIA is going to support at first. That ability to cluster is going to make other solutions like the Apple Mac Studio and perhaps even the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 systems less exciting by this summer as these platforms launch. The ASUS Ascent GX10 offering a significantly reduced price and what felt like lighter weight versus the NVIDIA model will end up offering a tremendous bang for the buck.