Microsoft has announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, which is the most powerful Surface device yet. The new best laptop from the Windows-maker also happens to be the most powerful “thing” Microsoft has ever made.
That’s thanks to the Nvidia RTX Spark chipset chosen to power the thing. The new silicon is Nvidia’s effort to muscle in on the traditional territory of Intel, AMD and Qualcomm, rather than settle for providing the best graphics chips.
The new top-end chip was announced at Computex is the Windows-friendly version of the GB10 chip. It has 20 CPU cores based on ARM architecture, 6144 CUDA cores and supports up to 128GB of unified memory. The GPUs will be based on the Blackwell platform that powers the Nvidia 5000 series graphics cards.
Whether it’s creativity, software coding, or AI uses, this thing will handle anything Surface users will throw at it. “We built Surface Laptop Ultra to meet that work without flinching,” Microsoft said in the announcement.
The Windows-maker added that the “unified memory allows the pool of RAM to be dynamically allocated wherever your workloads need it most across CPU and GPU, so AI creation, 3D rendering and multi-model workflows run simultaneously, with 1 petaflop of AI compute, capable of running up to 120B parameter models locally. No walls. No compromises.”
Furthermore in a briefing with reporters, Andrew Hill, Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Surface said: “This is the most powerful thing we’ve ever made” (via Engadget).
The new MacBook Pro rival has a 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with 2,000 nits of peak brightness, which is the brightest display Microsoft has ever deployed. Pixel density is 262ppi.
Microsoft says the Surface Laptop Ultra has the largest trackpad yet and plenty of ports, including: HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, SD card, headphone. That’s satisfying. Microsoft says these are the ports creators demand.
The company says, in quite dramatic terms: Surface Laptop Ultra was purpose-built for world makers, in a partnership between Windows, Surface and NVIDIA that approached every challenge with the same intention and the same standard. A machine like this should not sit still. It should be pushed. Taken to the edge. Used to make real what others call impossible. It belongs in the hands of world makers.
Get a Surface Laptop Ultra “later this year” and become a world maker. It’ll be available in two colours Platinum and Nightfall.
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