Get ready for a new level of intelligence in your gaming laptop. NVIDIA and AMD are joining forces to bring Microsoft’s Copilot Plus, a suite of AI-powered features, to upcoming machines. This announcement comes hot on the heels of Microsoft unveiling Copilot Plus for Qualcomm-powered devices, and it signifies a significant shift in the capabilities of gaming laptops.

The new wave of laptops, dubbed “RTX AI PCs” by NVIDIA, will be spearheaded by Asus and MSI. These machines will boast powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards and efficient AMD Strix CPUs, all optimized for Windows 11 with built-in AI capabilities. While AMD hasn’t officially revealed details about their Strix CPUs yet, their unveiling is likely imminent.

There’s a slight caveat, however. NVIDIA’s wording suggests that the initial launch of these RTX AI PCs might not include the full suite of Copilot Plus features. Their blog post mentions these laptops will receive a “free update to Copilot+ PC experiences when available.” This could indicate two things: either Microsoft’s AI features like Recall aren’t yet compatible with AMD chips, or there might be a temporary exclusivity period for Windows on Arm devices launching on June 18th.

This news also highlights a brewing battle between NVIDIA and the rise of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for handling AI tasks on laptops. While Microsoft is looking towards NPUs for offloading AI models, NVIDIA is determined to prove the power of their Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in this arena. They’re confident their RTX GPUs can handle heavier AI workloads compared to NPUs, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

In June, NVIDIA plans to launch an RTX AI Toolkit specifically designed for developers. This toolkit will provide tools and software development kits (SDKs) to customize, optimize, and deploy AI models. Imagine taking a complex model like Meta’s Llama 2 and making it run significantly faster with less memory usage – that’s the kind of power the RTX AI Toolkit promises.

NVIDIA is also working closely with Microsoft on the underlying AI models integrated into Windows 11. This partnership aims to provide developers with easy access to application programming interfaces (APIs) that unlock the potential of these GPU-accelerated AI features. With Microsoft’s Windows Copilot Runtime at the core, developers can seamlessly add AI functionalities to their applications.

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Speaking of Windows Copilot Runtime, Microsoft unveiled it at their Build conference last month. NVIDIA plans to release a developer preview later this year showcasing how their RTX GPUs can accelerate AI models within this framework. Windows Copilot Runtime is designed to simplify the process for developers to integrate AI features into their apps, leveraging either NPU hardware or, soon, NVIDIA GPUs.

Here’s where things get interesting: currently, NPUs offer performance around 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second) for AI acceleration. In stark contrast, NVIDIA’s PC GPUs can handle over 1,000 TOPS. This significant difference presents developers with a crucial choice. NPUs are ideal for smaller models and prioritize power efficiency in laptops, while GPUs excel at handling larger models with superior performance – perfect for non-portable desktops where battery life isn’t a concern.

The upcoming battle for AI dominance on PCs will be fascinating to watch. Microsoft holds the key to unlocking these AI experiences natively within Windows, impacting not just NVIDIA and AMD but also Intel, Qualcomm, and countless original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who rely on their operating system.

This article was originally published on June 2, 2024, at 9 am ET.