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Microsoft Launches $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra With Nvidia RTX Spark
Confirmed
In Short: Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop Ultra, a high-performance laptop powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, priced at $2,599 and available for preorder.
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra at its Windows and Surface event on Oct. 7, featuring Nvidia's RTX Spark chip and platform.
The laptop is designed for developers and creators demanding high performance, with a 15-inch mini-LED HDR touchscreen and peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits.
Microsoft's Windows chief, Pavan Davuluri, said, 'We built it for developers and creators pushing the limits of performance, who want portability with exceptional craft.'
The Surface Laptop Ultra is available for preorder now, with devices shipping on Oct. 16.
The RTX Spark chip includes an Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an Nvidia Grace CPU with up to 20 cores.
Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a mini PC for developers priced at $5,999, available for preorder with shipments starting in November.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is Microsoft's first offering to take advantage of the new Nvidia RTX Spark SoC, originally teased in May 2026.
Microsoft and Nvidia are collaborating to boost local AI functionalities, with the RTX Spark platform integrated into laptops like the Surface Laptop Ultra.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is positioned to compete with Apple's MacBook Pro, featuring a display 25% brighter than the MacBook Pro M5 in terms of peak HDR brightness.
Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant is getting a major overhaul, with new security features to keep agent activities confined to a sandbox.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 for the base configuration, with a release date set for Oct. 16.
Microsoft's new laptop uses an Nvidia RTX Spark chip, which includes 128GB of unified memory and 1 petaflop of AI compute, making it the most powerful laptop ever from Microsoft.
What this adds
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra is anything but a surprise, with the company teasing the device since Computex 2026.
Tech leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead suggests RTX Spark powered machines may not be widely available until 2027, though Microsoft's official messaging still points to a 2026 release.
Microsoft is positioning the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box for 'local-first AI development,' meaning the machine is meant to run, fine-tune, and test models on-device rather than ship data out to a cloud endpoint for every iteration.
Background
The Surface Laptop Ultra, unveiled at Microsoft's Windows and Surface event on Oct. 7, is powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chip and platform, designed for developers and creators pushing the limits of performance.
Microsoft's fall event on October 7 will showcase its Nvidia RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra and discuss local AI advancements.
What's confirmed
- Let’s get into everything Microsoft announced at its Oct. 7 Windows and Surface event.
- The 15-inch laptop is powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip and platform.
- The Surface Laptop Ultra is available for preorder now, and devices will begin shipping on Friday, Oct. 16.
- “We built it for developers and creators pushing the limits of performance, who want portability with exceptional craft,” Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s Windows chief, said at the event on Wednesday.
- With Nvidia's RTX Spark chip and platform, Microsoft's newest laptop is ready to compete with AI heavyweights.
- Microsoft first unveiled the device this spring at Computex, and since then, it popped up at Microsoft’s Build software conference and IFA.
- It also comes with a magnetic USB-C charging cord, new for Microsoft.
- Microsoft today announced launch timing and pricing for the Surface Laptop Ultra that it unveiled earlier this year.
- Recommended by Our Editors The Best Mobile Workstations for 2026 Microsoft Is Betting on Local AI, With Nvidia as Its Wingman.
- As a hardware reviewer, I've handled dozens of MacBooks, 2-in-1 laptops, Chromebooks, and the latest AI PCs.
- On the same day, halfway across the world, the chip that would power the Surface Laptop Ultra was announced: the NVIDIA RTX Spark.
- Microsoft has officially launched the Surface Laptop Ultra, a new flagship notebook built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark platform.
What's still developing
- According to Notebookcheck’s coverage, tech leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead has suggested that RTX Spark powered machines may not be widely available until 2027, though Microsoft’s official messaging still points to a 2026 release.
- It claims the brightest peak HDR of any laptop, up to 25 percent brighter than a MacBook Pro M5, giving professionals the color accuracy they trust for footage review and design annotation.
- Together, Microsoft and NVIDIA plan to “Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI.” A couple of days later, at Build 2026, Microsoft mentioned changes in Windows 11 built specifically for RTX Spark, including a new Workload Profile Scheduling system to spread tasks across the chip’s 20 CPU cores and a tuned Prism emulation layer for x86 apps on Arm.
- According to Microsoft’s own post, the company is positioning the Dev Box squarely for “local-first AI development,” meaning the machine is meant to run, fine-tune, and test models on-device rather than ship data out to a cloud endpoint for every iteration.
- The 128 GB unified memory pool remains its biggest selling point as NVIDIA and Microsoft are targeting local AI workloads.
- That does not mean the Laptop Ultra contains 80 GB of discrete VRAM.
- Like all the news Microsoft and its partner Nvidia dropped on Wednesday, it has everything to do with artificial intelligence.
- Davuluri showed the Surface Laptop Ultra running GitHub Copilot and playing Gears of War: E-Day at 60 frames per second.
- I've covered PCs and technology products for over 15 years at PCMag and other publications, among them Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, and TWICE.
- According to Microsoft’s provided press materials, the venting on the RTX Spark Dev box has 1,000 chassis air vents as a nod to the 1,000 teraflops of AI performance.
- While the new Ultra is clearly focused on the developer crowd, graphical performance was highlighted during the presentation to show off just how capable the laptop can be.
- By leaning on unified memory allocation rather than the physical VRAM limits of a traditional GPU, the laptop can assign its resources to handle modern gaming tasks as well as local AI development and deployment.