DGX Spark vs RTX Spark laptop: ports, price, and what joins up
Microsoft's RTX Spark laptop now costs less than NVIDIA's own DGX Spark with the same memory. The DGX Spark is the one that can be joined to other boxes, and I do not know yet how many of the recipes its owners share will work on Windows.
Plays here, from YouTube
Microsoft's RTX Spark laptop, the Surface Laptop Ultra, puts the chip from NVIDIA's DGX Spark in a Windows laptop, and it goes on sale on Friday 16 October. Joining up with other boxes is the one thing that it is not built to do.
The ports
My DGX Sparks are joined through a very fast ConnectX-7 port on the back of each of the boxes. NVIDIA lists it at 200 Gbps and says up to four DGX Sparks can be connected. Microsoft lists USB-C, USB-A, HDMI and a headphone jack on both its laptop and its desktop box, with an SD card reader on the laptop and Ethernet on the box. It mentions nothing like the ConnectX-7 port on either.
The prices
What the laptop has on its side is price. NVIDIA raised the price of its own 128GB DGX Spark to $6,950 on Friday 2 October, according to The Register. Microsoft's laptop with the same memory is $1,050.01 less by my own maths ($6,950 minus $5,899.99), and it comes with a screen and a battery. With 64GB, the laptop is $699.01 less than NVIDIA's new DGX Spark ($4,999 minus $4,299.99).
Linux or Windows
A DGX Spark also runs NVIDIA's own version of Linux, and the recipes that Spark owners share, including the one that doubled my speed, are written for it. These laptops run Windows 11, and I do not know yet how many of those recipes will work there.
A few caveats
- The $6,950 is The Register's report. NVIDIA's own store page would not open for me on 9 October, so I have not read the price there myself, and a viewer wrote around 4 October of seeing $6,995 for the original Spark.
- The comparison is with NVIDIA's own DGX Spark. Other makers' 128GB versions are priced differently, and a reseller in Germany lists them from about $5,660 (a Lenovo ThinkStation PGX with 1TB and no operating system) to $9,097 (an ASUS Ascent GX10 with 2TB), before tax.
- The laptop runs at lower power. NVIDIA lists the laptop chip at 45 to 80 watts and the DGX Spark's chip at 140.
Read more
- Surface Laptop Ultra on Microsoft's US storemicrosoft.com
- Microsoft's page for the Surface Laptop Ultra, with its portsmicrosoft.com
- Microsoft's page for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, with its portsmicrosoft.com
- NVIDIA's page for the DGX Spark, with its ConnectX-7 portnvidia.com
- NVIDIA's page for the RTX Spark, with the power of its chipsnvidia.com
- The Register on the DGX Spark's new pricestheregister.com
- NVIDIA's announcement of the 64GB DGX Sparkblogs.nvidia.com
- A German reseller's prices for other makers' versions of the DGX Sparkpi3g.com
The numbers in this story
| Figure | What it is | From | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| $6,950 from 2 October 2026 | NVIDIA's own 128GB DGX Spark | theregister.com | reported |
| $1,050.01 | Microsoft's 128GB laptop under NVIDIA's own 128GB DGX Spark | $6,950 minus $5,899.99 | my own maths |
| $699.01 | Microsoft's 64GB laptop under NVIDIA's new 64GB DGX Spark | $4,999 minus $4,299.99 | my own maths |
| 200Gb/s, up to four boxes | The DGX Spark's port for joining boxes | nvidia.com | the maker's claim |
| $5,899.99 against $6,950, and 45 to 80 W against 140 W | The laptop against NVIDIA's own DGX Spark, in price and in listed power | Microsoft's store, The Register and NVIDIA's pages | my reading |
| $5,660 to $9,097 before tax | Other makers' 128GB versions of the DGX Spark, at a reseller in Germany | pi3g.com | store price |
If a number on this page is wrong, I would rather know. Tell me in the comments under the video and I will correct it here and pin the correction there. What has been corrected so far is on the corrections page.