Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra debuts with RTX Spark, 128 GB unified memory and $2,599 starting price

Microsoft has officially launched the Surface Laptop Ultra, a new flagship notebook built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark platform. The 15-inch machine starts at $2,599, with pre-orders opening today, and tops out with 128 GB of unified memory alongside up to one petaflop of FP4 AI performance.

At the heart of the Surface Laptop Ultra is Nvidia’s RTX Spark N1X. Its highest-end laptop configuration combines a 20-core Nvidia Grace CPU with a 6,144-core Blackwell RTX GPU and up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X unified memory. A second N1X configuration drops to an 18-core CPU, 5,120-core GPU and a maximum of 64 GB. Nvidia lists a configurable 45 W to 80 W TDP for both variants.

Unified memory is the key selling point of the package. Like Apple’s memory implementation with M-series chips, the RTX Spark lets the CPU and GPU work from the same physical memory pool. Microsoft demonstrated this rather neatly through Windows Task Manager. On a 128 GB machine, Windows showed around 110 GB of GPU-addressable memory, comprising 79.9 GB listed as dedicated GPU memory and another 30 GB of shared memory. That does not mean the Laptop Ultra contains 80 GB of discrete VRAM. An earlier report talked about Microsoft letting users dynamically allocate VRAM with a future update.

Nvidia unsurprisingly used the launch to take a swing at Apple. Based on preliminary company testing, Windows systems powered by RTX Spark can supposedly deliver up to 2.1x faster time-to-first-token, 4.3x faster image generation and 6.2x faster video generation than a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro. Those are Nvidia-supplied platform figures rather than independent Surface Laptop Ultra benchmarks, and should be treated with scepticism until proven otherwise.

Microsoft is making lofty claims about unplugged performance. The company says the Surface Laptop Ultra can retain 99% of its performance while running on battery. Its redesigned cooling system is claimed to offer up to 2.5 times the thermal capacity of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7th Edition.

The laptop itself remains relatively thin despite all that hardware. Microsoft says it measures less than 18 mm thick and weighs under 4.5 lb, or 2 kg. Its 15-inch PixelSense Ultra mini-LED touchscreen uses a 3:2 aspect ratio, offers a pixel density of 262 PPI and can reach up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. The laptop will be available in  Platinum and Nightfall finishes.

And, lest anyone assume RTX Spark is destined exclusively for running language models, Microsoft ended with another announcement: Call of Duty is coming to RTX Spark in 2027. Nvidia already advertises RTX Spark as a full gaming platform with DLSS, Reflex and Game Ready driver support, so Microsoft clearly has ambitions for the architecture beyond AI workstations, although it might not be the go-to choice for anyone looking to play games. 

Port selection includes USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader. The precision haptic touchpad is also more than 30% larger than the one on Microsoft’s previous Surface Laptop. Microsoft has also introduced what it calls the world’s first built-in magnetic USB-C charging experience. Instead of bringing back another proprietary connector, the company has effectively added a magnetic breakaway mechanism to USB-C charging, allowing the connector to detach if the cable gets pulled. Whether or not it can transmit data remains to be seen.

The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 and is available to pre-order today. That will get you 512 GB of storage, 24 GB RAM and the 18-core RTX Spark variant. $5,899.99 will get you the full machine with the 20-core RTX Spark, 128 GB RAM and 1 TB storage. Pre-orders start now on Microsoft's website.