What just happened? Laptop OEMs are set to begin launching notebooks equipped with Nvidia's RTX Spark processors later this year, with Microsoft's new flagship Surface leading the pack. In a stroke of unbelievable luck, though, a prototype unit recently landed in the hands of a tech enthusiast with the know-how to put it through extensive early benchmarks.
TechPowerUp Forum user "Fouquin" claims to have found a prototype Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra lying on the side of the road near Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters in mid-June. After several weeks of testing, he detailed its performance, power efficiency, and build quality in an early hands-on report.
The unit he found features the full-fat RTX Spark N1X APU, with 6,144 CUDA cores and a 20-core Arm CPU, paired with an entry-level memory configuration of 24GB of unified RAM and a 512GB SSD. Several details suggest the device isn't final. The screen was the clearest indicator, with Fouquin noting issues with local dimming zones, Nvidia G-Sync support, touch input noise, and HDR.
Drivers were also a major factor in the benchmark results. Fouquin initially tested the laptop on drivers dated November 2025, then repeated his tests after Nvidia released the RTX Spark developer preview drivers last week. While the new drivers didn't dramatically change performance, idle power draw increased considerably, from 7-8W to 12-23W depending on the power setting.
The Phoronix Test Suite, Blender, and Cinebench suggest that RTX Spark lags behind Apple's M5 Pro chip. Nvidia did deliver on one major promise, though: identical performance whether the laptop is plugged in or running on battery.
Fouquin was also largely positive about the Surface Ultra's build quality, calling the keyboard the best he's used outside of a MacBook, with punchy key travel, smooth resistance, and zero switch wobble. The key switches still feel like rubber domes underneath, but the mechanisms are stiff and responsive. A backlight that activates when the camera detects the user is another nice touch.
The milled aluminum chassis is predictably large, mirroring the MacBook Pro that Microsoft is positioning the Surface Ultra against. The touchpad is similarly MacBook-like, and Fouquin gave the hinge mechanism high marks too.
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra alongside Nvidia's RTX Spark presentation at Computex in June, calling the 15-inch notebook the most powerful Surface device yet. Configurable with up to 128GB of unified memory, the laptop delivers GPU performance on par with an RTX 5070.
Games that support Windows on Arm without Microsoft's Prism emulator remain rare, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II being a major exception, but Nvidia's newly announced partnership with Sega is one sign that things could eventually change. Sega has confirmed that 2027's Virtua Fighter Crossroads will natively support the RTX Spark, likely to be followed by Alien: Isolation 2, Total War: Warhammer 40,000, and other Sega games.
Based on his testing, Fouquin predicts the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra will start no lower than $2,800, with the top-end configuration landing around $4,500 to rival Apple's flagship MacBook Pro models.