Early Reports Indicate Nvidia DGX Spark May Be Suffering From Thermal Issues (tomshardware.com)
(Wednesday October 29, 2025 @06:00AM (BeauHD)
from the what's-going-on dept.)
- Reference: 0179902090
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/10/29/035247/early-reports-indicate-nvidia-dgx-spark-may-be-suffering-from-thermal-issues
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/users-question-dgx-spark-performance
Longtime Slashdot reader [1]zuki writes:
> According to a recent report over at Tom's Hardware, a number of those among early buyers who have been able to put the highly-coveted $4,000.00 DGX Spark mini-AI workstation through its paces are [2]reporting throttling at 100W (rather than the advertised 240W capacity), spontaneous reboots, and thermal issues under sustained load.
The workstation came under fire after John Carmack, the former CTO of Oculus VR, [3]began raising questions about its real-world performance and power draw. "His comments were enough to draw tech support from Framework and even AMD, with the offer of an AMD-driven Strix Halo-powered alternative," reports Tom's Hardware.
"What's causing this suboptimal performance, such as a firmware-level cap or thermal throttling, is not clear," the report adds. "Nvidia hasn't commented publicly on Carmack's post or user-reported instability. Meanwhile, several threads on Nvidia's developer forums now include reports of GPU crashes and unexpected shutdowns under sustained load."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~zuki
[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/users-question-dgx-spark-performance
[3] https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1982831774850748825
> According to a recent report over at Tom's Hardware, a number of those among early buyers who have been able to put the highly-coveted $4,000.00 DGX Spark mini-AI workstation through its paces are [2]reporting throttling at 100W (rather than the advertised 240W capacity), spontaneous reboots, and thermal issues under sustained load.
The workstation came under fire after John Carmack, the former CTO of Oculus VR, [3]began raising questions about its real-world performance and power draw. "His comments were enough to draw tech support from Framework and even AMD, with the offer of an AMD-driven Strix Halo-powered alternative," reports Tom's Hardware.
"What's causing this suboptimal performance, such as a firmware-level cap or thermal throttling, is not clear," the report adds. "Nvidia hasn't commented publicly on Carmack's post or user-reported instability. Meanwhile, several threads on Nvidia's developer forums now include reports of GPU crashes and unexpected shutdowns under sustained load."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~zuki
[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/users-question-dgx-spark-performance
[3] https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1982831774850748825
Appleitis (Score:2)
First it was the 12vhpwr kerfuffle, too small to handle the power. Now its this thing, again too small to handle the power.
Nvidia seems to have caught a case of Appleitis, and is pushing style over engineering. Funny thing is, they absolutely have no need to do that. Their stuff could look like what the cat threw up, and they would still sell like hot cakes.