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Microsoft Unveils Surface Laptop Ultra With Nvidia RTX Spark Chip
Confirmed
In Short: Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch laptop powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chip and platform, at its Windows and Surface event on Oct. 7.
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch laptop powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chip and platform, at its Windows and Surface event on Oct. 7.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is available for preorder now and will begin shipping on Oct. 16.
Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s Windows chief, said the laptop is built for developers and creators who demand high performance and portability.
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.
The laptop features a 15-inch mini-LED HDR touchscreen with a peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits, making it the brightest peak HDR laptop available.
Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a mini PC for developers priced at $5,999, available for preorder and shipping in November.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is priced at a starting price of $2,599 for a configuration with an 8-core CPU, 24GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.
The laptop includes a magnetic USB-C charging cord, a new feature for Microsoft.
Microsoft and Nvidia are collaborating to boost local AI functionalities, with the RTX Spark platform integrated into laptops like the Surface Laptop Ultra.
Microsoft is positioning the Dev Box for local-first AI development, allowing users to run, fine-tune, and test models on-device.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is designed to compete with AI heavyweights, offering exceptional performance for demanding creative, software development, AI, engineering, and 3D workloads.
Microsoft also announced a major overhaul of its Copilot AI assistant and introduced Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) to keep agent activities confined to a sandbox.
What this adds
The Surface Laptop Ultra's 128 GB unified memory pool is its biggest selling point, targeting local AI workloads.
Tech leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead suggests that RTX Spark powered machines may not be widely available until 2027, though Microsoft’s official messaging still points to a 2026 release.
Microsoft’s new laptop uses Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, which includes an Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an Nvidia Grace CPU with up to 20 cores.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is designed to handle modern gaming tasks as well as local AI development and deployment by leaning on unified memory allocation.
Background
The Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip and platform, was unveiled at Microsoft’s Windows and Surface event on Oct. 7.
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.
- Microsoft today announced launch timing and pricing for the Surface Laptop Ultra that it unveiled earlier this year.
- 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.
- Joined on stage by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, President of Windows and Devices Pavan Davuluri also unveiled the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box.
- Originally teased in May 2026, the new Surface Laptop Ultra will be Microsoft’s first offering to take advantage of the new Nvidia RTX Spark SoC (system on a chip).
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.
- Recommended by Our Editors The Best Mobile Workstations for 2026 Microsoft Is Betting on Local AI, With Nvidia as Its Wingman.
- 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.
- Microsoft opened pre-orders on October 7, 2026 for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a desktop-sized developer PC built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark platform and packing up to 128 GB of unified memory in a single box that starts at $5,999.
- 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.
- Microsoft launched a new class of Windows-powered laptops featuring Nvidia’s RTX Spark chipset, in an effort to take on Apple Inc.’s MacBook Pros.
- SAN FRANCISCO—In what was a jam-packed presentation, Microsoft spoke more about the Nvidia RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra, along with its visions for Copilot and Windows.
- 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.