Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,600, running Nvidia's RTX Spark chip

[Daniel Sims]

Something to look forward to: Microsoft has just revealed the starting price and release date for its new ultra-tier Surface laptop, along with other notebooks powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark SoC. The company's flagship model is expensive, even next to the MacBook Pro it's meant to rival, but it remains to be seen how RTX Spark stacks up against Apple's M5 Pro.

Pre-orders are now open for the Surface Laptop Ultra and other laptops built on the same Arm-based SoC, which marks Nvidia's entry into the PC CPU market. Microsoft's model starts at $2,600 with 24GB of unified memory.

As previously revealed, the base configuration uses a variant of Nvidia's new RTX Spark SoC with 5,120 Blackwell CUDA cores and an 18-core Arm-based CPU. The notebook can be configured with 24GB, 32GB, 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB of unified LPDDR5X memory, potentially offering the most addressable memory ever on an RTX GPU.

Buyers can choose a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD or a PCIe 5.0 drive with 1TB or 2TB of storage, both removable.

Nvidia and Microsoft mostly promoted RTX Spark's local AI horsepower, but its gaming capabilities could also have a significant impact on the Arm and integrated GPU markets.

The top-end RTX Spark chip pairs a 20-core CPU with an integrated GPU of 6,144 CUDA cores, which Nvidia claims performs like the laptop version of the RTX 5070. Microsoft confirmed that Gears of War: E-Day will natively support the chip and Windows on Arm, with Call of Duty to follow in 2027, joining other games from EA, Ubisoft, and Sega. RTX Spark is the first laptop SoC to support Nvidia DLSS, G-Sync, Reflex, and RTX ray tracing.

– Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 7, 2026

Microsoft's new flagship laptop features a 15-inch 4K touchscreen with Dolby Vision IQ support and refresh rates up to 120Hz. The company rates the battery for up to 15 hours of local video playback and 12 hours of web browsing.

Among the Surface Laptop Ultra's ports is the first-ever built-in magnetic USB-C charging port, which charges at up to 140W. The other two USB-C ports support DisplayPort 2.1 and, together with the HDMI 2.1b port, can drive up to three 4K displays at 60Hz. A USB-A port rounds out the lineup.

Other RTX Spark laptops shipping on October 16 include the Dell XPS 16, HP OmniBook Ultra 16, Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n, MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+, and Asus ProArt P16.

Pricing is now available for most of them: the Asus and MSI notebooks start at $3,400 and $3,300, respectively, while the Dell, HP, and Lenovo models are listed at $3,800, $3,200, and around $3,000.

Microsoft also opened pre-orders for the RTX Spark Dev Box. Starting at $6,000, it includes the full-fat RTX Spark SoC and up to 1 petaflop of local AI compute.

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Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,600, running Nvidia's RTX Spark chip

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Boring. The Lenovo Legion Strix Halo laptop is better in every way, including price. The only way this is better is if you grab the top end 128GB model, as the lenovo doesnt have such a config.

The only interesting part of these designs is seeing if nvidia's GPU drivers fix all the issues people had with qualcomm laptops, or if the compatibility issues extend beyond drivers into the ARM system itself.

 

[yRaz]

Lovely, $2600 for a product that relies on M$'s ARM compatibility layer to function. Can't wait to see the long term reviews of this thing.

 

[ragreeen2646]

Windows on ARM is just beginning. Eventually it will be a good alternative to Intel.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Windows on ARM is just beginning. Eventually it will be a good alternative to Intel.

The first iteration of windows on ARM came out almost 15 years ago.

 

[Kirby1]

Tbh seems pretty good for the price. Wonder how it will compare to apple.

 

[yRaz]

Tbh seems pretty good for the price. Wonder how it will compare to apple.

what I'm curious about is if they will lock the bootloader like on almost every other ARM device. Valve has been talking about how they are working arm compatibility layers(Lepton and FEX) so it would be nice if I could install linux on one of these devices. People don't seem to think about how powerful the GPUs are on many ARM SOCs made over the last 3-4 years. You wont be running cyberpunk with raytracing but they have the horsepower to run it. I don't see the point in running stuff at 4k on a 15" screen, but I'd be more than happy to run things at 1080P on a 15" screen. I think many people would be interested to know that their pocket computers can comfortably run 1080p60 on most modern games if you remove RT. I don't think anyone would rush out to buy a phone to replace their desktop, but I'd bet money people would install steam on the phone they already have if manufacturers let them.

 

[mbk34]

Today marks a new chapter for Windows, as we bring unmetered intelligence to every desk and every home, and make every PC a place where agents can work securely on your behalf.

That alone would put me off but also, at that price, I'd want the best of tried of trusted technology rather than risking my investment on a new chip and wondering if all my software will run with it.

 

[James321]

Nvidia must feel very confident people will buy their junk at those prices.

"Microsoft's model starts at $2,600 with 24GB of unified memory."

Platinum, 32 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,699.99

Nightfall, 32 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,699.99

Nightfall, 48 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,999.99

Nightfall, 64 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $4,299.99

Nightfall, 64 GB unified memory, 2 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $4,699.99

Nightfall, 128 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $5,899.99

Surface RTX Spark Dev Box
NVIDIA RTX Spark™ N1X with 6144-core GPU and 20-core CPU, 128 GB unified memory, 2 TB SSD $5,999.99

 

[SRB]

Nvidia must feel very confident people will buy their junk at those prices.

"Microsoft's model starts at $2,600 with 24GB of unified memory."

Platinum, 32 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,699.99

Nightfall, 32 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,699.99

Nightfall, 48 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,999.99

Nightfall, 64 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $4,299.99

Nightfall, 64 GB unified memory, 2 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $4,699.99

Nightfall, 128 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $5,899.99

Surface RTX Spark Dev Box
NVIDIA RTX Spark™ N1X with 6144-core GPU and 20-core CPU, 128 GB unified memory, 2 TB SSD $5,999.99

It's Nvidia! The sad truth is that they could charge twice the price and put out a potato and it will sell, whether it works well or not. Remember Tom's Hardware's motto: "Just buy it"

 

[SRB]

The first iteration of windows on ARM came out almost 15 years ago.

The best part is HOW they "fixed" it. Microsoft was having NO luck fixing their translation layer, so their solution was to rewrite anything that didn't work in native ARM code. It worked for Apple because they had 100% control of the entire ecosystem. Third parties did NOTHING without Apple's blessing. Windows is so far from that model that I don't see them ever getting everything working.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

Tbh seems pretty good for the price.

Nvidia must feel very confident people will buy their junk at those prices.

Platinum, 32 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro $3,699.99

Surface RTX Spark Dev Box
NVIDIA RTX Spark™ N1X with 6144-core GPU and 20-core CPU, 128 GB unified memory, 2 TB SSD $5,999.99

Very confident.
Indeed.

MSI Vector 16 HX AI - Intel 9 275HX, 32GB RAM, RTX 5080 16GB .... 2999€
Lenovo Yoga Pro 9 - nVidia RTX Spark N1X, 32 GB RAM .... 2899€
Asus ROG Flow Z13 - Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 64GB RAM ... 2725€

Doubled price, lower performance, compatibility issues?
Thank, but no.