NVIDIA’s RTX Spark brings a petaflop and 128GB to mini PCs — and CUDA with it

Every compact editing machine we have covered this year has been a variation on the same theme: AMD’s Strix Halo silicon, integrated graphics, and a large pool of shared memory. NVIDIA has just changed the terms of that argument. RTX Spark, announced at IFA 2026, brings NVIDIA’s own platform to compact desktops with up to a petaflop of AI performance and 128GB of unified memory — and machines are arriving in October.

What RTX Spark actually is

RTX Spark is built around the N1X, a processor NVIDIA has co-developed with MediaTek. In the mini PC configuration it pairs a 20-core Grace CPU with a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, backed by up to 128GB of high-speed unified memory.

That combination matters for one reason above all: it puts a proper NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support into a compact desktop. Every Strix Halo machine we have looked at uses AMD integrated graphics, which are genuinely capable but sit outside the CUDA ecosystem that a great deal of creative and AI software is built around. DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro’s effects rendering, most local AI tooling and virtually all machine-learning frameworks have historically run better on NVIDIA hardware.

Getting that into a machine the size of a paperback, with 128GB of unified memory, is a meaningful shift rather than an incremental one.

The two machines announced so far

The one to watch for creative work is the ASUS ProArt GR1X, launched alongside new ProArt P16 and P14 laptops. ProArt is ASUS’s creator line — colour-accurate displays, calibration, the lot — so this is aimed squarely at photographers and video editors rather than at developers. ASUS claims support for 120-billion-parameter language models, rendering of 3D scenes above 90GB, and 4K AI video generation, and describes it as the first Windows PC built for personal agents.

Acer’s SFF RTX Spark uses the same platform, with up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and 128GB of unified memory, alongside a Veriton RI110 AI Mini Workstation aimed at business use. Acer has not announced availability.

The detail worth pinning down

Here is something that will catch people out. NVIDIA has confirmed there are two variants of the N1X chip, and the mini PC version gets the full 20-core Grace CPU and 6,144-core Blackwell GPU. The laptop implementations may not.

So a ProArt P16 laptop and a ProArt GR1X mini PC both carrying “RTX Spark” branding are not necessarily the same machine underneath. Before buying either, check which variant is fitted — this is exactly the kind of shared-branding confusion that has already tripped people up across the Strix Halo range, where identical chips perform differently depending on the power a manufacturer allows.

What it means if you were about to buy a mini PC

If you have been weighing up a GMKtec EVO-X2, a Beelink GTR9 Pro or a Minisforum MS-S1 Max, this is worth pausing for — but only briefly, and only for some people.

The Strix Halo machines remain excellent for editing, and they are available now at known prices. RTX Spark machines arrive in October with no pricing announced, and first-generation hardware on a brand-new platform carries the usual risks around drivers, software support and early-adopter bugs.

Where RTX Spark should genuinely win is anything CUDA-accelerated — heavy grading, AI-assisted editing, 3D work — and for running large local models, where NVIDIA’s software ecosystem is simply more mature than AMD’s ROCm. If your work leans that way, waiting until October to see real prices and independent testing looks sensible.

If you mainly edit stills and cut 4K video, the machines on shelves today will not suddenly become worse in October.

NVIDIA RTX Spark: what we know

Platform: NVIDIA RTX Spark, built on the N1X processor co-developed with MediaTek. Mini PC configuration: 20-core Grace CPU and 6,144-core Blackwell GPU. Memory: up to 128GB high-speed unified. AI performance: up to 1 petaflop. Ecosystem: full NVIDIA RTX technology suite and CUDA support. Announced machines: ASUS ProArt GR1X mini PC, ASUS ProArt P16 and P14 laptops, Acer SFF RTX Spark, Acer Veriton RI110 AI Mini Workstation. Availability: RTX Spark devices expected from October 2026; Acer has not confirmed dates. Pricing: not announced. Note: two N1X variants exist, with the full specification reserved for mini PC implementations.