PowerColor (viaharukaze5719) is developing a new technology called “Edge AI” that enables AMDRadeonRX graphics cards to use NPUs (Neural Processing Units) to reduce power consumption.
In the vendor’s demonstration,Cyberpunk 2077’s power consumption decreased from 263.2W to 205.3W, representing a 22% power savings. It’s noticeably better than AMD’s power-saving mode, which came in at 18.5%. Numbers forFinal Fantasy XVwere also available, with power-saving results matching within a percentage point.
PowerColor describes that its Edge AI technology works through the communication of the graphics card and PowerColor’s own GUI, which works together to bridge the gap to the NPU. According toIT Media, the testbench atComputexwith the NPU powered on had it externally connected to the GPU, leaving us to wonder whether similar NPU power saving could be achieved via an NPU on the CPU, such as theRyzen 8000series. PowerColor also claimed in press material that Edge AI On increases performance slightly. At the same time, tech reviewers on-site confirmed a 10% dip in FPS between the more efficient NPU test computer and the standard GPU.
PowerColor integrated NPU to Radeon GPU. (Still developing)Through AI, they claim power consumption deceased 22%. More saved than AMD Power Saving. pic.twitter.com/9I8iEikotDJune 7, 2024
NPUs seem to be here to stay, and their potential viability in helping gaming performance would be a massive win for the tech on desktops. NPUs have become a standard offering on high-end laptops since 2023 whenIntel Core Ultra, or Meteor Lake, was first released. NPUs make perfect sense for mobile applications; AI computations are extremely processor-heavy, so built-in AI accelerators fit in on laptops, which need high efficiency to conserve battery life. The desktop market has less need for NPUs; however, they typically run dedicated graphics cards that can pump out AI calculations with more power but less efficiency than NPUs.
AMD first brought NPUs to desktops with itsRyzen 8000G series, but it has no plans to bring back NPUs in its freshly announcedRyzen 9000 series. Depending on how PowerColor’s continued research on Edge AI goes, it’s plausible that we could see PowerColor AMD graphics cards released this year with an NPU built-in, or perhaps we may see a resurgence of desktop CPU NPUs that can be leveraged for gaming efficiency in the same way. We don’t know when or where we’ll next see Edge AI spring up in PowerColor’s or AMD’s stable.
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Sunny Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom’s. From APUs to RGB, Sunny has a handle on all the latest tech news.
