This could be Windows’ M1 moment – but expect it to cost a ton

Nvidia’s announcement that it is entering the laptop chip space and RTX Spark image it’s big. Apple has proven over the years that Arm-based chips can perform well and offer good battery life – especially on the Mac. In the world of Windows, performance hasn’t quite matched Qualcomm’s chips, especially in the graphics department. There is untapped potential, and Nvidia seems to be promising to deliver.

This could be the time for Windows to drive us with a new generation of highly skilled chips, as Apple returned in 2020, introducing the M1. But why is this setup so exciting at the same time that it’s so messed up in 2026?

Nvidia RTX Spark sounds like a beast of a laptop chip: 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU CUDA cores, and 128GB of LPDDR5X memory. Its composite images are said to be similar to RTX 5070 Laptop GPU – although Nvidia did not reveal anything about performance or specific benchmarks. As my friend Sean Hollister said, it’s actually a GB10 device from Nvidia’s DGX Spark mini-PC. Nvidia calls it a “superchip” and “the most advanced PC chip ever made,” while Microsoft bills its Spark devices. Surface Laptop Ultra as “the most powerful thing we’ve ever made.”

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spent a lot of time at the launch of the RTX Spark laptops talking about AI and assistants. Many a two hours Nvidia key points it was for agents and “CPUs for agents,” which Huang said is “Nvidia’s new big driver.” But beyond the local AI calculations that RTX Spark laptops can handle, they are also highlighting manufacturers. Adobe is even on the field with Good features for Photoshop and Premiere.

These are Nvidia, Microsoft, and Windows laptop manufacturers that focus on Apple’s MacBook Pros. It is still unknown who MacBook Pro (m M5M5 Pro, or M5 Max), but these laptops seem to be expensive. Lines announced so far for the fall include Surface Laptop Ultra, Dell XPS 16, Asus ProArt P14 and P16, Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n, MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI Plus, HP OmniBook Ultra and OmniBook X 14, and unnamed models from Acer and Gigabyte. Current or similar models on this list usually start at $2,000 to $2,500 and up (except for the limited edition OmniBook X).

This is not surprising considering the RTX Spark’s 128GB of RAM. If you look at AMD’s Strix Halo APU with 128GB of RAM – the closest analog to the RTX Spark but built on x86 – you have options like Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 for a MSRP of $3,300 and ProArt PX13 GoPro Edition about $3,000. Nvidia DGX Spark desktop with GB10 chip RTX Spark launched? One of them cost about $4,700. So you wonder how much a Spark laptop with 128GB of memory will cost you also add things like keyboard, trackpad, battery, and 15-inch Mini LED touchscreen?

Nvidia said there will be RTX Spark chips with less RAM, but that’s why RAMmageddon Most laptops with 16GB or 32GB memory are being expensivetoo – especially if new models come out.

Nvidia can blow all the other doors in the performance department when these laptops hit the fall, but the difference between this and Apple’s moment of the M1 is that Apple started with a very low price. Mac Mini and MacBook Airalong with low cost MacBook Pro. This meant that the average consumer could feel the benefits immediately, and the early sales also meant an early incentive for manufacturers to prioritize adding support for new chips. It took almost another year for Apple to add products M1 Pro and M1 Max and refreshed MacBook Pros.

Nvidia doesn’t want the M1 moment as they try to jump to the M1 Max or even. M1 Ultra minutes. And it’s doing this as computers proliferate and consumer spending power vanishes. There is a reason for that MacBook Neo rocked the tech world at $599. Does the same thing happen at $2,499?

When these new laptops come out in the fall, there will be four Chip options for different Windows laptops: Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Nvidia. It has already been good to have three choices: AMD options usually offer good performance for the price of the battery, Qualcomm offers the best battery life and standby time but sadly supports games, and Intel is usually the standard option that maintains full x86 compatibility.

With Nvidia in the mix on the Arm, we might get an alternative with a stronger battery and more graphics power. There is also a chance that games on the Arm will come close to matching the high compatibility that Windows x86 gamers are used to. Microsoft and Nvidia are getting Riot Games to provide their anti-cheat software to Arm for games like Appreciation and League of Legends and working with other developers using Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, and Denuvo and a big win for Windows on Arm.

I’d love to see more competition, because it’s nice to have all this choice. The latest chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all great in their own ways. I’m getting the Nvidia option which works well and has a great battery life but doesn’t have the same games as Macs. But even if the RTX Spark causes a sea change, the price hike is likely to put off many.