Chinese startup Sipeed claims its 40W mini PC outperforms Nvidia DGX Spark on Qwen inference
Sipeed claims its Axera-powered MaixStation achieves higher efficiency than Nvidia's DGX Spark in Qwen model prefill stages despite lower advertised TOPS.
Chinese electronics manufacturer Sipeed has claimed that its upcoming MaixStation AI computer can outperform Nvidia's DGX Spark in certain Qwen workloads despite considerably lower advertised computing performance. Powered by Axera's AX8860P processor, the compact machine combines 16 Arm Cortex-A55 cores with AI acceleration reaching 256 TOPS and typical consumption of 40W.
Sipeed attributes this outcome partly to differences in how advertised computing capacity translates into actual performance when processing large language models. Nvidia advertises 1,000 TOPS using sparse FP4 calculations, whereas Sipeed argues that practical workloads cannot fully exploit this theoretical computing capability. Although both machines offer 273GB/s memory bandwidth, Sipeed claims architectural optimizations allow its processor to sustain higher utilization during demanding inference operations.
The comparisons were conducted with speculative decoding through multi-token prediction disabled, allowing the company to evaluate both systems under similar conditions. However, the reported advantage remains relatively small, and independent testing would be necessary to establish performance differences across additional models and workloads. Sipeed expects its entry-level MaixStation with 32GB memory to cost below $2,000, while the 128GB configuration should remain under $4,000. By comparison, Nvidia's DGX Spark reportedly sells for $6,949.99.