# RTX Spark laptop beats M5 Max in local agent tests, with power caveats

_Published Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 9:22 AM EDT · AI, Products · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra — Primary](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fjj25iPAmmb4jTtvMyDBnn-2560-80.jpg)

Tom's Hardware found that Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia's RTX Spark completed local AI agent benchmarks faster than a 14-inch M5 Max MacBook Pro. With Qwen 3.6 35B A3B, the Surface finished in eight minutes against the MacBook's 10 minutes. With Qwen 3.8 27B, the MacBook took about 25% longer.

The tests used AgentPerf-local, which replays inference traces across agent tasks, and locally compiled llama.cpp software. The Surface had a 140W power adapter, compared with the MacBook's 96W charger; a larger MacBook was not tested.

The review found gaming constrained by memory bandwidth and emulation overhead. Battery-life results remain under embargo, limiting conclusions about mobile use.

## Sources

- [Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/we-test-the-rtx-spark-superchip-in-microsofts-surface-laptop-ultra-nvidias-windows-on-arm-platform-impresses-in-local-ai-but-gaming-isnt-its-strong-suit)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/_ycRtOXDNSr4W72dPpIum0
Published: 2026-10-15T13:22:51.686Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-15T12:00:21.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-15T15:56:50.757Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)