PowerColor is a new technology called “Edge AI” that enables the use of NPUs (Neural Processing Unit) to reduce power consumption in AMD Radeon RX graphics cards. is developing. While an example from Cyberpunk 2077 was given in the company’s promotion, power consumption decreased from 263.2W to 205.3W. This means a significant improvement of 22%. AMD’s power saving mode seems to have improved by 18.5%, and at least according to this table, the results obtained with Edge AI are better.
Figures are also available for Final Fantasy XV and we see a difference of 22.4%. PowerColor states that Edge AI technology works through communication between the graphics card and PowerColor’s own GUI (graphical user interface), adapting to bridge the gap with the NPU. Explains his light. IT MediaAccording to , it was connected externally to the GPU in the test booth at Computex with the NPU turned on. This led us to wonder whether similar NPU power savings could be achieved through an NPU on the CPU, like the Ryzen 8000 series. PowerColor also claimed in the press release that Edge AI On slightly improves performance. At the same time, technical reviewers in the field confirmed a 10% drop in FPS between the more efficient NPU test computer and the standard GPU.
NPUs entered our lives very quickly and it looks like they are here to stay. Artificial intelligence work aside, contributing to game performance will also be a great gain for players. Chip manufacturers, including Intel, AMD and Qualcomm, have started to ship their new generation chips with artificial intelligence units, which we call NPU.
NPUs can do wonders for mobile applications. AI calculations are extremely processor intensive. That’s why built-in AI accelerators are being adapted to laptops that need high efficiency to preserve battery life. The desktop market has less need for NPUs; However, desktop computers are often powered by external graphics cards, which can deliver AI calculations with more power but less efficiency than NPUs.
