The Nvidia RTX Spark is kind of a big deal. Nvidia’s first consumer-grade PC might have been spoiled, but it’s definitely an exciting option for any manufacturer that wants to make a high-end device, especially if they’re hoping to attract those who want to run local “AI” models. Microsoft has a new Surface desktop PC, which is a lot less exciting than it might have been a few years ago.
Meet the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, the second Surface device to use the RTX Park platform after the Surface Laptop Ultra, and the latest product to inherit Microsoft’s terrible naming tradition. It’s a mini PC, at least technically, as its rectangular aluminum body is about four times the size of a more typical example of the form factor. But that still makes it a lot smaller than a conventional desktop PC, no doubt thanks to the Spark platform being designed for a multitude of devices.
As the name implies, this Surface is meant for developers, developers, developers, developers. Specifically “AI” developers. “It’s a purpose-built Windows AI developer box that puts up to 1 petaflop of AI compute directly on the desk,” says Microsoft’s promotional page. Though it’s loaded with Windows 11, it’s pre-configured with a bunch of dev-friendly settings, widgets removed, “Do Not Disturb” mode enabled by default, and PowerShell already up and running.
(Hey, Microsoft, you know some of us power users might like an option to install Windows 11 this way, right? Maybe run it by the same team that’s in charge of making Copilot less annoying.)
You also get various extra options for security and enterprise management. Beyond the RTX Spark chip (Arm-based, 20 cores, 6,144 CUDA cores, RTX 5000-series graphics performance), the only hardware specification mentioned so far is 128GB of RAM. Not “up to” 128GB of RAM, just 128GB by default. Which, by my count, costs about $1,800 on its own right now.
So yeah, don’t expect this thing to be affordable when it arrives later this year, sold directly from Microsoft and likely nowhere else.
