I tested the Asus ProArt P16 with Nvidia RTX Spark and it's the ultimate AI creator laptop (with a price to match)

Nvidia's RTX Spark chip has been my most anticipated product of the year, and now, it's finally landed in laptops. With RTX graphics to power through 3D work, video and even a side of gaming, along with Team Green's CUDA stack to run AI models and agents locally, what better way to show this off than on a creator-focused laptop: the Asus ProArt P16 with RTX Spark.

Carrying on its legacy of being an AI-infused laptop for creatives from the ProArt P16 2025, this ProArt P16 steps up and delivers an even sleeker, lightweight 16-inch machine with greater battery life and an OLED touchscreen (finally) featuring a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Along with its varied selection of ports, including an SD card reader, this laptop is geared up to be the ultimate portable notebook for photo and video editing, creative work and more.

More than anything, though, the main draw here is its capabilities for running your own on-device AI agent. No subscriptions or prompt fees here, just an assistant that can adapt to your routines (after a few goes). It's wicked to see in action, and while the Asus- exclusive StoryCube and MuseTree apps are fun to check out, I imagine video editors, 3D designers, game developers and coders will go beyond this to take full advantage of this chip, with apps like Hermes Agent. This has up to a whopping 128GB of RAM to power it all, after all!

But it will take a lot out of wallets, and its premium standard won't be worth the creative power it boasts unless you're an AI power user or a 3D creative. It's also worth noting that this is Windows on Arm, meaning apps and games can either run natively or through Microsoft's Prism emulation, so some may not run exactly as expected (even though Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says "every single application that Windows has ever run" will work). Oh, and it can still get quite loud when put under pressure and a little hot.

While it's certainly one of the best AI laptops, it's no MacBook Pro killer when it comes to pure performance. But when it comes to AI, it shines in a different way.

Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? An elite creator laptop with Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X chip for 3D creative work and local AI tasks.
• Who is it for? Power users looking for a slim, lightweight machine for 4K (and beyond) video editing, 3D graphics work, game design, coding, and to utilize local AI agents.
• What does it cost? Prepare your wallet. The Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) is available for $2,799 in the U.S. at Best Buy and £3,099 in the U.K. at Currys, and that's just the starting prices. Asus' official website notes prices starting at $4,399 / £3,899, but you can find it for less at third-party retailers. For the highest spec? Expect to pay $6,999 / £5,999.
• What do we like? Its superb performance across the board (from speedy local AI tasks to gaming), the still-gorgeous 16-inch OLED display now with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, battery life that actually lasts and great port selection for creators — all wrapped up in a slick, premium design.
• What don’t we like? This is a huge investment with AI in focus, so know what to take advantage of with this chip. And this can get loud and a little hot when pushed.

Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) review: Specs

Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) review: The ups

The Asus ProArt P16 with RTX Spark takes the wins of its last-gen model and makes some welcome refinements, too, leading to a thin, premium laptop that's made for creativity, AI and some gaming.

Slim, light and ready to move

Look familiar? This should, as the Asus ProArt P16 sports a near-identical utilitarian aluminum design as its predecessor. But this time, it's thinner and lighter than ever, and actually undercuts the MacBook Pro this time.

Coming in at 13.9 x 9.5 x 0.5 ~ 0.6 inches and weighing 3.9 pounds, this is the slimmest ProArt to date, and it's likely thanks to the laptop having just an RTX Spark chip rather than a laptop GPU fitted under the hood, too. Compared to the previous P16, which is 0.7 inches and weighs 4.1 pounds, it's not a major change, but those small tweaks to the design make it that much more portable and easier to slip into a bag. More so than the MacBook Pro now, at 0.6 inches and 4.7 pounds.

It's a premium machine, from the way it looks to the way it feels, while still being subtle enough to use anywhere, whether that be at the office or a coffee shop. To me, it isn't too far off the slick style of a Razer Blade 16, and I mean that as a huge compliment. The ProArt P16 comes in two colorways, including Nano Black and Neo White, and you'll be happy to know the former delivers a fingerprint-resistant finish.

Another highlight is the backlit chiclet keyboard with 1.7mm key travel, which is comfortable and speedy to type on, along with a big haptic touchpad that feels punchy and accurate to the touch. But unlike the last-gen model, there's no DialPad here, which was a handy way to access different shortcuts, apps or functions right on the touchpad. It's a shame, especially for creative tools, which some will surely miss.

A good port selection will always be appreciated, and the ProArt P16 delivers. With three USB 4 ports that support displays and power delivery up to 40Gbps (any can be used for the 140W USB-C charger), one USB-A for peripherals, an HDMI output and even a headphone jack, there's plenty of connectivity here. And it wouldn't be a creator laptop without an SD card reader, so it's a good thing it has one.

It has (RTX) Spark

The Asus ProArt 16's headline event is easily Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X chip, boasting a 20-core CPU and (get this) a 6144-core GPU, thanks to the tensor cores stuffed inside. There is another RTX Spark N1X processor featuring an 18-core CPU and a 5120-core GPU available on more affordable ProArt 16 models, too, which confusingly has the same name. Be sure to watch out for that.

Our review unit comes with the 20-core RTX Spark N1X variant, 128GB of DDR5X RAM and 2TB of storage. With that kind of power under the hood, especially that RAM, it's like sitting on a goldmine. It's the type of high-level specs you'd find on a MacBook Pro with M5 Pro, an Asus ROG Flow Z13 with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, and even the previous Asus ProArt P16 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and RTX 4070 GPU (but the latest model now comes with double the memory).

To cut to the chase, it's a beast. It is incredible what a single superchip can accomplish when it comes to complex local AI workloads, handling 3D creative work and playing the latest PC titles at stable frame rates. To have this running in a thin-and-light 16-inch laptop with actual respectable battery life is a huge triumph. Well, the 128GB of RAM on this review unit definitely helps, too.

In testing, though, it's harder to reflect this. Nvidia notes that in many tests, including Geekbench and 3DMark, the numbers don't reflect the performance of the chip. Even in Geekbench AI, Team Green states that the numbers will be obsolete due to deprecated DirectML, and some games couldn't boot (but there was an exciting workaround).

Regardless, here's a look.

Despite the warnings, the RTX Spark N1X still shows impressive high-end figures. Apple's MacBook Pro M5 Pro still wipes the floor, and it's not the strongest when it comes to single-core performance, but there's a significant uplift everywhere else. The last-gen ProArt P16 with its powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Asus ROG Flow Z13 with a similar Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip can't touch multi-core performance, and for creators, our Handbrake test, which transcodes a 4K video to 1080p, shows the ProArt P16 with RTX Spark cuts times drastically.

What about for 3D work? There's no better way of testing this than in games. After playing Cyberpunk 2077 on Ray Tracing: Ultra settings and seeing around 30 FPS at 4K, and bumping that up to 115 FPS with DLSS with frame generation, yeah — this machine can game.

The chips' RTX graphics (and 6144-core GPU) clearly shine, even beating the numbers of a dedicated RTX 4070 GPU in the previous model. How impressive is that? Now, while this P16's UHD+ OLED display is a visual treat for gaming, I prefer performance, so I was often playing games at lower resolutions for those higher frame rates without heavily relying on Nvidia's frame generation.

The ProArt P16 can breeze through anything I throw at it, and for those complex 4K video edits, 3D design or development, this machine can handle it (as it should, considering its price).

But when it comes to working with local AI agents, this is where the RTX spark truly shines (more on this later).

A display for creatives

Asus strikes again with an absolutely gorgeous 4K OLED touchscreen that any creator will appreciate, and I would say it's one of the best touchscreens you can find on a laptop.

The Asus ProArt P16's 16-inch UHD+ (3840 x 2400) OLED touchscreen features all the perks from its last model, including a productivity-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio. You'll find an ultra-bright 1,600 nits of peak brightness (and this shows), an anti-reflective coating, along with a flood of colors and deep blacks in anything you view. For touching up images in Photoshop with a touch and simply watching shows, this screen is a treat for the eyes. Plus, while there's no stylus included, you'll find this screen does support it.

Thankfully, there is one welcome upgrade I'm happy to see: a 120Hz refresh rate with a 0.2ms response time. No more being limited to a 60Hz screen, as the ProArt P16 now delivers ultra-smooth motion. That complements creative work, but it's even better for gaming.

Gearing up for "Avengers: Doomsday," I watched "VisionQuest" on Disney+ and was blown away by the array of bright colors surrounding Vision as a house in a bright green space was being digitally constructed in front of him. As ever, the ProArt P16's OLED display is one to beat.

Battery life that lasts

The Asus ProArt P16 is a powerful machine with an OLED display and plenty of gaming potential. Usually, that translates to the kind of battery life that is in dire need of an outlet way too often, as the best gaming laptops can attest. But that's not the case here.

Using our battery test, which involves web surfing and streaming video at 150 nits of screen brightness, the ProArt P16 with RTX Spark lasted 12 hours and 26 minutes. That's well past a full working day, and an amazing effort from a machine with the power it packs!

No, this is nowhere near MacBook Pro levels of battery life, nor is it close to what Intel's Panther Lake chip offers in the Dell XPS 14 (2026) at over 20 hours. Still, it makes traveling and using the ProArt P16 far more realistic this time around, with enough juice to power through the day and have a little leftover in the evenings.

Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) review: The downs

The Asus ProArt P16 with its RTX Spark N1X has many exciting features, but its price is not one of them. That alone narrows down who this will be for, and you'll want to make full use of its effectiveness in AI to make the most of what you're getting here.

Some limits

I wouldn't necessarily call this a "down," more like a change in perspective. The RTX Spark N1X is built for local AI and agents, and that means running LLMs and the like without limits. No tokens or per-prompt payments; data and automated processes that are yours and work for your routine.

That's an extremely useful tool to have in your pocket. That is, if you know what you want to use it for. For video editors automating time-consuming assembly tasks or finding highlights in long-form cuts, and developers using an agent to write volumes of code, the RTX Spark in the P16 brings that power on the go. For others, they may not have any use for it beyond writing up drafts, finding specific files, summarizing documents or simply having fun with it.

But if you're looking to take advantage of AI, you can see how the RTX Spark N1X can be an effective way of being productive and simplifying tasks you have no idea where to start with.

A great example: I was trying to play Red Dead Redemption 2, but it would crash every time I booted it up. I had no idea what the problem was, so I asked my Hermes Agent to see what was wrong and fix the problem.

It said everything on the setup side looked healthy, and asked exactly what was happening when I launched the game. At that point, I had gone to make a coffee, so the question timed out. But then, Hermes just went deeper into the issue anyway, and came back with:

"I found that RDR2 has been running in Vulkan mode, which is a known issue on the new ARM Blackwell GPU with driver 617.42. I'll switch the API to DirectX 12 in the config, back it up first, and launch the game to test the fix."

And then, voilà! It started running without any problems. It may have taken me a trip to Google, a look through Reddit posts and some tinkering of my own to figure this out, but if something didn't quite work right, I would have just left Red Dead Redemption 2 unplayed.

That's an amazing way to quickly solve a problem. Now, I tried the same with Forza Horizon 6, which kept saying "Invalid Gaming Services Detected" and that I need to update "Gaming Services." Hermes couldn't quite solve that one, but a little tinkering and direction would have pointed it in the right direction.

Asus' exclusive MuseTree and StoryCube apps make a return, too, and these are a great way to start generating and visualizing ideas, plans and even turn simple text or drawings into full-blown videos (like my terribly drawn stickman that turned into an animation). I got more out of Hermes, but these are nice apps to have to express creativity.

With tasks like that, I can imagine making full use of an AI agent to automate tasks and help me here and there, and developers, editors and more could take this even further. But for anything other than AI-focused tasks, there are other laptops out there that have better performance, like the best MacBooks, or that play games better, like the best gaming laptops.

Hot under pressure

It's easy to tell how much power is packed under the hood of the Asus ProArt P16, because you can hear it as soon as an AI agent starts processing a prompt or a game is booted up.

In all fairness, when it comes to general tasks such as browsing the web, writing up documents or watching shows, the laptop is dead silent. But when I started using the Hermes Agent to ask simple questions, the fans start whirring and slowly taking off as it starts to process what's been asked. It's not obnoxiously loud, but I wouldn't call this laptop "stealthy."

I also noticed it getting a little hot towards the keyboard area. That's likely due to the laptop's design, with the keyboard deck drawing in cool air to "maximize fresh air volume inside the chassis." I'd imagine it needs as much cooling as it can get, but this is supposed to keep the keyboard surface "comfortably cool." It's a touch hotter than that when put under pressure, though.

The price of (RTX) power

Yup, the RAM crisis isn't going anywhere. It's $6,999 / £5,999 for the highest configuration of the Asus ProArt P16 with RTX Spark. You can get three iPhone Duos and still have $1,000 left over, seven PS5 Pros at their now-increased price — you get the picture.

Even the base configurations I found, coming in at $2,799 / £3,299, are $500 more than the advanced ProArt P16 we recommended in 2025. And that came with a respectable 32GB of RAM and an RTX 4070! While it's more affordable than a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro ($2,999 / £2,999), that still comes with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD (and more performance power, according to the numbers).

Over the past year, we've seen laptop prices skyrocket, and despite not needing a discrete laptop GPU now, the RTX Spark hasn't made this machine any more affordable. This is a prosumer laptop for a niche group of users, and you really have to know what you're going to use this laptop for to invest in it.

Asus ProArt P16 (RTX Spark) review: Verdict

The Asus ProArt P16 is an outstanding laptop for creativity, with its legacy continuing with the might of Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X. With an even slimmer design that's light enough to bring with you anywhere, a knockout OLED touchscreen with amazing brightness and colors, the right ports and battery life that can (finally) get you past a workday and still have juice left, Asus has done its creator laptop justice.

But are you willing to pay a high price for a laptop that's mainly dedicated to AI? That's the main question to ask yourself. For me, I wouldn't be pushing agents to their limits in my day-to-day to justify the high price, despite seeing its perks. Still, running AI models and agents locally is an impressive feat, and I love that this acts as a competent gaming machine to play the latest PC titles, too.

If you know that you could fully utilize Nvidia's CUDA and RTX graphics for creative work and beyond, then this laptop should be calling to you. And no, you won't need the top configuration, unless you're sitting on a very stacked wallet. It's one of the best AI laptops around, and it would want to be at the price it's going for.