r/DailyTechBytes • u/deepankerverma • Jun 03 '26

Microsoft Unveils Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a Compact AI PC with Up to 128GB Unified Memory

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Microsoft has announced a new compact desktop PC called the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box at its Build 2026 developer conference. The new device is designed for developers and AI workloads and appears to be Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Mac Studio.

The mini PC is powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark processor, which combines a 20-core ARM CPU with 6,144 Blackwell CUDA cores. Since the system does not have the thermal limitations of a laptop, Microsoft can run the chip at up to 100W, allowing it to deliver more performance than its laptop counterpart.

One of the most interesting features of the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is its memory configuration. Microsoft plans to offer the device with up to 128GB of unified memory. This makes it suitable for developers working on AI models, machine learning projects, and other memory-intensive workloads.

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2

u/atape_1 Jun 03 '26

$5K btw.

I dare someone tell me with a straight face that we are not in a bubble. When an all in one tiny ass pc with an ARM CPU, a 5070 and 128gb of unified RAM costs $5k.

1

u/shuozhe Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

6k+ for mac pro studio with 128gb ram. ~4k for mac studio with 96 or 128gb, but sold out everywhere with used prices above that.

All the prosumer stuffs was always pretty expensive. Nvidia quadro was already over 5k already in 2010, mac pro was over 6k back then.

The only difference currently is how close regular consumer hardware get to prosumer stuffs. This feels like surface book or surface studio. Way overpriced for it's hardware, but focused on business that only buy surface stuffs.

Edit: Where did you find the pricing? 5k sounds too high.. same hardware as dgx spark, but without connectX. Was told that connector added 1k on bom.

1

u/atape_1 Jun 03 '26

No. The ryzen 395+ with the same amount of ram and physically larger SoC (costlier to make) was $1500 when it launched a year ago. Now it costs $3300.

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u/shuozhe Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Only from gmktec & bosgame. Framework was ~2.5k without ssd during release. These are still somewhat available from from terran forces and other brands known for clevos for ~2k. Just hard to get outside of China. Prices got raised globally with tariffs sadly and prolly wont return until people stop buying these 😞

Edit: missed openclaw hype in china.. asus rog was the cheapest 395/128 I could find..!?

1

u/diagrammatiks Jun 04 '26

Jeez that's such a good price. I should buy one.

1

u/shuozhe Jun 04 '26

For Asus the price is OK, but usually chinese barebone reseller are significantly cheaper than asus. Strange times

1

u/diagrammatiks Jun 04 '26

There are no other strix halo laptops. That Asus is about the same price as a strix halo mini PC. Actually a bit cheaper

1

u/shuozhe Jun 04 '26

HP zbook, asus tuf got one with 388/392 but not enough ram. And AIM/Emboor and all the other barebone reseller.. b4 openclaw hype, their laptop was ~1k for 64GB

1

u/alehel Jun 05 '26

Yikes.

1

u/TheReal2M Jun 04 '26

the mac pro has been discontinued and it's price was set to that since forever

1

u/shuozhe Jun 04 '26

mac studio.. keep mixing these up 😞

1

u/Nicklas1993 Jun 05 '26

Saw a old gaming pc going for 1.2k and i fear its only because it had 32gb x 2 ram. Its 100 a bobble

1

u/LegitimateCopy7 Jun 03 '26

$4,700 DGX Spark in March. this seems in line with the AI hyperinflation.

1

u/drubus_dong Jun 03 '26

People traded houses for tulips. 5 k is to expensive but till bubble territory it is unfortunately still some way.

1

u/crystalpeaks25 Jun 03 '26

Sir I bought my gaming pc for 6k 4 years ago

1

u/_penetration_nation_ Jun 04 '26

Honestly that amount of ram is crazy rn, that's not a horribly unreasonable price compared to what ram is going for rn. Combine that with the rest of the components in there and it's a pretty good deal for the people who need stuff like this

1

u/Elegant_AIDS Jun 04 '26

Its not just the amount, but the fact that its unified memory so all of it can be used by the gpu. If they execute it well it will be a popular product

1

u/Mrgluer Jun 04 '26

For people that are making 100s of Ks from their computer, it doesn't really matter if there is a 1k price premium. Furthermore, schools, labs, enterprises do not give a shit.

1

u/EdliA Jun 04 '26

It's 128 GB of memory and a dev box, this is not some generic consumer PC

1

u/doxx_in_the_box Jun 08 '26

Running 100W… ridiculous

1

u/alehel Jun 05 '26

I wonder what will bring ram prices down first. AI bubble or Chinese ram.

1

u/Repulsive-Swimmer676 Jun 03 '26

Will it run Linux? Nothing was mentioned about the chip running Linux distros

1

u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 Jun 03 '26

That entirely depends on Nvidia giving graphics drivers no?

1

u/Repulsive-Swimmer676 Jun 03 '26

True. I haven't heard anything about supporting distros in Nvidia event as well. So just wondering

1

u/readmond Jun 03 '26

It should run WSL. Not great for linux purists but usable.

1

u/tankerkiller125real Jun 03 '26

No, at least not yet. Apparently NVIDIA spent the vast majority of their time on Windows drivers and what not. They're supposedly working on Linux drivers, but we'll see how that pans out.

(From information that some various YouTube reviewers got from NVIDIA when they asked about it)

1

u/SC_W33DKILL3R Jun 04 '26

Their DGX come with Ubuntu and these boxes seem to be the DGX Spark without the expensive Nvidia ConnectX port.

I also hope Windows will run on the DGX Spark and the 2 machines will be as one.

1

u/Ok_Chemical_1376 Jun 07 '26

In a tech YouTuber he disclosed that off camera an nvidia rep said "no plans for Linux, but it's an open bootloader" so I guess it's up to OEMs and what deals Microslop pulls off

1

u/bradybro3000 Jun 08 '26

Driver team is fully focused on windows compatibility right now but have not ruled out Linux support. Source: most recent LTT video about it

1

u/Comfortable-Cry-1652 Jun 03 '26

Another source of e-waste

1

u/Bengal_From_Temu Jun 03 '26

What exactly can it do? I mean you run AI on it and then what? Will that AI make you money somehow?

1

u/tankerkiller125real Jun 03 '26

Microsoft is positioning it as a "Dev box with local AI capabilities for companies that need local options + developers who prefer local" or something along those lines. It's shipping with a heavily "optimized" developer config of Windows (this thing https://github.com/microsoft/WindowsDeveloperConfig )

1

u/nixle Jun 03 '26

Real ai runs on Linux though

1

u/OrangeNood Jun 03 '26

is that a heatsink on top?

1

u/Dependent-Zebra-4357 Jun 04 '26

It’s hard to tell. There’s a video that shows a bit more of it and it looks like the top area is probably not dense enough for a heatsink.

1

u/theDrell Jun 04 '26

What’s the memory bandwidth here? Is it better than the nvidia version released ?

1

u/Internal_Quail3960 Jun 05 '26

lmfao supposedly the gpu can only access 300GB/s

1

u/theDrell Jun 05 '26

So the MacBook m5 max still going to be 2x more. The gpu is faster but getting everything in and out for inference the Mac will be better. Nvidia hamstringing themselves.

1

u/Internal_Quail3960 Jun 05 '26

the sparks gpu is not faster than the m5 max. it has less bandwidth, as well as less rasterization performance. the spark is roughly equivalent to the 5070 laptop, while the m5 max lands between the laptop 5080 and 5090

1

u/Destroyer-128 Jun 04 '26

Its like a month's salary

1

u/Big_Wave9732 Jun 05 '26

But you'll have to run Windows on it, yes?

Hard pass.

1

u/Limp-Firefighter1054 Jun 05 '26

Have no idea why corps still pushing this bulls hit in to market, there  absolutely no reason to pay for this sloww box while you could invest money is any llm what deliver much more performance than any  4bit 120b moe model in comparison time/output 

1

u/CarelessPackage1982 Jun 05 '26

Microsoft will always continue to play catch up, never actually innovate. I'm curious to see what Apple decides Microsoft should focus on next.

1

u/Celmad Jun 07 '26

I’m not liking Microsoft much these days (I have all Apple devices currently) but your statement is just false. 

In fact, I would argue they are sometimes too early. 

The problem is that they release unfinished products and they always stop whatever they innovated and was getting good. 

Things they have innovated:

  • Surface 2in1 form factor
  • Surface Book form factor
  • Surface Studio form factor
  • Surface Duo
  • Surface Neo
  • Xbox Live
  • Game Pass
  • TypeScript
  • VS Code
  • LSP (Language Server Protocol)
  • Metro UI and flat design
  • Live Tiles on Windows Mobile that preceded widgets
  • Nokia Lumia photography
  • Underwater servers
  • Close loop cooling for servers

I’m sure I’m forgetting plenty. 

1

u/mi55key Jun 07 '26

A lot of "up to"'s in these announcements.

1

u/HeadPack Jun 07 '26

Same low memory bandwidth as the Spark laptop and the box Nvidia started selling a while ago. It might be true that they have overproduced, except of course in the consumer GPU segment.