AI-capable hardware has been slowly making its way into the PC world. Meteor Lake processors were Intel’s first to feature an NPU, a neural processing unit specialized in artificial intelligence, although AMD arrived first with its APUs that also had solutions of this type.
The commitment to hardware-accelerated AI has been a reality for some time, and we have many examples. In the general consumer market, NVIDIA and its tensor cores are undoubtedly one of the best exponents, but If we talk about NPUs, their arrival to the PC is something relatively recent. and that still has a long way to go and many promises to keep.
As I explained at the time, the integration of the NPU in current processors has had a considerable impact on their development, since this component makes their design more complex, occupies a significant space at the silicon level and also increases the cost of production, which translates into a higher selling price.
This reality has led to TechPowerUp to carry out a very interesting survey, where he asked his readers if they would be willing to pay more money in exchange for enjoying the generative AI capabilities that a current NPU enables. The response has been overwhelming, with the 26,257 votes cast being distributed as follows:
- 7.4% (1,937 votes) said they would agree to pay more for these new features.
- 84% (22,057 votes) said they would not agree to pay.
- 8.6% (2,263 votes) said they were not sure.
In general, there is a frontal rejection of NPUs and the generative AI functions of this second generation in which we find ourselves, and the truth is that I can understand it because I believe that promises have been made that have not yet been fulfilled, and because Many see generative AI as a simple image generator which is not even capable of working in a truly optimal way.
As I said, AI applied to consumer PCs still has a long way to go and many promises to keep, and the data from this survey only proves me right. However, even in its current state, this It can be very useful for certain professional profiles, and offers interesting value. For example, image generation has helped me a lot in content creation, and has allowed me to be more productive and independent.
AI-generated images.
Source: www.muycomputer.com
