Microsoft’s celebrity Home windows AI options arrived first on new Copilot Plus PCs final yr, however they had been restricted to a particular vary of laptops. That appears set to vary because of Intel refreshing its current Arrow Lake desktop CPUs later this yr, which may simply ship Copilot Plus PC options in desktop PC type components for the primary time.
Intel’s latest Core Ultra desktop CPUs launched in October with an NPU inside, nevertheless it wasn’t succesful sufficient to hit the 40 TOPS requirement that Microsoft mandates for Copilot Plus options. ZDNet Korea reports that Intel is now getting ready an Arrow Lake Refresh that can embody increased clock speeds and a extra superior NPU that ought to be able to Copilot Plus options.
The brand new NPU design will reportedly transfer the refreshed Core Extremely 200 lineup to a more recent “NPU 4” design, the identical NPU structure discovered on Intel’s Lunar Lake laptop computer CPUs that acquired Copilot Plus AI features in November. This could enable for true desktop PCs with a succesful NPU, as a substitute of Copilot Plus solely being obtainable on mini PCs and all-in-one PCs that use laptop computer processors.
It feels like a more recent NPU would be the principal a part of Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh, as it can reportedly not embody addition CPU or GPU cores over the prevailing Core Extremely 200 chips. Extra space on the chip for NPU options will disappoint players who’ve been ready for Intel to be extra aggressive within the desktop CPU area, although.
The primary Arrow Lake chips ran more efficiently and cooler, however the PC gaming efficiency was disappointing and infrequently behind Intel’s earlier Raptor Lake CPUs. Intel admitted that its Arrow Lake launch “didn’t go as deliberate,” however a sequence of BIOS updates have executed little to vary the gaming efficiency scenario. It now appears unlikely that Intel will compete with AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D and 9950X3D chips in gaming efficiency till its subsequent technology Nova Lake CPUs launch in 2026.