Nvidia's encrypted firmware cuts Linux GPU speed to 35% on RTX Spark laptops

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

Linux installs and runs on RTX Spark laptops like the MSI Prestige, with GPU acceleration via Nvidia's open kernel driver. But plugged in, the GPU locks to about 780 MHz instead of 2.2 GHz, because a Windows-only component called the Nvidia Platform Controllers and Framework manages power sharing and its firmware table is encrypted. On GPT-OSS-120B, Windows hits 65.4 tokens per second while native Linux manages 13.9. WSL, which rides on the Windows driver stack, stays near full speed.