Microsoft and NVIDIA are pushing a “new era of PC” built around the RTX Spark platform and the N1x chip. It’s the first real attempt to bring workstation‑class performance to Windows on ARM, and Adobe is already preparing its apps to take advantage of it.

Adobe partnered with NVIDIA to optimize Photoshop, Premiere, and other creative apps for the RTX Spark chip. Adobe promises two times faster AI usage, editing, coloring, and effects across Photoshop and Premiere.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang promises that RTX Spark chips will run every Windows app ever made. But there's a difference between merely running an app and fully supporting it. Several Adobe apps now fall into the latter category.

Premiere takes advantage of RTX Spark's unified memory, Blackwell GPU, and TensorRT, resulting in faster rendering. Photoshop has been "reimaged with GPU-accelerated compositing at its core," which helps with the performance of live filters, HDR, and other effects. AI features get a boost from TensorRT.

The NVIDIA RTX Spark platform is the combination of an N1x CPU, RTX graphics, and unified memory. It powers a new class of computing not previously available through Snapdragon X processors (though Qualcomm was eager to welcome NVIDIA to the family).

The NVIDIA RTX Spark platform is a full-stack collaboration between Microsoft, ASUS, and NVIDIA. The result is monstrous specs, such as 6,144 Blackwell RTX cores and support for up to 128GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM.

There are still major questions around the platform. NVIDIA hasn’t detailed pricing for N1x systems, and we still don't have a full list of specs. Claims made by NVIDIA, Microsoft, and other OEMs are promising, but we'll need to wait to see full benchmarks and real-world performance.

We'll see a wide range of devices powered by NVIDIA RTX Spark this year. The Surface Laptop Ultra and ASUS ProArt P16 and P14 are all built on the platform.

Adobe's apps should be updated to utilize NVIDIA RTX Spark around the same time. The company expects to ship updates to Premiere, Photoshop, and Substance 3D by the end of the year.

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Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.