NVIDIA marked the October 16 arrival of RTX Spark laptops with hands-on parties in six cities, and Jensen Huang turned up in Berlin with signed laptops.
NVIDIA celebrated the October 16 launch of its RTX Spark laptops with hands-on events in six cities: San Francisco, Berlin, Beijing, Istanbul, Seoul and Taipei. In Berlin, CEO Jensen Huang showed up unannounced, handed out popcorn and gave away five laptops he had signed.
RTX Spark is NVIDIA's chip that combines an Arm processor, Blackwell graphics and up to 128GB of shared memory, built to run AI models locally on a laptop.
The events are over, but the contest is still open. Gamers should test before buying, since many games run through emulation.
NVIDIA’s chief executive doesn’t usually hand out popcorn. But at the Berlin stop of the NVIDIA RTX Spark launch events, Jensen Huang made a surprise appearance, posed for selfies and gave away five RTX Spark laptops he had signed himself.
The six-city party marked the day RTX Spark laptops went on sale, October 16. If you are weighing one of these pricey machines, the events were a rare chance to try them before buying, and they showed how hard NVIDIA is pushing its first chip built to run Windows laptops from top to bottom.
NVIDIA held launch celebrations in six cities on the same day: San Francisco, Berlin, Beijing, Istanbul, Seoul and Taipei. Each paired hands-on time with the new laptops with talks from local creators, developers or tech founders.
In Berlin, fans lined up hours early, and NVIDIA noted that even a cosplayer dressed as Geralt from The Witcher waited for a turn.
RTX Spark is a single chip that combines an NVIDIA Grace processor, built on Arm designs like the chips in phones and Macs, with an NVIDIA Blackwell graphics processor and up to 128GB of shared memory. NVIDIA first showed it at the Computex trade show and says it delivers up to one petaflop of AI performance, a measure of how many AI calculations it can do each second.
The top version has 20 processor cores and 6,144 graphics cores. Because the processor and graphics share one big pool of memory, the laptops can run large AI models and agents on the machine itself instead of in the cloud. That can mean more privacy, no per-request cloud fees and work that continues without an internet connection.
It is widely seen as a response to Apple Silicon, the chips that pair a fast Arm processor with strong graphics and shared memory. NVIDIA also claims RTX Spark laptops run as fast on battery as they do plugged in.
Laptops went on sale worldwide on October 16 from six brands, through their own sites and major retailers:
NVIDIA’s launch announcement said prices start at $2,599 in the US, with configurations and pricing varying by region. Its later event recap listed a $2,399 starting price, so check the retailer before you buy. No UK or Canadian pricing was given in the material we have seen.
These are premium machines aimed at people who run AI models, edit video or do heavy 3D work on the go. For them, a big shared memory pool on a thin laptop is a real step forward for Windows.
Gamers should be more careful. NVIDIA says RTX Spark performs like a laptop RTX 5070, and early testing found it gets close when the graphics chip is the limit. But most PC games are built for Intel and AMD processors and must run through Microsoft’s Prism translation layer, which can cost a lot of performance in some titles. Hands-on reviews have also flagged the high price and battery life that drops under heavy loads.
On the plus side, NVIDIA says recent games such as Gears of War: E-Day, Control Resonant and NBA 2K27 are supported at launch, and it is working with major anti-cheat makers, whose software has kept many online multiplayer games off Arm-based Windows PCs until now.
The practical advice: if you can, try one in a store with the apps and games you actually use, and confirm they run well before you spend that kind of money.
The events are over, but one prize is still on offer. Through its #ShareYourSpark campaign, NVIDIA wants people to post about the passion their very first Windows PC kicked off. Tag the post and you could win a ProArt P14 from ASUS, running RTX Spark and carrying Jensen Huang’s signature. The official rules are on NVIDIA’s website, so read them first, since eligibility can vary by country.
All six took place on October 16, 2026, the day RTX Spark laptops went on sale.
San Francisco, Berlin, Beijing, Istanbul, Seoul and Taipei.
NVIDIA’s launch announcement put US prices from $2,599, though a later NVIDIA recap said $2,399.
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