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Microsoft and Nvidia launch Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark
The company also highlighted "hundreds" of games, including Call of Duty.
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At an event in San Francisco, Microsoft and Nvidia teamed up to show off the RTX Spark chip, along with the Surface Laptop Ultra and new features in Windows 11 that use the new system-on-a-chip's capabilities. The device, along with the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box and the broader Spark ecosystem is available for pre-order today, with devices shipping on October 16. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Windows and Devices head Pavan Davuluri took turns on stage."We've reinvented the personal computer completely," Huang said.
Nadella described the event as one that would be building the "frontier ecosystem," anchoring it in Agent 365, Microsoft IQ, and Copilot. Davuluri describes Windows 11 as being the most secure platform for AI agents, highlighting containment for agents.
The Surface Laptop Ultra will start at $2,599, while the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box will begin at $5,999. Both are available for pre-order. They, along with PCs from Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and MSI will ship next Friday, Oct. 16.
Davuluri showed the Surface Laptop Ultra running Github Copilot and playing Gears of War: E-Day at 60 frames per second. He said that "hundreds" of AAA titles and indies will be available day one, and that Call of Duty will come to RTX Spark in 2027.
The 4.5-pound system has the brightest peak HDR on a laptop, he said. The system also features a magnetic USB-C charger it calls "magnetic connect." The connector plugs in, similar to Apple's MagSafe or the old Surface Connect ports, except using a standardized port.
An impressive video demo using multiple local and cloud models across Blender, Photoshop, ComfyUI, and Unreal Engine to make a workload that took hours instead of days was impressive, but also highly produced.
Microsoft compared the Spark to the M5 Pro in a MacBook Pro, promising performance up to 2.1 times faster to first token, 4.3 times faster image generation, and 6.2 times faster video generation.
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