Snapdragon X Elite laptop runs Cyberpunk 2077 using an RTX 4060 eGPU with the help of an RTX Spark development driver

Yet another person has successfully paired an RTX 4060 to an ARM-powered laptop with the help of NVIDIA's RTX Spark development driver. Spotted by VideoCardz, YouTuber "Chaowanke" showcased an RTX 4060 running off a Snapdragon X Elite laptop with fully functioning driver support. The RTX 4060 was running off a Razer Thunderbolt 5 dock hooked up to one of the laptop's USB4 ports.

This officially unsupported configuration was made possible by using NVIDIA's recently released RTX Spark development driver, which includes a graphics driver that supports the ARM version of Windows 11. The driver reportedly won't install the traditional way due to a hardware incompatibility error; however, the YouTuber discovered a workaround by extracting the ARM64 driver manually through Device Manager. This workaround bypasses NVIDIA's installation wizard and prevents the installer from stopping the driver installation.

The YouTuber ran the ARM-powered RTX 4060 setup through Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 6's benchmark, proving the setup's functionality with the RTX Spark driver. In Cyberpunk 2077, the setup achieved 44.6 FPS, and in Forza Horizon 6 around 53 FPS.

This story is very similar to one we covered recently of an RTX 4060 working on a Huawei Qingyun W510 workstation running Windows 11 on ARM, with the same RTX Spark development driver. This driver was released at Computex this year for the RTX Spark to help developers test apps on the hardware, but obviously the driver is also apparently capable of running any modern NVIDIA GPU. The RTX Spark features a Blackwell-based GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores, the same amount as a desktop RTX 5070.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Question #1

How did the YouTuber connect the RTX 4060 to the Snapdragon X Elite laptop (which port and dock were used)?

The YouTuber connected the RTX 4060 via a Razer Thunderbolt 5 dock that was hooked up to one of the Snapdragon X Elite laptop’s USB4 ports. The external GPU was run through that Thunderbolt 5 dock to the ARM laptop.

Answered

Question #2

What specific driver enabled the RTX 4060 to work on Windows 11 ARM in this test?

The NVIDIA RTX Spark development driver enabled the RTX 4060 to work on Windows 11 ARM in this test. The driver includes a graphics component that supports the ARM version of Windows 11 and was installed by extracting the ARM64 driver manually through Device Manager.

Answered

Question #3

Why wouldn’t the RTX Spark driver install the traditional way on the ARM laptop, and how was that prevented?

The driver would not install the traditional way because it produced a hardware incompatibility error on the ARM laptop. The YouTuber prevented the installer from stopping the installation by extracting and installing the ARM64 driver manually through Device Manager, bypassing NVIDIA’s installation wizard.

Answered

Question #4

What performance did the RTX 4060 achieve in Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 6 on the Snapdragon X Elite?

The RTX 4060 on the Snapdragon X Elite achieved 44.6 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 and around 53 FPS in Forza Horizon 6. These results were recorded using the RTX 4060 connected to the Snapdragon X Elite laptop with NVIDIA's RTX Spark development driver.

Answered

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The fact that the RTX Spark driver can be so easily configured to run regular graphics cards suggests we could see support for traditional NVIDIA graphics cards on ARM devices in the not-too-distant future. NVIDIA's RTX Spark is its latest laptop SoC aimed at competing against chips such as AMD's Strix Halo APUs, featuring a 20-core Grace CPU, 128GB of memory and a high-performance embedded Blackwell GPU.