Nvidia’s announcement that it is entering the consumer laptop space with the RTX Spark is a big one. Apple has proven for years that Arm-based chips can perform very well while delivering good battery life – at least on the Mac. In the world of Windows, performance is not fully compatible under Qualcomm chips, especially in the graphics department. There’s clearly still untapped potential, and Nvidia seems promising to deliver.
This could be the time for Windows to blow us up with a new generation of more powerful chips, like Apple’s back in 2020, with the launch of the M1. But why does this launch sound simultaneously exciting and full of 2026?
The Nvidia RTX Spark sounds like a beast of a laptop chip: 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU CUDA cores, and 128GB of LPDDR5X integrated memory. Its integrated graphics are said to be on par with the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU – although Nvidia notably didn’t show any performance metrics or actual benchmarks. As my colleague Sean Hollister pointed out, it’s basically a GB10 chip from Nvidia’s DGX Spark mini-PC. Nvidia calls it a “superchip” and “the most powerful PC ever built,” while Microsoft bills its Spark-equipped Surface Laptop Ultra as “the most powerful thing we’ve ever made.”
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spent most of his time at the launch of the RTX Spark laptops talking about AI and agents. Much of Nvidia’s two-hour keynote was about agents and “agent CPUs,” which Huang said are Nvidia’s “big new growth driver.” But it’s beyond local AI computing that RTX Spark laptops will be able to do, and it’s also aimed at creators. Adobe is in the air with improved versions of Photoshop and Premiere.
These are the Nvidia, Microsoft, and Windows computer manufacturers that are taking aim at Apple’s MacBook Pros. It is not clear yet which MacBook Pro (M5, M5 Pro, or M5 Max), but these laptops look like they’re going to be expensive. The lineup announced so far for fall includes the Surface Laptop Ultra, Dell XPS 16, Asus ProArt P14 and P16, Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n, MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI Plus, HP OmniBook Ultra and OmniBook X 14, and unnamed models from Acer and Gigabyte. Existing or similar models from this range generally start at $2,000 to $2,500 and up (with the exception of the more modest OmniBook X configuration).
This is not surprising considering the RTX Spark’s 128GB of RAM. If you’re looking at AMD’s Strix Halo APU with 128GB of RAM — the closest analog to the RTX Spark but built on x86 — you have options like Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 for an MSRP of $3,300 and the ProArt PX13 GoPro Edition for $3,000. That Nvidia DGX Spark desktop with the GB10 chip the RTX Spark is based on? One of those costs about $4,700. So how much do you think a Spark laptop with 128GB memory will cost if you do again add things like a keyboard, trackpad, battery, and a 15-inch Mini LED touchscreen?
Nvidia said there will be RTX Spark chips with lower RAM prices, but because of RAMageddon most laptops with 16GB or 32GB of memory are getting pricier, too – especially as new models come out.
Nvidia was able to close the doors on everything else in the performance department when these laptops arrived in the fall, but the difference between this time and Apple’s M1 is that Apple started with the less expensive Mac Mini and MacBook Air, and the cheaper MacBook Pro. That meant the average consumer was able to feel the benefits right away, and more early sales also meant more early incentive for developers to prioritize adding support for new chips. It took almost another year for Apple to step things up to the M1 Pro and M1 Max with the refreshed MacBook Pros.
Nvidia is not aiming for an M1 moment as much as it is trying to jump to an M1 Max or even an M1 Ultra moment. And it did so at a time when computers were expensive and consumer spending power took a while. There’s a reason the MacBook Neo rocked the tech world at $599. Does the same happen at $2,499?
When these new laptops come out in the fall, there will be four Chip options that work across the entire range of Windows laptops: Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Nvidia. It has already been good to have three choices: AMD options generally offer good performance at the expense of some battery life, Qualcomm offers the best battery life and standby time but sadly poor gaming support, and Intel is usually a balanced choice that maintains full x86 compatibility.
With Nvidia in the Arm lineup, we can get another option with a strong battery life and more graphics power. There’s also a chance that gaming on the Arm will come close to matching the broad compatibility that x86 Windows gamers are used to. Microsoft and Nvidia get Riot Games to install their anti-cheat software on Arm for games like A hero again League of Legends and working with other developers using Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, and Denuvo is a big win for Windows on Arm.
I’d like to see more competition, as it’s nice to have all these options. The latest chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are great in their own way. I welcome the Nvidia option which has better performance and better battery life but doesn’t lack for games like Macs. But even if the RTX Spark ushers in a sea change, the price hike is bound to leave many running away.
