The first range of laptops with Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip are designed to compete with high-end MacBook Pros, and they have high prices to match.
Flagship Surface Laptop Ultra and RTX Spark laptops from Dell, Lenovo, MSI, HP, and Asus start at $2,599 for configurations with an 18-core CPU, 24GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage. It’s priced close to a 14-inch MacBook Pro with similar specs and an M5 Pro chip, although Apple includes 1TB of storage. But the prices for RTX Spark and Apple laptops are, of course, much, much higher.
From the prices we’ve seen so far, an Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark laptop equipped with a 20-core chip, 128GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage costs up to $6,999.99. We don’t know the full range of configuration options for Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra yet, as the pre-order page only has an email sign-up box for upgrades, but a 48GB model at Best Buy costs $3,999.99.
Wildly expensive laptops are nothing new: You can configure a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Max chip for almost $10,000 if you max out all the options. But the first volley of RTX Spark options are obviously aimed at the high-end side of local AI creators and users. And RAMgeddon certainly isn’t helping to make this easier on people’s pockets.
Will they be worth it? We’ll find out soon. Surface Laptop Ultra and other RTX Spark laptops will launch this month on October 16.
