Intel’s upcoming desktop architecture, Arrow Lake-S, will incorporate a neural processing unit (NPU), but the NPU’s performance is not as high as anticipated. The NPU in Arrow Lake-S is expected to deliver just 13 TOPS of AI performance, which is significantly lower than Lunar Lake’s 45 TOPS. This level of performance falls short of qualifying for Copilot+ certification, which requires at least 40 TOPS of NPU-only AI performance.
It seems that Intel may be using a variant of the Meteor Lake NPU in Arrow Lake-S, which had a peak performance of 10 TOPS. The decision to include an NPU in Arrow Lake-S, particularly one with subpar performance compared to other Intel NPUs, raises questions about its utility in a desktop environment. With desktops often being used with discrete GPUs that offer higher AI performance, the need for an NPU in Arrow Lake-S is questionable.
Despite the seemingly limited utility of the NPU in Arrow Lake-S for desktops, there may be mobile variants of Arrow Lake that could benefit from an NPU. Intel likely had to strike a balance between the different use cases for Arrow Lake, leading to the inclusion of a lower-power NPU that may be more cost-effective than using a higher-performing NPU from Lunar Lake.
The prevalence of laptops equipped with discrete Nvidia GPUs further diminishes the importance of NPU performance in Arrow Lake-S, as tasks requiring AI-specific processing can be offloaded to the Nvidia GPU. This makes Intel’s decision to include a weaker NPU in Arrow Lake-S more sensible in the context of desktop usage scenarios.
It is possible that Intel may offer multiple variants of Arrow Lake, with some chips featuring an NPU for mobile systems and others without an NPU for desktop systems. More clarity on Intel’s strategy for Arrow Lake is expected when the architecture is released later this year.
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