{"id":716714,"date":"2026-07-29T05:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716714\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T05:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:38:13","slug":"microsoft-laptop-with-nvidia-rtx-spark-leaked-and-benchmarked-before-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716714\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft laptop with Nvidia RTX Spark leaked and benchmarked before launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>, power efficiency, and build quality in an early hands-on report.<\/p>\n

The unit he found features the full-fat RTX Spark<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The Phoronix Test Suite, Blender<\/a>, and Cinebench<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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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<\/a> will natively support the RTX Spark, likely to be followed by Alien: Isolation 2, Total War: Warhammer 40,000, and other Sega games.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What just happened? Laptop OEMs are set to begin launching notebooks equipped with Nvidia’s RTX Spark processors later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-716714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}