ASUS ProArt P16 Shows Off NVIDIA's RTX Spark Chip, but Mostly for AI Users

ASUS's ProArt P16, the first laptop from the company to use NVIDIA's RTX Spark chip, is an impressive premium machine, according to a review published by Engadget on October 23, 2026. The reviewer concluded, however, that the platform it showcases is not intended for a broad audience.

The laptop is aimed at power-hungry creators, but it departs from earlier ProArt models by running NVIDIA's first major PC chipset rather than a processor from Intel or AMD. Microsoft and NVIDIA have pitched RTX Spark as a complete reinvention of the PC. The reviewer, looking past that promotion, described the P16 as a nice laptop that is especially attractive for running local AI models, since it can hold up to 128GB of RAM in a fairly slim body.

Price is the main drawback. The P16 starts at $2,800, and costs climb steeply as memory is added. The review unit, which carries 128GB of RAM, costs $7,000. The reviewer also noted that although the laptop plays games well, buyers would pay far more than they would for a dedicated gaming laptop.

The build quality drew praise. The aluminum chassis is sturdy, the 16-inch OLED display is very bright, and the keyboard and large haptic touchpad are generously sized. At 3.9 pounds, it is lighter than Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro, which weighs 4.7 pounds. Ports include three USB-C connections, USB Type A, HDMI, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader, though there is no Ethernet.

Inside, RTX Spark is a system-on-a-chip combining a 20-core Arm CPU, a Blackwell GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory, an arrangement similar to Apple's M-series designs. The reviewer described it as a new branch of PC design for AI researchers and enthusiasts that will sit alongside, not replace, x86 hardware and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips. Competition from NVIDIA could push AMD, Intel and Qualcomm to improve, the review said, but the memory-heavy platform is unlikely to ease prices already inflated by AI demand for RAM.

Benchmark results were mixed. The P16 scored about 3,000 points lower in PCMark 10 Applications than ASUS's A16 with a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, and it trailed slightly in Geekbench 6 single-threaded CPU testing. Its graphics and AI results were stronger: it beat a MacBook Pro with an M5 Max by 4,700 points in Geekbench 6 GPU, and scored 3,895 against 3,267 in Procyon's AI Computer Vision 2 test. In Procyon's AI Image Generation test, its score of 1,519 was 600 points higher than Apple's.

In practice, the laptop ran OpenClaw and the Qwen3.8 27B model, which alone uses 42GB of RAM, with plenty of memory left over. It also handled Control: Resonant and Cyberpunk 2077 at high settings, though the fans were loud. NVIDIA has said the graphics hardware is roughly on par with the RTX 5070 mobile GPU while drawing less power, and the reviewer saw 70 fps in Control: Resonant at 1440p with ultra settings, medium ray tracing and 4x frame generation. Lowering settings raised that to 120 fps.

Compatibility is a concern because most games depend on Microsoft's Prism emulator for the Arm CPU, which reduces performance and may cause problems. Native Arm64 builds exist for titles such as Fortnite, DOTA 2 and Marvel Rivals. NVIDIA says it is working with anti-cheat companies, but some multiplayer games may still fail. Adobe has brought its best-known software to the platform, though support from other multimedia apps is less certain.

Other findings were less flattering. The black finish attracts fingerprints, and battery life in the PCMark 10 Applications test was ten hours and 51 minutes, well below the 15-plus hours of many premium laptops. Performance did not change when the laptop was unplugged. The 1,600-nit OLED display was among the brightest the reviewer had seen on a laptop.

The reviewer said AI professionals are the clear target buyers and could justify the cost. For gamers, the review pointed to an ASUS Zephyrus G16 with an RTX 5070 and 240Hz OLED screen at $2,124 at Best Buy, which offers better gaming performance and full compatibility. The reviewer said they would wait at least a year before recommending RTX Spark to general users or gamers.