'It's a beast, but not at everything' RTX Spark-powered Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra lives up to expectations, but you need to be a big fan of local AI

Date:
Tue, 20 Oct 2026 02:20:00 +0000

Description:
I studied the available reviews of the RTX-powered Surface Laptop Ultra to
see if its CPU, local AI, and raw graphics rendering power are actually worth the price.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Nvidia 's RTX Spark laptops hit the shelves last week, led by Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra , and the chip supports up to 128GB of memory.

This laptop starts at $2,599.99, but does its performance justify the price tag? I took a look at some of the earliest in-depth reviews of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra to ascertain what this device offers and whether it is worth every penny. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: What reviews say The prowess of the RTX Spark laptop was acknowledged, but all the reviews agreed on one thing: its not foolproof and has some downsides.

It's a beast, but not at everything, said Zac Bowden of Windows Central , while Tom's Guide went further, calling it not a MacBook Pro killer but something much weirder and wildly powerful. You may like Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra RTX Spark pre-orders are now live I analyzed 10 Apple Mac Studio M5 Ultra reviews here's absolutely everything you need to know in 3 minutes MSI Pro Max Edge AI+ mini PC review

The praise is concentrated in one area: local AI models. Every outlet that tested them put the Surface ahead of Apple 's M5 Max and AMD 's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, the most powerful mobile chips for laptops.

Its gaming performance, however, did not exactly get much praise while some said it is just okay, others think its a weak spot. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Price

Most people would be better served getting an Intel or AMD laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU instead, as these often cost less than the cheapest RTX Spark laptops right now Cost is the sticking point for RTX Spark. Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599.99 for the 18-core model with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

The 20-core, 128GB, 1TB configuration tops out at $5,899.99, and the lead times on this model already stretch to late December.

The jump is steepest where the platform is strongest. The 64GB to 96GB of GPU-accessible memory that lets 35B-parameter models run well only comes with the 128GB build, and a 32GB or 48GB Surface won't fit the same models. What
to read next Fastest AI laptop ever built keeps its crown for now as Nvidia unleashes RTX mobile workstations $18,600 Dell Pro Max 18 Plus laptop
doubled in price in 14 months, and it could be unseated within days Microsoft teams with Nvidia to take on Apple MacBook Pro to win hearts and minds of the creative and AI market with new Surface Laptop Ultra How Nvidia RTX Spark
will change laptops forever... for better and worse

Toms Hardware warns that sky-high DRAM and NAND price hikes will be a headwind for the platform in the near term. That is a lot to spend, and you need a local AI workload to justify it.

The biggest challenge is the eye-watering price tags, since that money still buys a lot of cloud tokens from OpenAI and Anthropic, as Tom's Hardware puts it.

As Windows Central notes, comparable devices offer just enough and cost less. CPU

The RTX Spark...is the strongest multi-threaded CPU we have ever seen in a notebook Multi-core speed is the strength, and single-core speed is the weakness.

The 20-core N1X pairs 10 performance cores with 10 efficiency cores,
targeting heavy multi-threaded work.

In single-core tests, it was found to edge the Dell Pro Precision 5 16S, scoring 558.5 against 534.8 in Cinebench 2026.

But across the wider suite, single-thread results, StorageReview says it sit 15 to 30 percent behind the x64 field, which is just okay.

Moving to multi-core, the Surface is an absolute "beast", finishing 34
percent ahead of the Razer Blade 16.

Compared with Apple, however, it simply doesnt compete with Apples latest Max chips, consistently trailing the M4 Max and M3 Ultra.

Under a heavy all-core CPU workload (an OpenBLAS double-precision solve),
this device lost power repeatedly, though most buyers will never run anything like it.

On real-world work, it won nearly every multi-threaded CPU test, compiling LLVM in 206 seconds against 327 for the next-fastest system.

But there are weak spots: its Arm64 SVT-AV1 encoding managed about a fifth of what the x64 systems produced, and memory latency of 251 ns was the worst in the group.

Thats not to say its slow. Day-to-day use feels fine, and even emulated apps feel native. But for single-threaded, browser-bound work, the x64 field is likely the better buy. Swipe to scroll horizontally RTX Spark 20-core CPU benchmark results

Outlet

Benchmark

Score

Windows Central

Cinebench 2026 (Multi-Core)

6,885

StorageReview

Cinebench 2026 (Multi-Core)

6,963

Windows Central

Cinebench 2026 (Single-Core)

558

StorageReview

Cinebench 2026 (Single-Core)

558.5

Windows Central

Geekbench 7.1 (Multi-Core)

23,571 GPU The 6,144-core Blackwell GPU is the real engine of the chip, with 5th-generation Tensor Cores built for AI workloads and up to 96GB of memory
to draw on.

In local AI tests, it was the fastest overall at agentic tasks, finishing about 25% quicker than the M5 Max MacBook Pro.

In Stable Diffusion 1.5 INT8, it scored 11,294 and substantially outperformed the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti and 5060.

However, for models that fit in 24GB, the Razer Blade 16s RTX 5090 generates tokens 2.3x faster, and video rendering trails even the RTX 5060.

Gaming is a secondary strength. Performance is similar to an RTX 4070 or
5060, and Cyberpunk 2077 held 60fps at 1440p with frame generation.

But shared memory bandwidth and input latency are limited. Its shared memory bandwidth hit 300GB/s, below the 384GB/s on a mobile RTX 5060.

Gears of War: E-Day averaged 77.7 fps with 1% lows of 39.9 fps and 83.5 ms of latency. Control Resonant reached 109.2 fps, but only with 3X frame generation.

If AI is not your thing and you need low latency and top performance, a separate gaming laptop with a dedicated RTX 50-series GPU will still provide
a superior experience. AI

The RTX Spark is one of the better choices in the Windows space right now Nothing else in a laptop gives a GPU this much room to work with. The RTX Spark pairs its Blackwell GPU with up to 128GB of unified memory, and 64GB of it, adjustable up to 96GB, can go straight to the GPU.

That is more than any NVIDIA laptop GPU before it, and it is what lets 35B-parameter models run at up to 89 tokens per second. Models up to 120B parameters can fit entirely on the GPU.

In agentic tests it was the fastest overall, finishing about 25% quicker than the M5 Max MacBook Pro and in roughly half the time of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

Quantized models are where it truly leads, with Stable Diffusion 1.5 INT8 scoring 11,294 and substantially outperforming the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti and
5060.

It also makes local agents practical. Hermes Agent organized a cluttered downloads folder and built a website without sending any data to the cloud,
so you are no longer constrained by usage limits.

Thats not to say it beats everything. For models that fit in 24GB, the Razer Blade 16s RTX 5090 generates tokens 2.3x faster.

Still, for those running models locally all day, it is king.

This, then, is a machine for the local AI believer, built for privacy,
offline use and tinkering. Who should buy it Nvidia has built a compelling workstation for certain AI workloads, although conventional laptop buyers
have several reasons to remain cautious.

Developers and analysts running 20B to 35B models locally are the clear audience.

Gamers, browser-heavy users, and anyone whose models fit in 24GB are better served by a laptop with a dedicated GPU. Verdict The good

Strong multi-threaded CPU

Up to 96GB of GPU memory runs 35B models at up to 89 tokens per second

Fastest in agentic AI tests

The bad

Expensive, from $2,599.99 to $5,899.99

Weak single-thread speed and high memory latency

Gaming is only decent, with high input latency

The verdict

Grab it if local models above 24GB are your daily work. Opt for a dedicated-GPU laptop for everything else. Avoid it if gaming is your focus. Swipe to scroll horizontally NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X specs



18-core version

20-core version

CPU

9x Cortex-X925 + 9x Cortex-A725

10x Cortex-X925 + 10x Cortex-A725

GPU

5,120 CUDA cores

6,144 CUDA cores

Memory

LPDDR5X, up to 64GB

LPDDR5X, up to 128GB

Memory speed

9,400MT/s

9,400MT/s

Bandwidth

Up to 300GB/s

Up to 300GB/s

Laptop TDP

45W to 80W

45W to 80W

Process

TSMC 3nm

TSMC 3nm Where to buy the Apple Mac Studio (M5 Ultra) No price information Check Amazon We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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