Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake series processors are coming. That’s a fact. But we don’t know much just yet. But there’s one thing Team Blue showed off over at COMPUTEX 2023 and that’s the integrated AI accelerator called the VPU, or Visual Processing Unit.
The core idea of this thing is to do what Intel is good at for years – making dedicated hardware for specific things for maximized efficiency with the VPU taking that task up in AI context such as machine learning, generative AI, stable diffusion – all these kind of things.
One key advantage of this is improved processing speed and load times since everything is being done locally.
That being said, Intel did mention that Meteor Lake CPUs will come with Arc-integrated GPUs that will work in tandem with the VPU so yeah, the VPU is not your pit stop for smart algorithms pumping inputs for some results but rather, an assistant in performing those tasks.
My video editor job basically checked all the boxes when it comes to the range of improvements the VPU could bring to the table. Premiere Pro, for example, uses GPU acceleration. Quoting official statements, Adobe did try out the Intel VPU in auto-reframe and scene edit detections, and as expected, the VPU came ahead both in performance and power efficiency.
We did ask for a rough estimate of performance improvements but Intel is kind of tight-lipped on this one so TBA it is, folks.
Part of the reason why Adobe can iron out the VPU integration on such short notice can be attributed to the collaboration between Intel and Microsoft developing what is called DirectML – a library focusing on machine learning-related instructions built on DirectX12.
With this, developers can quickly dive into the scene and start learning and harnessing the VPU without requiring too high of technical skills.
VPU power seems to scale according to SKUs as well with the Core i9s taking the lead so maybe there’s a reason to finally drop the big fat stack for the hottest (literally) CPU in town?
In any case, I really do look forward to the Intel Meteor Lake release since I wanna see how well the VPU could take my productivity to the next level especially running off the internal battery of a laptop.
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
