This article provides an independent and non affiliated overview of the current AI PC and NPU laptop market. It is written for software developers,...
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Do you think NPUs will eventually replace discrete GPUs for developers?
NPUs will handle inference and always-on workloads. GPUs remain essential for training, simulation, graphics and heavy parallel compute. The future is hybrid systems, not replacement.
That hybrid framing explains current laptop designs pretty well.
Why did you not include Snapdragon X Elite laptops? Aren’t they supposed to be strong AI PCs?
They are interesting, but still risky for many developers.
The hardware looks promising, but tooling, drivers and ecosystem maturity vary depending on your stack. For daily development work, predictability matters more than peak specs. That is why I focused on platforms with fewer unknowns today.
Fair take. Stability is more important than chasing specs.
Great overview. One thing I am still unclear on: when would an NPU actually outperform a GPU for LLM inference?
NPUs outperform GPUs when you care about sustained, low power inference of quantized models. Think background agents, local copilots, embeddings, transcription, or always-on workloads. GPUs still win for large batch inference and anything FP16 or FP32. The real value of NPUs is that they make these workflows usable on a laptop without killing battery or thermals.
That distinction between efficiency and throughput clarifies a lot. Makes sense now.
Is it realistic to run something like Llama locally on these machines, or is this still mostly marketing?
Quantized Llama 7B to 13B models run well locally today if you have enough RAM and the right runtime. You will not train large models on a laptop, but for inference, agents and tooling it works. The constraints are memory and model size, not hype.
Good to hear. That matches my experience with smaller quantized models.
Local LLMs are absolutely usable today for tooling and agents. The bottleneck is RAM and model size, not marketing claims.
Will you update this article as new hardware releases?
Yes, as new CPUs ship and tooling matures, recommendations will evolve. Updates will be based on real workflows rather than launch claims.
Appreciated. Articles like this age quickly otherwise.