Danny Weber
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Nvidia's RTX Spark are competing for Windows on ARM dominance. Learn about specs, performance, and which to choose in 2026.
Until recently, Qualcomm was essentially the only company pushing the idea of Windows on ARM: first with the Snapdragon X Elite, then the more powerful Snapdragon X2 line. But now Nvidia is officially entering the segment with the RTX Spark, and the market has reacted nervously. News of the announcement hit Qualcomm's stock, which dropped more than 10%, wiping out over $10 billion in market cap in a single session.
The RTX Spark is Nvidia's attempt to do for Windows what Apple did for the Mac: combine CPU, GPU, and an AI accelerator into a single superchip. It is based on the GB10 Grace Blackwell, already seen in the DGX Spark workstation, but now packed into everyday laptops. Inside is an ARM processor (developed with MediaTek), Blackwell RTX graphics, and an AI block. The whole chip is manufactured on a 3nm process at TSMC, with 70 billion transistors claimed.
On paper, the specs sound like a bid for dominance. Configurations promise up to 20 CPU cores, up to 6144 CUDA cores on a Blackwell GPU, up to 128 GB of unified memory, and over 1 petaflop of FP4 performance for running large AI models locally. The CPU and GPU are linked via NVLink-C2C with up to 600 GB/s bandwidth. Nvidia expects the first RTX Spark devices to arrive in fall 2026 from major brands like ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and even the Microsoft Surface lineup.
Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X2 in September 2025, and the star of the lineup is the X2 Elite Extreme version. It focuses on pure CPU power: 18 Oryon cores, with 12 Prime cores that can boost up to 5 GHz (and hold up to 4.4 GHz on all cores), plus 6 Performance cores running up to 3.6 GHz. Total cache is 53 MB.
On the AI front, the Extreme claims an NPU with 80 TOPS. In Qualcomm's own tests at the Snapdragon Summit, the chip showed results on par with Apple's M4 Pro in Cinebench 2024 and Geekbench 6.3 multi-core, scoring 1964 and 23693 points respectively. It also supports up to 48 GB of LPDDR5x on a 192-bit bus, PCIe 5.0 for storage, and up to three USB4 connections. The first laptops with the X2 Elite Extreme started shipping in the first half of 2026.
Qualcomm's weak spot in this story is the GPU. In the heavy 3DMark Steel Nomad test, the X2 Elite Extreme scored 1306 points at 13 fps, while the Apple M4 Pro manages around 1620 points. That hints that the graphics improvement isn't as impressive as the CPU gains. On top of that, compatibility issues linger: under Windows-on-ARM emulation, some professional software may not work, and certain games may crash or show artifacts.
And here Nvidia looks most dangerous: the RTX Spark promises over 100 TOPS for local AI, DLSS 4.5 on Blackwell graphics, and most importantly, it brings CUDA—the ecosystem that has underpinned most AI frameworks and GPU-bound apps for years.
That said, the choice in 2026 is highly practical. The Snapdragon X2 is already on sale, and if you need an ARM-based Windows laptop right now, it's a strong bet—especially for everyday work. The RTX Spark, by contrast, looks like an option for those willing to wait until late 2026 for powerful graphics and AI capabilities, but the price tag is expected to match: starting around $1,800.
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