Benchmarked: Nvidia's RTX Spark notebook delivers serious local AI compute, at a price

Nvidia's RTX Spark partner systems are here, and spec-for-spec they've got all the ingredients for a hit: a potent CPU, blisteringly fast integrated graphics, and up to 128 GB of unified memory in a lightweight, ultra-premium package that's ready to run demanding models locally. But with prices for these systems starting around $2,600 and going well north of $6,000 for the top spec trims, the one thing RTX Spark isn't is a good deal. However, for the right person, by which we mostly mean AI enthusiasts, researchers, and/or creative professionals who need tons of video memory and don't want to get lost in Apple's walled garden or would prefer Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem over AMD's ROCm, the RTX Spark still has a lot to offer. As such, we'll be largely focusing on the local agentic AI use cases Nvidia and Microsoft are pushing for these "builder-class" systems. …