Microsoft Opens Preorders for $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra With Nvidia RTX Spark Chip
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599, packs an Nvidia RTX Spark chip built for local AI, and ships Oct. 16. Here are the specs and what else was announced.
What Microsoft announced
Microsoft has opened preorders for the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch laptop built around Nvidia's new RTX Spark superchip. The company revealed the details at a Windows and Surface event in San Francisco on Wednesday. It first mentioned the laptop in May but had not given specifics until now.
The pitch is running AI models on the laptop itself rather than paying for cloud services. According to CNBC, users can install and run a variety of models without worrying about big monthly bills.
Microsoft also opened preorders for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a desktop-style device for developers and AI engineers. Nvidia said compact RTX Spark desktops will go on sale in November.
Specs and design
Microsoft describes the laptop as its most powerful Surface Laptop ever. Key specs from the company and Nvidia:
- Chip: An Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and a Grace CPU with up to 20 cores.
- Memory and AI power: Up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 1 petaflop of AI performance. Microsoft says that is enough to run models above 120 billion parameters locally.
- Display: A 15-inch PixelSense Ultra touchscreen. Microsoft says it is the brightest Surface Laptop screen yet.
- Build: Less than 18 mm thick and under 4.5 pounds, with a thermal design Microsoft says offers up to 2.5 times more thermal capacity than current Surface Laptops.
- Ports: A "Magnetic Connect" USB-C port, billed as the first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop, similar to Apple's MagSafe. The laptop can drive up to three 4K displays.
- Storage and colors: User-removable storage, in Platinum and Nightfall.
Microsoft also pitches the machine for gaming, citing ray tracing, DLSS and Nvidia Reflex in supported titles. Nvidia says gamers can run AAA games at 1440p above 100 frames per second.
Agents, Meta and the wider push
The event was about more than hardware. Microsoft said Microsoft Execution Containers, an operating-system feature meant to let AI agents run in the background under tighter security, are now generally available. Developers can use them to confine coding agents and prevent unwanted system access.
Davuluri also said Meta will bring a version of its Muse AI agent to Windows. CNBC reports Muse has jumped to the top of Apple's App Store, ahead of ChatGPT. Microsoft is also updating the Windows 11 setup experience to help people start with the open-source OpenClaw agent software.
Other PC makers are in on the chip too. Nvidia says RTX Spark systems are coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI and Gigabyte, as well as Microsoft.
Why it matters for Microsoft
CNBC notes that Windows is the most popular PC operating system, yet Microsoft is not among the top six PC vendors by shipments, according to Gartner. The company's own AI models also trail those from OpenAI and Anthropic on at least one benchmark.
What it means for you
If you want one, preorders are open now and the first units ship Oct. 16. At $2,599 for the starting configuration, it is aimed at developers, creators and AI builders more than casual buyers. The sources do not list prices for higher memory configurations, so check Microsoft's store for what the 128GB model costs.
Also read OpenAI Brings GPT-6 to ChatGPT With New Intelligent UI for Visual Answers
Quick answers
When does the Surface Laptop Ultra ship?
Shipping starts Oct. 16, according to Microsoft and Nvidia. Preorders opened on Wednesday.
How much does the Surface Laptop Ultra cost?
It starts at $2,599. The sources do not give prices for other configurations.
What is Nvidia RTX Spark?
It is a chip combining a Blackwell RTX GPU with a Grace CPU and shared memory. It is designed to run large AI models locally on Windows PCs.
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