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Surface Laptop Ultra: Nvidia Spark AI Chip Underwhelms
29 Jul
Summary
- Early Nvidia RTX Spark N1X chip performance in a prototype is underwhelming.
- Benchmarks place the chip near Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen 7.
- The laptop prototype shows potential but needs further optimization.
An engineering sample of the upcoming Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra, equipped with Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X chip, has undergone early testing, revealing underwhelming performance. This prototype, allegedly found near Redmond, Washington, features a 20-core Arm CPU and a Blackwell GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores.
Initial benchmarks using the latest preview driver placed the chip's performance on par with Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen 7 processors. This suggests it may lag behind competitors like the M5 MacBook Pro and similarly priced x86 Windows laptops.
While the laptop's build quality, keyboard, and repairability are commendable, the display exhibited issues with local dimming and color banding in HDR mode. Nvidia RTX Spark laptops are anticipated to launch this fall, with further optimization expected for commercial releases.
