PCs are now ushering in a new phase, and the requirements for PC performance are changing as AI applications become more widespread, and even traditional PCs are beginning to emerge. From all aspects, 2024 will be the year of the rise of AI PCs, when users install their machines, in addition to considering the performance of CPUs, GPUs, and SSDs, the most critical thing is to look at the AI performance of the entire computer.
This shift is of course due to Microsoft's addition of a large number of AI features and AI assistants to its own operating system, Windows 11 has implemented Windows Copilot (AI assistant), and Microsoft will strengthen the AI assistant in the next generation of operating systems, and has higher requirements for the AI performance of the PC. There are signs that Microsoft is working with PC manufacturers to design products with performance exceeding 40 tops to meet the AI performance requirements of next-generation operating systems.
Microsoft cooperates with manufacturers, apparently to launch OEM products, as for what processors and graphics cards are not yet known, but it is certain that the AI computing power of the hardware is the most critical part. Microsoft is going to set the rules on its own, apparently setting a new standard for AI PCs in the Windows ecosystem. In the future, when hardware manufacturers launch products, whether it is CPU or GPU, it is estimated that AI computing power will have to be considered as an important criterion.
From the perspective of traditional PC manufacturers, AMD is undoubtedly at the forefront, and it is far ahead in AI processors. AMD's latest next-generation mobile processors, Ryzen 8040 series NPU AI performance and computing power have increased from 10 tops to 16 tops, an increase of 60 percent, and the overall computing power has increased from 33 tops to 39tops. In addition, even if the CPU does not use Ryzen with NPU, if it is paired with AMD's independent graphics card, it should have a corresponding guarantee in AI computing power.
As for Intel and NVIDIA,It's relatively a bit biased,NVIDIA's GPU should have no problem in the AI part,Driver updates plus hardware support,It should be welcomed by many manufacturers,But NVIDIA doesn't have its own processor products;Although Intel has a processor, the AI performance seems to be a bit behind AMD, and it is still more biased towards the traditional processor solution. These two vendors may improve the AI performance of Microsoft's operating system, but in terms of solutions, they are not as complete as AMD.
As for the non-x86 processor manufacturers, Qualcomm and Apple are ahead in AI performance, and Qualcomm's Hexagon processor unit in the Snapdragon X Elite has reached 45 tops. Apple's M3 chip reaches 18 tops, which is only lower than Qualcomm and AMD, but Apple has a high degree of control over its hardware and software ecosystem, so its AI experience may not be worse than that of Windows computers, and of course this will require Apple to add more AI features to the operating system itself.
Judging from the current **, the total shipments of AI-enabled PCs will achieve a market share of about 19% in 2024By 2027, 60% of PCs will be AI-capable. OEMs, processor manufacturers, and operating system vendors will launch a large number of new AI-enabled models in 2024, which may allow the PC market to find new growth points.
However, the situation in China is another matter, although these AI chips will not be controlled, but because the operating system and AI applications cannot be implemented in China, including Microsoft's AI assistant, Google's Bard and Open AI's ChatGPT, etc., can not be used normally in China, so in the future, domestic PCs will lag behind in AI applications, and may only rely on some domestic AI applications to support, but it is obviously far inferior to overseas. At present, domestic manufacturers are no longer able to obtain high-performance AI chips, and domestic users may be much behind overseas AI applications on operating systems such as Windows in the future. What can I say?......Alas!