Nvidia RTX Spark Geekbench Scores Leaked: 23,424 Multi-Core Rivals Intel i9-14900KS

Nvidia RTX Spark Geekbench scores just leaked -- should Apple be worried about the fastest Windows laptops on the planet?

Nvidia's ARM-based gaming laptops powered by the RTX Spark is around the corner and appear to be ready to launch thanks to new Geekbench listings. The new ARM-based CPUs were first revealed at Computex in May by CEO Jensen Huang. "Our focus is to reinvent the PC. Windows is of course improving, but the basic architecture of a PC has largely been the same now for about 40 years, and we want to reinvent it," Huang told Tom's Guide. How that looks is starting with an Arm-based design over the conventional x86 architecture, but Nvidia does have experience in that realm. The company already makes Arm gaming chips that power the Nintendo Switch 2. The RTX Spark platform is starting out on a range of Windows gaming laptops and mini PCs with a focus on gaming and agentic AIs. It should have fairly low power consumption. Geekbench scores revealed Two different Geekbench listings reveal results for the RTX Spark N1X processor in 20-core and 18-core configurations. If we focus on the 20-core configuration, it returned surprising scores with a single-core of 2,593 and a multi-core score of 23,424. The multicore is fairly impressive, comparing favorably with Intel's i9-14900KS, which managed a score of 23,785 in the same test. View the full results here, though I will note that the final production scores might differ. If you're unfamiliar, Geekbench measures how well the processor handles everyday tasks by running a bunch of simulated workloads from processing numbers to crunching numbers. Single-core is all about how fast the CPU handles one task at a time, like editing a photo. Multi-core kicks in for multitasking like running several apps or rendering by using all the chip's "cores." Here's how those numbers compare to Apple's M5, the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon X2, and Intel's Panther Lake chips. Surprisingly, the RTX Spark performs well against the M5 and Intel X9 in multicore. Moving up to the M5 Pro and Max gets you higher scores. The same goes for the higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Extreme, which has recorded over 25,000. Still, the RTX seems like it will compare favorably with most every chip on the market. Where it seems to fail is in the single-core, where scores are significantly lower. It seems it might feel sluggish in those single tasks, but running multiple apps is where the RTX Spark might shine. This is a pretty good indication of how the RTX Spark platform will handle CPU-heavy tasks. It doesn't tell us the whole picture, especially when it comes to gaming, but we do know the GPU will support DLSS 4.5. RTX Spark laptops are supposed to arrive later this fall with Windows 11 out of the box. It should be compatible with most Windows games, and Nvidia is reportedly ensuring the chip will work with common anti-cheat and DRM software. Nvidia has already confirmed that it will launch with laptops from Asus, MSI, Microsoft and more. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

RTX Spark multi-core CPU benchmarks outperform AMD's 'Strix Halo' Ryzen AI Max+ 395

NVIDIA's RTX Spark chips are set to power a new wave of premium Windows on Arm laptops, and with the release on track for Fall 2026, we're now starting to see benchmarks and performance data pop up. This week we've got two new Geekbench listings covering two RTX Spark variants, one with a 20-core CPU and one with an 18-core CPU. For the full 20-core RTX Spark chip, the Geekbench 'OEMQAJ 766_MIS Product Name DV' listing shows impressive results with a 2,570 single-core score and a 23,126 multi-core score. Although it falls a bit short of the new Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, it does pull ahead of AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, aka Strix Halo. It's also faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, showcasing that RTX Spark is indeed faster than its X86 contemporaries. When it comes to single-core and multi-core performance, there's not a lot separating the 20-core and 18-core RTX Spark variants, with the latter's CPU performance being within 6% of the flagship configuration. Interestingly, although these Geekbench listings aren't related to GPU performance, they do confirm a difference with the RTX Blackwell GPUs found on each model. The 20-core RTX Spark processor includes a 6,144 CUDA Core RTX Blackwell GPU, while the 18-core RTX Spark processor includes a 5,120 CUDA Core RTX Blackwell GPU. Naturally, this difference will translate to PC gaming performance and other GPU-intensive workloads, so it will be interesting to see how it compares once more benchmarks begin to leak. In addition to its multi-core performance falling short of the Snapdragon X2 Elite, the 20-core RTX Spark also falls short of Apple's M4 Pro performance, matching the M3 Max. Naturally, as the RTX Spark is still unreleased, drivers and other optimizations could see this performance improve before release.