What Is an AI PC and Should You Buy It in 2024?

Mar. 31, 2024

We are here to answer all these questions and compare the new generation of AI-enhanced PCs to older generation PCs looking into aspects like performance and efficiency. Then, we try to answer whether or not you should buy a new AI PC this year.

We are yet to see lots of AI-enabled processors come out on desktop PCs. But, AMD has already released theRyzen 8000Gseries as the world’s first AI processor for desktops. This year, we will also expect to see Intel releasing a new Lunar Lake architecture. A fresh lineup of processors for desktops on a new motherboard platform is expected.

What Features Do AI PCs Offer?

NPU is made by design for accelerating AI, at a high level of efficiency that can’t be achieved by the CPU & GPU, whose resources can be kept free for handling heavy computing workloads, while the NPU handles AI-centric workloads.Image Courtesy: IntelImage Courtesy: AMD

The work of creative professionals, developers, and even general users is said to become much more efficient, thanks to the new AI features. It is being said that collaboration has been made more efficient. When using communication apps like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom you getAI auto-framing,AI background blur, and evenAI eyesight correctionwhich makes it look like you’re directly looking at the person. This is a common set of features found in many AI PCs of today.

Previously,non-AI PCs that didn’t feature an NPU(with processors such as Intel13th Gen) also had collaboration features like these AI enhancements for video conferencing as we talked about above. Beebom did a hands-on of the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 with an Intel Core i7-1370P processor, and its feature set included AI enhancements during video conferencing. The same features of “AI PCs” being heavily pushed into the market – background blur, auto-framing, and noise cancellation were present on this laptop.

Below you can see that in theCameraapp of Windows 11, the AI effects are now present within the app itself (as part of Windows Studio Effects) rather than a separate feature from the manufacturer. With all the AI features enabled, the NPU was observed to be used in the range of 25-35%.

Before we dive into more, there are some more common features on AI PCs and non-AI PCs. Pretty much anyone can use OpenAIChatGPT, GoogleGemini, AdobeGenerative AI, and various other popular artificial intelligence innovations of today. Nvidia has also recently unveiled itsChat with RTX. This is an AI chatbot that can directly run off an RTX graphics card (offline).

Intel and AMD’s on-board NPU can be used to run AI assistants, albeit made with smaller models. As an example, check out how Tony Mongkolsmai (Software Architect at Intel) has showcased TinyLlama & Google’s Gemma-2b AI models running on the NPU directly. Similar to this, Huggingface hasdocumentationhere on how to set up the AMD Ryzen AI environment so you can run LLMs on the NPU of Ryzen 7000/8000 series processors.

Next, Intel showed off some new AI assistants which will come in the future to enhance user productivity. One upcoming innovation that will take advantage of the latest Intel Core Ultra processors and the NPU is Rewind.ai, which is expected to be released for Windows later this year. I also expect more AI assistants to come out in the future, which can effectively utilize the NPU directly.

Rewind’s AI assistant has been described by Intel as an amazingly useful tool to assist you throughout your daily work. Once set up, the Rewind AI notices everything you are doing. Then, it can work as amemory, so if you forget something you could just ask your AI assistant.

Plus, it automatically manages the note-taking process when the user is in a meeting. You can even use it to automate writing email drafts. Overall, this is quite impressive and I am excited to use more AI PC-exclusive features that are coming soon! While tools like ChatGPT are impressive, an AI assistant like Rewind’s has proper productivity-enhancing features. New AI assistants are more useful, albeit a bit moreintimateas well since it’swatching everything you do.

Still, it isn’t a given that Rewind’s AI assistant will beexclusivelyreleased for new AI PCs. It may consume more power, but it could also run on non-AI-PCs. The assistant is also already available for macOS. It uses a small amount of CPU power to function when it’s enabled. Still, I do expect that new AI PCs that are directly designed for this AI-enhanced era of computing will end up having a better experience compared to non-AI PCs with older processors.

According to Intel, the new AI PCs enabled with Intel Core Ultra are much better at AI application performance benchmarks. Many things were tested here including AI-assisted content creation, generative AI, and AI generation of audio in Audacity. Check out how the new AI PCs with the latest processors fare against the older generation:

Several content creation applications like WonderShare Filmora, Adobe Premier Pro, Davinci Resolve, and Adobe Lightroom can be seen above to perform better on an AI PC with a Core Ultra processor whilst using the latest AI-enhanced features within these apps.

A large part of this gain is also because of theGPU. The graphics card of your PC is a commonly used system component to accelerate AI apart from the NPU. But, there are also AI workloads in which the GPU, CPU, and NPU all work together.

For AI-enhanced audio editing, Intel has shown that with Audacity’s latest addition of OpenVINO plugins, many wild things are possible. The demo linked below shows a musician being able to effectively create text-to-music on the latest AI PC.

Overall, AI will be a major focus in the industry moving forward. Let’s say you are excited to use everything related to AI. Maybe, your work can benefit from currently released AI features, as described above. Given those conditions are met, it can surely be beneficial for you to get a new AI PC!

To be honest, the new generation of processors also hasn’t provided us with anymajorperformance gains either. This aspect is what excites me the most (and many others) about anewprocessor generation. But this time around, the focus was more on AI and improved power efficiency, rather than heavily pushing theperformance ceiling.

With that said future upcoming processors such as IntelLunar Lake & Arrow Lakehave already been teased. AMD will also be cooking up something exciting under the wraps, such asZen 5processor architecture. Overall, I expect some big performance gains. Even more AI-centric enhancements will be brought in future generations. At that point, the feature set of an ‘AI PC’ will haveevolved heavily. This will make an AI PC a better purchasein the futurerather than in the present.

For now, while the AI PC ecosystem is exciting, it is also maturing slowly. So, there is no need to feel a rush to buy an AI PC. This is quite true if your current work cannot benefit from existing technologies.

Highly passionate about technology. Major expertise in PC hardware, the VR industry, esports-centric gear, and other gadgets. In my spare time, I’m usually researching exciting hardware breakthroughs or playing competitive games.