Nvidia and Sega team up to deliver RTX Spark support for future games — partnership kicks off next year with upcoming Virtua Fighter Crossroads
The two companies continue a collaboration that spans over 30 years.
Nvidia's RTX Spark platform arrives later this year, and the company is hard at work building the partner ecosystem around the GB10 Superchip to ensure that Windows and applications are ready for its agentic AI PC vision. As part of that groundwork, the two companies announced today that Sega will support the RTX Spark platform with its upcoming Virtua Fighter Crossroads, coming in 2027.
The two companies also committed to RTX Spark support for "future Sega titles,” meaning that we might see official support for other evergreen franchises like the Yakuza series, the Persona games, and the upcoming Alien: Isolation 2 and Total War: Warhammer.
Although the companies didn’t go into detail about exactly what full support for the RTX Spark means for Sega games, one would expect that the developer’s titles will be natively compiled for Windows on Arm instead of relying on the Prism x86 emulator for compatibility.
It also seems safe to expect that future Sega titles will incorporate DLSS technologies like upscaling and Multi Frame Generation in order to deliver the best possible experience on RTX Spark systems. Despite having GPU compute capabilities similar to those of a desktop RTX 5070 on paper, the unified memory architecture and relatively limited memory bandwidth of the GB10 Superchip behind the RTX Spark platform present challenges for gaming performance that are likely to make the incorporation of DLSS tech important for the best experience.
The relationship between Nvidia and Sega spans over 30 years, tracing its roots to the ultimately abandoned development of the GPU for the Dreamcast console. Despite its eventual decision to use an NEC-produced PowerVR GPU for that system, Sega offered Nvidia a $5 million lifeline that gave the company the runway that it needed to develop and deliver the Riva 128, its first DirectX-compatible GPU.
That investment proved to be historic, as Nvidia now has a market cap of over $5 trillion and is in the process of shifting the very foundations of computing through its Grace Blackwell and upcoming Vera Rubin AI platforms for the data center.
Whether the RTX Spark platform reshapes the PC when it arrives in the fall of this year remains to be seen. But if you’re a fan of Sega’s IP, this partnership means that you can at least look forward to a first-class experience with its games on RTX Spark systems.
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As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything that has to do with graphics cards, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.
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Thorburn ReplyThe relationship between Nvidia and Sega spans over 30 years, tracing its roots to the ultimately abandoned development of the GPU for the Dreamcast console.
Over 40 years with a number of Sega's Saturn games being ported to the Nvidia NV1 due to both using quads instead of polygons.... -
bit_user VirtuaFighter is long overdue for an update. VF5 is now basically 20 years old and it shows. Even the lipstick they put on it in R.E.V.O. doesn't amount to much, IMO.Reply
VF5 REVO was already launched for Switch 2. So, that means Sega already has some ARM/Nvidia experience under their belt.
IMO, Sega might have heritage, but Nvidia should spend its time courting more relevant game studios. -
bit_user Reply
Yes, I do remember Virtua Fighter being one of the few launch titles for NV1.Thorburn said:Over 40 years with a number of Sega's Saturn games being ported to the Nvidia NV1 due to both using quads instead of polygons....
However, I think your math is off. The NV1 launched in November 1995, in the form of the Diamond Edge 3D graphics card. So, that was a bit over 30 years ago.
Nvidia was only established in 1993, so they did not exist 40 years ago!
Source: https://vintage3d.org/nv1.php