Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra, open for preorder since October 7, is built on Nvidia’s RTX Spark (N1X). The headline is the memory ladder: the chip tier matters less than how much unified memory you buy with it.
Two chip tiers, a wide price gap
| Spec | Base | Higher tier |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 18 cores | 20 cores |
| GPU (CUDA cores) | 5,120 | 6,144 |
| Memory / storage | 24GB / 512GB | from 32GB / 1TB (up to 128GB) |
| US price | $2,599 | from $3,699.99 (128GB/1TB: $5,899.99) |
| Germany | €2,899 | 32GB/1TB €4,239; 128GB €6,879 |
| Display | 15" Mini-LED, up to 2,000 nits peak HDR | same |
| Preorder / ships | Oct 7 / Oct 16 | same |
Sources: Microsoft Windows blog, Microsoft Store (US), Microsoft Store (Germany), Windows Central, Notebookcheck (German pricing)
Not yet disclosed: Korea availability and pricing, screen resolution, battery capacity, memory bandwidth, independent benchmarks. The US price is Microsoft’s announced figure (the store lists $2,599.99). We’ll update this post when they are.
Memory is the real price tag
The 128GB configuration costs $5,899.99, more than double the base. Even on the same 20-core chip, going from 32GB/1TB ($3,699.99) to 128GB adds $2,200. CPU and GPU share one pool of memory, so anyone running large models locally will buy up for capacity, not for the extra two cores. Microsoft quotes up to one petaflop of AI compute, without saying at which precision.
Outlets put memory bandwidth at roughly 300GB/s, but Microsoft’s spec page we checked gives no bandwidth figure. The laptop chip’s power range is reported at 45–80W. How long a thin Surface chassis can sustain that is a question for independent reviews.
Sources: Computing for Geeks, StorageReview
The competition is just arriving
Other laptops use the same chip: machines from Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP and MSI also ship from October 16. Dell’s XPS 16 Creator Edition pairs it with a 16-inch 3.2K (3,200×2,000) Tandem OLED, and its 32GB/512GB starting configuration is on US preorder at $3,799.99. At 32GB each, the Surface 20-core configuration (32GB/1TB, $3,699.99) is $100 cheaper. Outlets disagree on whether Dell’s entry model uses the 18- or 20-core chip, though, and the screens differ, so ranking them on price alone is premature.
Sources: Tom’s Hardware, StorageReview (Dell), Notebookcheck (Dell)
In short: the 24GB base is $2,599 for early access to the new chip, and only the high-memory tiers make sense for local AI. Real-world performance and thermals have to wait for shipping units.