Last June, Nvidia announced it had reached deals with Microsoft and many other PC makers to develop AI and agent-ready PCs for Windows based on its RTX Spark chip, but details on the machines were scarce at the time.
At an event in San Francisco during the city’s Tech Week on Wednesday, Microsoft revealed the specifications and pricing of its new Surface Laptop Ultra. The PC comes in two base models, one starting at $2,600 and one with a more powerful chip starting at $3,700. Prices go up from there with options for more memory and storage, up to $5,900. (Microsoft says the highest-end device is already out of stock.)
Microsoft also revealed its new workstation powered by the RTX Spark chip: the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, which starts at $6,000 and is equipped with Microsoft development tools such as VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, WSL, and PowerShell 7.
The argument for this PC and workstation is that they are designed to run AI models on the device locally (and for free) with the CPU, GPU, unified memory, and other hardware modifications, like superior cooling, needed to handle them.
Additionally, they are running a revamped version of Windows 11 that includes a feature called “Runtime Containers.” This makes it easier to sandbox AI agents, the company claims. This feature will be available to all Windows 11 users, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the event.
Nadella explained: “One of the things we’ve realized over the last 3-4 years is that just having one model doesn’t do much. You really need to orchestrate and you need to have memory outside of the model. You need to have this leveraged layer that is able to support multiple models plus context, plus memory and action space.”
He added that Microsoft enables this “not only for our apps, but for any agent’s apps. That’s the goal of the Windows platform going forward.”
The devices are clearly aimed at developers, so much so that Microsoft is offering up to $1,000 off to people who trade in a MacBook Pro, as Macs have become a popular choice for developers and AI agent enthusiasts, especially in Silicon Valley.
Yet these Surface PCs, with such powerful graphics processing, are also capable of creating content, processing videos and gaming, the company promises.
Microsoft wasn’t the only PC maker to announce specifications for its new Nvidia-RTX Spark AI Windows PCs on Wednesday. Dell also announced details of its previously announced Dell XPS 16 Creator Edition PC. It’s available for pre-order now for delivery later in October at Best Buy, priced at $3,800.
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