ASUS Ascent GX10 Power Consumption
Our test ASUS Ascent GX10 came with a 240W Delta power adapter that terminated into a USB PD Type-C connector.
At idle, we were in the 42-47W range. This is much higher than mobile-focused Arm CPUs and iGPUs. On the other hand, one should remember that this also includes the NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NIC, even if it is not linked. Some others have noted power caps in the 100W range. This seems to be one of the higher-power ones, where we could easily push into the 120-130W range before adding optics and other components. Officially, this is a 240W box, but we ran under 200W.
Final Words
While ASUS’s system is predominantly chained to NVIDIA’s DGX Spark family specifications in terms of functionality and configuration, ASUS has still been able to put together a silver counterpart to NVIDIA’s flashy gold box. Regardless of the name on the outside, on the inside ASUS did a great job on the cooling. They may both have the NVIDIA and MediaTek 20 CPU core GB10 SoC and tiled GB20B GPU alongside 128GB of shared LPDDR5X memory, and a very powerful ConnectX-7 NIC, but ASUS found a way to differentiate its offering.
Chassis aside, the other big differentiator for ASUS at the moment is minimum configurations and pricing. While NVIDIA only sells its flagship DGX Spark in a 4TB storage configuration for $4000, ASUS also offers 2TB and 1TB configurations for $3500 and $3000, respectively. For curious developers who could find utility in a DGX Spark but may not need all of that storage space, the ASUS Ascent GX10 1TB offers a tantalizing and meaningfully cheaper option for stepping into NVIDIA’s Grace Blackwell ecosystem.
With the current price of DRAM and ConnectX-7 NICs, the 1TB model is like buying an ultra-fast Ubuntu-based Linux Arm mini-PC with an NVIDIA GPU for a few hundred dollars.
When we first saw NVIDIA roll out its parnter GB10 systems, we were a bit skeptical of the ASUS Ascent GX10’s ability to differentiate. At a $1000 lower price point, great cooling, and small features like that front power button, this has become a really strong option.
Where to Buy
If you wanted to find the ASUS Ascent GX10 online, here is an Amazon Affiliate link.
