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Your GeForce PC can run Copilot Plus features, but here's why it doesn't
- NVIDIA has claimed that its GPUs can technically run Microsoft’s Copilot Plus features.
- However, a representative acknowledged that an NPU was better suited to running these features due to better efficiency.
- This isn’t a surprise, especially after a modder got a key Copilot Plus capability running on an old Arm PC.
NVIDIA just made a few announcements on the eve of Computex (including the G-Assist gaming assistant), but those expecting to hear that they can now run Windows Copilot Plus features on their GeForce-toting PC might be disappointed.
NVIDIA representative Jesse Clayton acknowledged during a media briefing that Copilot Plus features won’t run on Geforce GPUs and will only run on NPUs that meet Microsoft’s specifications.
Clayton outlined the reasoning in response to an Android Authority question:
With respect to the Copilot Plus features, you kind of want those running on an NPU. A GPU would be capable of doing it. But you kind of want them running on the NPU, because you hear Microsoft talking about Copilot Plus as a bunch of always-on models, and for battery life you kind of want those running on this lightweight, power-efficient platform (NPU).
“As of today RTX GPUs can’t run local sessions of Copilot Plus. Ultimately this is a Microsoft decision for where these AIs run. Like I mentioned, GPUs have the technical capability to run it, but Microsoft is running these on the NPU,” he reiterated in response to another journalist’s question.
In other words, the company reckons that its own GPUs would be overkill for Copilot Plus, at least from a power consumption perspective.
It’s also worth noting that a modder recently got Microsoft’s Recall feature running on an older budget Arm laptop (with a Snapdragon 7c Plus Gen 3 chip), suggesting that some Copilot Plus features don’t even require a cutting-edge NPU at all.