Nvidia RTX Spark encrypted firmware slows inference speed to 35% on Linux

AI-generated summary

Nvidia RTX Spark laptops, like the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI Plus, suffer from a significant performance drop when running Linux due to encrypted power management firmware. While Linux installations can achieve GPU acceleration, the GPU clock speed is severely limited to around 780 MHz when plugged in, compared to over 2 GHz on Windows. This throttles inference speeds drastically, making native Linux performance a fraction of what is achievable on Windows or through WSL.