So we need some context to start thinking about testing Nvidia RTX Spark laptops.
My daily driver is an M5 MacBook Pro. It has lightning-fast performance and power efficiency that turns the charger on and off just as fast, but you’ll still have to carry your Steam deck around for gaming. With RTX Spark, that compromise disappears.
With Microsoft in tow, we’re working in concert to rebuild Windows 11 to align with Nvidia’s agency vision for the future of computing. These are truly powerful notebooks that could revolutionize Windows laptops and truly stand on their own as the future of computing.
But even if you’re not interested in AI capabilities, Nvidia has created silicon that: actually It may destroy your MacBook. It’s not a joke. Let me explain.
Nvidia RTX Spark: Boosting Adobe Premiere Pro
Nvidia has worked closely with leading creative app developers to deliver significant speed improvements with onboard GPUs. Adobe Premiere Pro is 2x faster at key tasks that can be automated with AI, such as cutting large numbers of clips. Unreal Engine 5, on the other hand, makes it easy to load and navigate large cityscapes made up of trillions of polygons.
What’s even better? All of this can be done both while plugged in and unplugged. The key benefits of the MacBook Pro are no longer limited to Apple’s notebooks.
These big specs (128GB RAM in this economy!?) will limit these particular variations to absolute professional creators only, but it’s just a stretch of the imagination to think that lower-end versions of these chips are more than enough to put together a project.
Nvidia RTX Spark: Gaming
This is the MacBook’s main weakness. Don’t get me wrong. They offer support for games, and apps like GameHub avoid compatibility issues and provide some form of PC gaming. But none of that compares to a DLSS-enabled RTX Spark system.
Whether it’s an Arm-native game like Alan Wake 2, which takes full advantage of DLSS 4.5 ray reconstruction for eye-catching visuals, or an emulated game like Pragmata, you’ll have a very smooth experience overall. Nvidia didn’t give me FPS numbers, so I checked visually and both games were running over 100 FPS on these laptops’ screens (120 Hz, I think).
The question I don’t have an answer to yet is how much (if at all) does that emulation negatively impact performance, and does it impact battery life? But early impressions suggest that these are laptops that can work and play.
Nvidia RTX Spark: Towards agentization
First, let’s talk about Team Green’s mission to “reinvent the PC.” I decided to try out a demo of some of its agent features.
First, I had a multi-device OpenClaw situation where I was talking to a computer. This was run on a DGX Spark mini PC, but given that the silicon is virtually identical to RTX Spark (only the latter is optimized for Windows), this can also be run. And the idea is that computers are something that you can work from anywhere, no matter what devices come along.
From complex tasks like coding a website landing page to simple tasks like translating a menu or choosing the right low-salt dish if you have high blood pressure, long memory contexts that can be stored and loaded into large memory on tap are key here.
The second was a pipeline of multiple apps to get something done. I had to recreate the keynote demo. There, the griffin was AI-generated in Photoshop based on a sketch, converted to a 3D model, and animated via ComfyUI (a visual way to connect AI models to each other).
While this speed was very impressive, it showed the limitations of current local AI models. In situations that appear to be madness caused by hallucinations, the legs disappear.
Next, we started talking about the developer side. I won’t go into the vibecoding part (I don’t really agree that this is the way to create a site or app), but I will talk about systems for agential control of websites. The last time I tested something agent-like on a web browser was Opera’s Browser Operator. The operator took a screenshot and sent it to LLM in the cloud to devise the next action.
Everything is done securely on the system and the speed difference is night and day, allowing you to beat the site and fill out forms in just a few seconds. This gives you a glimpse of what it’s like to tell your laptop to do something.
Sure, the translation of Bird’s work into video definitely screams AI slop, but the principle is there. Imagine natural language using images to adjust color and contrast, or turn penciled ideas into inspiring real-life ideas.
Also, keep an eye out for the tweaks we’re making to Windows 11 as well. Attaching the taskbar to the side of your monitor allows you to focus on your work without the taskbar getting in the way.
Nvidia RTX Spark laptops are very good
Then there’s the laptop itself. I won’t spend too much time on these as I’d like to rank them in a future article (spoiler alert: the Asus ProArt P14 is calling to me). But there are some very sophisticated hardware options coming along that are worth the expected high price tag.
One thing you’ll notice is that these are very familiar shells with cooling tweaks here and there. This aligns well with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s words that when it comes to agents, we want users to “continue the journey at their own pace.” So completely flipping your laptop build will probably scare some people.
For 2-in-1 users, the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+ is a great system, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra is a gorgeous device, HP’s Omnibook 14X has a great keyboard, and the Dell XPS 16 Creator Edition gives it a nice premium feel. These partners have pulled out all the stops to provide some primo shells to Nvidia’s silicon.
Outlook for RTX Spark
I was talking with Paul Antill, our video producer extraordinaire, in an Uber around Taipei, and he asked me if the RTX Spark could beat the MacBook. To me, that question is always a bit of a poison pill, but it’s a fair one. Every tech news outlet is guilty of saying, “This laptop is great, but it’s not as good as a MacBook.”
But now, finally, after years of waiting for an Apple killer, Nvidia has stepped up and done the damn thing. AI slop laptop potential (lap slop?) aside, this is an amazing chip that offers features such as: big It makes for a very powerful machine both on and off the charger, with great power efficiency while also being a great gaming machine.
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