NVIDIA’s 20-core N1X appears in Cinebench 2026 with generic CPU identification
TechPowerUP Forums user Fouquin has shared an early Cinebench 2026 result from a pre-release Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra. The laptop uses NVIDIA RTX Spark silicon, commercially known as N1X.
The 20-core processor scored 5,771 points in the multi-thread test and 540 points in the single-thread test. The benchmark used Cinebench’s 10-minute throttling mode and reported an MP ratio of 10.68x.
© Fouquin Cinebench currently identifies the processor as “JMJWOA-Generic-CPU” and reports a fixed 1.01 GHz clock. This is an identification issue with the pre-release platform rather than its operating frequency. Fouquin said a Windows 11 26H1 update allowed Cinebench 2026 to complete after earlier versions stopped loading at 76%.
The Surface Laptop Ultra uses default PL1 and PL2 limits of 37.5W and 64W. Fouquin found a hidden High Performance profile that raised those limits to 80W and 95W . The processor did not consume 80W continuously, but reportedly reached nearly 50W while boosting both CPU clusters to 2.8 GHz.
The result is almost identical to the 14-core Apple M3 Max, which scores around 5,722 points in the same benchmark. NVIDIA’s chip is ~1% faster in the multi-thread test but ~4% slower than the M3 Max single-thread score. The 16-core M3 Max remains 14% faster in multi-thread performance with single-thread lead about 4%.
The full NVIDIA N1X configuration combines ten Cortex-X925 cores with ten Cortex-A725 cores. It also includes a Blackwell GPU with 48 Streaming Multiprocessors and 6,144 CUDA cores.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Surface Laptop Ultra will support up to 128GB of unified memory. The system also features a 15-inch mini-LED display and an upgraded cooling system designed for sustained workloads. NVIDIA says RTX Spark laptops are scheduled to become available in fall 2026.
Source: Fouquin via ExoticSpice
