Microsoft’s latest Windows AI features arrived first on new Copilot Plus PCs last year, but they were limited to a special range of laptops. That looks set to change thanks to Intel refreshing its existing Arrow Lake desktop CPUs later this year, that might just deliver Copilot Plus PC features in desktop PC form factors for the first time.
Intel’s latest Core Ultra desktop CPUs launched in October with an NPU inside, but it wasn’t capable enough to hit the 40 TOPS requirement that Microsoft mandates for Copilot Plus features. ZDNet Korea reports that Intel is now preparing an Arrow Lake Refresh that will include higher clock speeds and a more advanced NPU that should be capable of Copilot Plus features.
The new NPU design will reportedly move the refreshed Core Ultra 200 lineup to a newer “NPU 4” design, the same NPU architecture found on Intel’s Lunar Lake laptop CPUs that got Copilot Plus AI features in November. This would allow for true desktop PCs with a capable NPU, instead of Copilot Plus only being available on mini PCs and all-in-one PCs that use laptop processors.
It sounds like a newer NPU will be the main part of Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh, as it will reportedly not include addition CPU or GPU cores over the existing Core Ultra 200 chips. More space on the chip for NPU features will disappoint gamers who have been waiting for Intel to be more competitive in the desktop CPU space, though.
The first Arrow Lake chips ran more efficiently and cooler, but the PC gaming performance was disappointing and often behind Intel’s previous Raptor Lake CPUs. Intel admitted that its Arrow Lake launch “didn’t go as planned,” but a series of BIOS updates have done little to change the gaming performance situation. It now looks unlikely that Intel will compete with AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D and 9950X3D chips in gaming performance until its next generation Nova Lake CPUs launch in 2026.
