Track Your AI Power: AMD NPU Monitoring Arrives in Windows Task Manager
AMD's XDNA and XDNA2 AI NPUs will soon be monitored by Windows Task Manager, allowing users to track their utilization and improve software development and device optimization.
Summary
- AMD is working with Microsoft to add monitoring support for its XDNA/XDNA2 AI NPUs to Windows Task Manager.
- This follows Intel's already existing NPU monitoring in Task Manager.
- An exact release date is unknown, but it's likely to be integrated with the next AI-focused Windows 11 update (24H2).
- AMD will use Microsoft's Compute Driver Model (MCDM) for NPU monitoring, similar to how GPUs are monitored.
- MCDM also enables Windows to manage power and scheduling of the NPU.
- Task Manager will show NPU compute and copy utilization, as well as memory usage.
- Initial NPUs lack dedicated memory and share system RAM, but future iterations might have it.
- AMD believes NPU monitoring will benefit software development and user experience through better optimization like maximizing battery life.
- NPUs offer advantages like local AI processing without relying on the cloud, improving privacy and speed, especially in areas with poor internet connectivity.
- AMD's XDNA2 is three times faster than the first-gen XDNA and is present in Ryzen 8040 series mobile CPUs.
- Desktop Ryzen 8000G APUs also have NPUs but use the older XDNA architecture.