Asus reveals pro-grade Mac Studio rival mini PC: Nvidia RTX Spark, 140W cooling, 128GB RAM

[Redaktion]

Asus has introduced the ultra-compact ProArt Mini PC at Computex 2026, featuring the Nvidia RTX Spark superchip. Designed for developers and creators, this 150x150x51mm PC offers 1 petaflop of AI performance, 128GB of unified memory, 10GbE networking, and PCIe Gen 5 expansion, making it a professional-grade solution for local generative AI and 3D rendering.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-reveals-pro-grade-Mac-Studio-rival-mini-PC-Nvidia-RTX-Spark-140W-cooling-128GB-RAM.1312257.0.html

[Norman343]

What are the retail prices and expected availability date(s)?

[RobertJasiek]

Astronomical, therefore undisclosed.

[Sergey]

"retail prices and expected availability" - since these are all paper launches, we have no specifics yet. It could be late 2026. It could be early 2027. Pricing-wise, for machines with the top Spark chip, I don't think you are looking at less than 1.5K USD but don't quote me on that.

[wrong, not yet a rival]

Asus reveals pro-grade Mac Studio rival mini PC: Nvidia RTX Spark

Not a rival: A NVIDIA Spark is based on a NVIDIA's GB10 chip (273 GB/s) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwell_(microarchitecture)#Blackwell_dies), while a Mac Studio is/was based on Apple's M4 Max (up to 546 GB/s) or M3 Ultra (819.3 GB/s) chips.

Unfortunately Apple doesn't sell higher RAM configs anymore:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Studio: "Configurable up to 512 GB until March 4, 2026;[30] 256 GB until May 5, 2026[31]".

If the Spark had 192 GB or 256 GB RAM configs, then even with the lower GB/s one might call it a rival, because at least then it would have more RAM than a Mac Studio.

[wrong, not yet a rival]

And regarding 96 GB @ 819.3 GB/s vs 128 GB @ 273 GB/s
Total memory size x speed value:
M3 Ultra: 78653 = 819.3 GB/s * 96 GB
GB10/Spark: 34944 = 273 GB/s * 128 GB

Offering only 96 GB is crazy low tho, and a waste of the huge 1024 bits APU potential (exactly like giving a RTX 5090 6 GB of VRAM (5.33 times lower: 512 GB -> 96 GB = 32 GB -> 6 GB), so low in fact, that it's going to push some users to get AMD Strix Halo or NVIDIA Spark, depending on their use case, especially considering the price.

Problem is, 96 GB @ 819.3 GB/s can fit and run dense models that outperform MoE models on the slower 128 GB RAM ;) and compensate hugely for the fact that it's not 128 GB RAM. If Qwen releases a dense e.g. 50B to 90B model, then the 819.3 GB/s start to shine even more. But we don't have to wait: Qwen3.6-27B dense is a good example.