Intel claims that its future Lunar Lake CPUs will have processing power in excess of 100 TOPS. Almost half of this comes from the NPU.

At its Vision 2024 event, Intel says its future laptop processors will have computing power of more than 100 TOPS. TOPS stands for Terra Operations Per Second and is a measure of AI-related performance that has gained importance since Intel declared the era of the AI ​​PC.

We have previously written that not a single so-called AI PC on the shelves today is actually an AI PC, using Microsoft’s definition as a benchmark. The minimum requirement for this label is 40 TOPS, which allows Microsoft Copilot to partially run locally and the current Meteor Lake Core Ultra CPUs do not have that much processing power. This issue has been resolved for the sequel, Lunar Lake.

TOPS without GPU

Interestingly, only 45 TOPS come from the NPU in Lunar Lake. More than half of the AI’s computing power comes from the GPU (and a much smaller portion from the CPU), meaning that Lunar Lake processors meet the minimum requirements for Copilot even without the much-discussed NPU. For comparison, it is useful to know that Meteor Lake is stranded at 34 TOPS, of which just under 11 TOPS come from the NPU.

Panther Lake, which will succeed Lunar Lake, will reach 200 TOPS. It’s unclear how Intel calculates the numbers. The numbers make it clear that Intel is making great strides towards more AI-optimized computing power.

Maybe relevant

Between the lines of these performance statements, it becomes apparent that the term “AI PC” is basically a bit of hot air. Even in the second generation of AI chips, the majority of the AI ​​computing power comes not from the NPU, but from the GPU. GPUs have been part of Intel’s laptop chips for many years. AI workloads are also currently rare and work without an NPU. If this changes soon and the Microsoft Copilot can offer great added value locally for many people, the promised AI performance leaps could be relevant for Lunar Lake.