The TL;DR on the RTX Spark

Nvidia’s new RTX Spark N1X chip has officially hit the streets, and it is a beastly piece of hardware. We are talking about a high-performance, Arm-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) packed with Nvidia RTX Blackwell graphics. It is clearly aiming for the crown, gunning straight for the best from Apple, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. The Verge team spent a week putting five different laptops through the wringer, and real talk: it is a fascinating, if expensive, experiment.

The Price of Admission

These laptops are absolutely not for the casual browser. We tested units ranging from the HP OmniBook Ultra at $3,199.99 all the way up to a staggering $6,999.99 for the Asus ProArt P16. They are built for developers, content creators, and power users who need massive amounts of unified memory—up to 128GB—to crunch local AI models or handle heavy-duty tasks.

Can Windows on Arm finally hold its own?

It’s giving… actual progress. A few years ago, Windows on Arm was a total L. Today? It is surprisingly usable. Most of our daily apps—Discord, Slack, CapCut, you name it—ran without a single hiccup. Whether you were running a native Arm app or an x86 app through Microsoft’s Prism emulation, most of us couldn't even tell the difference. While Sean Hollister noted some minor UI quirks—like apps failing to respect system dark mode—the days of "will this app even open?" are mostly behind us.

Gaming: Hit or Miss?

This is where things get nerdy. Nvidia’s GPU muscle can definitely bruteforce through emulation, but it’s not a magic wand. Tom Warren managed to get Black Myth: Wukong and Cyberpunk 2077 running at 60fps using DLSS performance mode at medium settings, which is a major W for a thin laptop.

However, the CPU is the bottleneck. In titles heavy on enemy counts or CPU calculations, like Helldivers 2, the frame rates were mid at best. Also, if you’re planning on turning your lap into a literal space heater, be warned: these machines run loud and hot when pushed.

Why it matters

If you have been dying for a MacBook Pro-style experience that can actually handle serious PC gaming, the RTX Spark is the closest we have gotten to that dream. It is a high-end, ambitious tech flex that proves Arm-based PCs are maturing fast, but unless you are a pro who needs that 128GB of RAM, you are paying a massive premium for a laptop that still has a few growing pains to shake off.