How far do games and 3D go on an RTX Spark laptop? Reading the early hands-on reviews

A laptop sold as an "AI machine" starts running games. That scene has started to show up in outlet after outlet's hands-on review.

NVIDIA says that with DLSS 5, Reflex and G-SYNC, gamers can run AAA games at 1440p at over 100 frames per second on RTX Spark ¹. What happens on real hardware? ITmedia PC USER, PC Watch and Mobile01 did not test the same machine, configuration and settings across their articles. So this piece does not line numbers up across outlets to crown a winner. It reads what each outlet says, under which settings, and against what.

First, the post in which Mobile01 shared its own article. Its headline is, in short, a test report on the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+, an RTX Spark laptop that combines AI, creation and play (translated from the Chinese original) ².

Games: frame generation changes how the numbers look

PC Watch's game tests on the 64GB ASUS ProArt P16 (H7607) used 2,560×1,440 with DLSS Balanced and 3x frame generation ³. The results:

• Cyberpunk 2077: WQHD, ray tracing set to low, DLSS Balanced, 3x frame generation, average 138.10fps [[F242]] [[F279]]
• Marvel Rivals: high quality, DLSS Balanced, 3x frame generation, average 149fps (1% Low 106fps) [[F259]]
• DOOM: The Dark Ages: built-in benchmark at WQHD, medium quality, DLSS Balanced, 3x frame generation, path tracing off, average 135.92fps [[F260]] [[F280]]

PC Watch writes that, even though these are frame rates that include frame generation, all 3 titles averaged over 130fps ⁴. Since frame generation is included, these are not raw rendering numbers.

Mobile01's settings on the top-end MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+ (20 cores, 128GB, UHD+ OLED) used a higher resolution: 3840×2400 with DLSS and related features on, and game quality set to each game's recommended settings ⁵. Cyberpunk 2077 ran with ray tracing at maximum, DLSS Super Resolution and 2x multi frame generation and averaged 44.42 FPS, while Marvel Rivals averaged 70 FPS ⁶. Mobile01 says that if you want a steadier 60 FPS or more at very high resolution, you should lower some graphics settings (translated from the Chinese original) ⁷.

The same word, "games," means different things at different resolutions, quality levels and frame-generation multipliers.

PC Watch also ran the Steam version of Pragmata (x64 emulation) on the 128GB ASUS ProArt P14 (H7407BA-SUNX1281BLP), as a reference, and writes that it ran with no problems at all ⁸. With DLSS 4 frame generation on and image quality pushed nearly to the maximum, ray tracing included, it says rendering held together at around 120fps ⁸. The same review adds that only the preinstalled standard driver was available when it was written, so the machine may not yet be showing its full performance ⁹.

ITmedia PC USER tested the 128GB, 20-core ASUS ProArt P14 (H7407) in the FINAL FANTASY XIV: Golden Legacy benchmark at 2880×1800, with DLSS, full screen and maximum quality ¹⁰. The rating was "Comfortable" ¹¹.

3DMark scores and what they were compared with

In ITmedia PC USER's test, 3DMark Steel Nomad (4K) scored 3151, equal to or better than a machine with a GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU ¹². In Steel Nomad Light (1440p), the score was close to an RTX 5060 Laptop ¹². Speed Way (1440p, ray tracing) landed roughly between the RTX 5060 Laptop and the RTX 5070 Laptop, it writes ¹³.

A post pointing to ITmedia PC USER's review has appeared too. Its headline is, in short: how strong are RTX Spark laptops, ASUS ProArt P14 hands-on, with 3D rendering even beyond the RTX 5070 Laptop (translated from the Japanese original) ¹⁴.

PC Watch says that in some 3DMark tests its 64GB ASUS ProArt P16 (H7607) scored close to the desktop GeForce RTX 5060 ¹⁵. Mobile01's MSI scored 3,198 in Steel Nomad and 3,009 in Speed Way ¹⁶.

The outlets did not use the same machine, configuration and test conditions. ITmedia PC USER and PC Watch name what they compared against in their own articles; reading each score against that comparison avoids mix-ups.

3D and creative apps

PC Watch ran Blender GPU rendering with OptiX on the 64GB ASUS ProArt P16 (H7607), and the results were 1,939.23 for monster, 1,493.87 for junkshop and 1,381.57 for classroom, in samples/min ¹⁷. PC Watch cautions that the versions differ, so this is only a reference comparison, but says that against public benchmarks the performance is on par with a mid-range discrete GPU ¹⁸.

On its product page, NVIDIA says up to 128 GB of unified memory handles 3D scenes up to 90 GB; that refers to the up-to-128 GB configuration, not the Blender machine above ¹⁹.

In Photoshop Beta, the removal tool was run with generative AI on and on-device processing; times were taken by hand, excluding the time spent marking targets with the brush ²⁰. Removing 4 objects in an indoor photo in one go (a hand statue, a black sphere and the plants on the left and right) took 11.89 seconds ²¹.

In Premiere Beta, object masking on about 29 seconds of footage with a car in it took 30.79 seconds, including initialization ²².

ITmedia PC USER writes that improvements to OS memory management and optimization of Photoshop and Premiere Pro are also planned ²³.

CPU and battery

According to ITmedia PC USER, the multi-core CINEBENCH results, in both 2026 and 2024, made you think "20 cores, as expected," and overwhelmed machines with the 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite and the 16-core Core Ultra X7 358H ²⁴. Single-core performance, on the other hand, fell behind machines with the Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-90-100) ²⁵.

PC Watch writes that on its 64GB ASUS ProArt P16, in Cinebench 2026 multi-core, the RTX Spark N1X beat the Ryzen 9800X3D by about 36% and kept single-core performance at a close level ²⁶. It adds that this is 20 cores against 8, but a strong result for CPU rendering on a laptop ²⁶. Mobile01's MSI scored 562 single-core and 7,048 multi-core in Cinebench 2026 ²⁷.

For battery, ITmedia PC USER measured video playback with screen brightness at 100% and Windows 11 on the Balanced power setting, and 1 hour of use consumed 7% of the battery ²⁸. At the same pace that works out to about 13 hours 34 minutes, though 7% is a rounded figure, so it allows for an error of around ±1 hour ²⁹. PC Watch says that on its 64GB machine, even on battery power the Office overall score was 6,528, only about 4.6% lower than on AC ³⁰.

Someone who has used a Surface RTX Spark machine for about 2 days has also posted impressions: "Been using the Surface Ultra (RTX Spark) for about 2 days now and wow, It's crazy to say I'm finally comfortable never using a MacBook Pro again." ³¹ The poster also writes that it is fast and elegant, lasts a really long time, and has a beautiful screen bright enough for daytime and outdoor use ³².

Things to watch

• Heat and noise: on the 128GB ASUS ProArt P14, PC Watch warns that under heavy load the area behind the keyboard gets quite hot, and that the fan noise is fairly low-pitched and not unpleasant but loud enough that you can't enjoy game audio [[F225]]
• Short testing time: ITmedia PC USER says this was a short trial at the stage of simply running benchmarks, though the results gave a strong sense of the machine's potential [[F210]]
• Power: Mobile01 says the performance gap between plugged-in and battery use is not large, but recommends staying plugged in if you do a lot of AI inference or rendering [[F232]]
• Apps and peripherals: Mobile01 strongly advises confirming native support and operation before purchase if you rely on specialized software, external devices or development tools [[F231]]

Before you buy, check the official supported environments for the games and tools you want to run.

If you play on your laptop

The results above hold inside each machine's test settings. If you are going to play, a controller that feels right in your hands helps.

You can also search Amazon for RTX Spark laptops.

Read next

If you are weighing how much memory to buy, How much memory does an RTX Spark laptop need? Reading the reviews compares what each outlet measured. For the laptops lined up model by model, see Which RTX Spark laptop should you buy? Models from each maker compared.