Intel is expected to follow the Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" desktop CPUs with a minor update before pulling out all the stops with Nova Lake CPUs next year. Termed "Arrow Lake Refresh", this minor update reportedly brings a much better NPU for machine learning and faster clock speeds.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Arrow-Lake-Refresh-CPUs-Upcoming-desktop-Intel-chips-to-bring-faster-clock-speeds-and-new-NPU.1052890.0.html
"That said, no matter how powerful the NPU Intel packs inside its new chips, there just aren't a lot of truly practical use cases for an NPU on Windows, at least not right now. So, we don't know if it is a good idea to use precious silicon for something as underutilized as an NPU on desktop chips."
The only thing that matters is getting rid of silicon ASAP!
Quote from: Who cares on July 07, 2025, 20:10:39"That said, no matter how powerful the NPU Intel packs inside its new chips, there just aren't a lot of truly practical use cases for an NPU on Windows, at least not right now. So, we don't know if it is a good idea to use precious silicon for something as underutilized as an NPU on desktop chips."
The only thing that matters is getting rid of silicon ASAP!
If you do photo or video editing, there are AI apps that can leverage the NPU, GPU and CPU. Topaz is greatly improved on new Mac's with a NPU. But for desktop the NPU is not criticial, as the GPU's are far more powerful. Eg 5090 has ~ 3300TOPS vs 50 TOPS for laptop NPU. NPU makes more sense on laptop as it is more efficient and can improve battery life rather than use GPU. Not needed on desktops. Maybe when NPU's are offering 500TOPS+ they would be very useful.