NVIDIA's First PC CPU, RTX Spark, Surfaces in Geekbench With Strong Multi-Core Scores

Benchmark scores for NVIDIA's RTX Spark — internally codenamed N1X and the company's first Arm-based processor designed for Windows PCs — appeared in the Geekbench 7 database on August 9, with a single-core score of 2,570 and a multi-core score of 23,126, according to a report by 36Kr on August 11.

Outperforming x86 Flagships

The multi-core result beats the two flagship laptop chips in its class — AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and Intel's Core Ultra X9 388H — while still trailing Apple's M5 Max. The scores come from an engineering sample with preview drivers, so final performance may differ, the report cautioned.

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra Leads the Launch

Microsoft has confirmed that the Surface Laptop Ultra will be the first device to carry RTX Spark, marking the first time Microsoft has handed its flagship Surface line to a newcomer in the CPU field. The chip pairs its CPU cores with GPU silicon roughly equivalent to an RTX 5070-class part.

The bigger play is software: RTX Spark ports NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem to Arm Windows, letting AI developers use their existing workflows on Windows-on-Arm machines without learning a new toolchain. The chip is expected to launch later this year, when AMD, Qualcomm and Intel also unveil their next-generation laptop silicon.