(Image credit: Future)
For years, my ultimate computing friction point has been the two-device compromise: I buy a thin and light MacBook for productivity, and keep a massive gaming rig at home for play. But after going hands-on with six Nvidia RTX Spark laptops launching later this year, I can confidently say that era is over.Put simply, this is shaping up to be a game-changer. Packing 6,144 CUDA cores into thin and light notebooks like these, it’s bridging the gap between serious productivity and high-end gaming. And crucially, game developers are already jumping on board to support it — ensuring vital anti-cheat software compatibility is ready to go.But packing a powerful GPU into a sleek chassis doesn’t automatically make it a great gaming machine. Other factors are just as vital like how the keyboard feels, how loud the fans are and display quality.I spent extensive time playing on six different models, and here’s my definitive RTX Spark gaming tier list, ranked from worst to best.A dream for gamers
(Image credit: Future)Before I get there, though, this isn’t my first rodeo with Spark. I did get to try the chip out at Computex this year (on my Birthday of all days). And since that was a much earlier version of what I saw here at Gamescom, here are some general updates:More laptops, more fun: At Computex, only the Surface Laptop Ultra was turned on and usable. However, this time around they were all active and usable.Backing up their claims: Nvidia is touting 1440p gaming at over 100 FPS. Of course, with no visible FPS counter, I can’t confirm that specifically, but to the eye, all the games were running significantly over 60 FPS — settings at a range of medium to high (depending on the title) and DLSS turned on.So many developers on board: Turns out if you’re Nvidia, you have a fair bit of influence to get publishers on board. Windows on Arm is getting a shot in the arm thanks to anti-cheat support and a massive number of studios jumping on board to work on Arm-native versions of their games.Emulation looks much better: The fact Pragmata was even running through the Windows Prism emulation layer to make it play nice on an Arm chip was quite the achievement at Computex. But there definitely was a little bit of fuzziness to the gameplay looking back. Now, with four games including 007 First Light all emulated, they’re all crystal clear and playing great with no discernible latency.Put simply, things have definitely moved on since June, and anything with that RTX Spark sticker on the body is going to be a mighty tasty machine to get, come this fall. That being said, I’m here to talk about how some of these specific laptops fare for gaming on a build level — not a chip level.RTX Spark laptop (for gaming) tier list: Specs
