Microsoft gets fact-checked over Copilot+ PC performance claims in a somewhat embarrassing way

[Skye Jacobs]

The big picture: The story of Copilot+ PCs serves as a reminder of the challenges inherent in introducing new architectures to an established market. While the potential for AI-enhanced computing is undeniable, the path to widespread adoption may be longer and more complex than wishful marketing claims.

Microsoft has been aggressively promoting its Copilot+ PCs since their launch in May. The tech giant's marketing campaign includes a five-second clip declaring these devices are "The fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever." This bold claim has been challenged by users though.

A Community Note attached to a promotional post by Microsoft on X points out that Copilot+ PCs, which exclusively use Snapdragon processors, fall short in raw computing power compared to high-end systems equipped with Intel or AMD chips. This performance gap is especially noticeable in demanding applications and gaming scenarios, where the Arm-based architecture of Snapdragon processors struggles with compatibility issues.

The fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever

– Windows (@Windows) November 7, 2024

Despite ambitious forecasts from manufacturers like Qualcomm, suggesting that Arm PCs could capture 50 percent of the Windows PC market within five years, current market data paints a different picture. In the third quarter of 2024, the first full quarter of Copilot+ PC availability, sales of these devices represented only a fraction of overall laptop shipments, according to Mercury Research data.

Research firms have been hesitant to provide specific figures for Copilot+ PC sales, instead grouping them with other AI PC laptops featuring Intel Core Ultra 200V and AMD Ryzen AI 300 chips. Even this broader category accounted for less than 10 percent of total shipments.

The push for Arm processors in PCs gained momentum following Apple's successful integration of M-series chips into MacBooks in 2020. The primary selling point has been exceptional energy efficiency, with Snapdragon X-powered PCs promising battery life measured in days rather than hours.

However, in the years and months it's taken Qualcomm and Microsoft to put together the "AI PC," Intel and AMD have significantly closed the gap in battery performance with their x86 processors. Recent reviews suggest that the latest offerings from the traditional PC chipmakers now achieve battery life comparable to their Arm-based counterparts.

The most significant hurdle for Copilot+ PCs based on the Arm architecture are compatibility issues with many productivity applications and games (or slower performance due to a necessary emulation layer). Furthermore, some of the advanced AI features touted by Microsoft, such as the controversial Windows Recall, are not yet available on Copilot+ PCs. The company cites ongoing privacy and security concerns as reasons for the delay, but ultimately it means that early adopters don't have access to the full suite of promised capabilities.

Surely there's still an audience for Copilot+ PCs. For those focused primarily on basic productivity tasks and web-based applications, the devices can present a compelling package, even if you don't have much use for the NPU. However, for users requiring maximum performance or broad software compatibility, traditional x86-based systems from Intel and AMD continue to hold the advantage. While innovative in some respects, the current generation of Copilot+ PCs fall short of the revolutionary promise suggested by Microsoft's marketing.

Permalink to story:

Microsoft gets fact-checked over Copilot+ PC performance claims in a somewhat embarrassing way

 

[NumberNine]

No one wants the overpriced systems designed specifically from the hardware level to collect as much data as possible on your computing habits because they can't run real software? Imagine that.

 

[Dimitriid]

The more interesting story is that a community note on Elon's X is actually fact checking something when overwhelmingly, it's usually only there to *promote* right-wing biased misinformation.

Still that's something maybe Bluesky outta try to do, given just how many people are migrating over soon enough most companies will have to as well.

As for the story well, this should surprise nobody: Even on Linux when they have native, compiled-for-arm applications for many years being on an ARM device it's still not ideal, Windows with a compatibility layer in between stands no chance: Only reason it worked somehow ok for Apple and Valve it's cause their primary showcase apps for it are usually GPU bound instead so the hit to CPU really doesn't matters all that much.

We all know Microsoft was never going to be serious about implementing ARM just like the many times it failed before, they just rarely bothered to lie about it: they know their consumer market days might be numbered if ARM takes hold on Linux and somebody makes it fool-proof without gimping it as much as Google did with Chrome OS.

 

[Achaios]

"on basic productivity tasks and web-based applications"

I can do that with a Pentium 4 laptop. It can run Office 2003 and Firefox, all you need for "basic productivity" and "web based applications".

 

[Demote6060]

Microsoft has a trust issue. Pushing a product that only invades user privacy more is not going to sell machines. They also have not shown a great benefit to these "AI PCs", which come with a ton of downsides.

Apple was able to make ARM happen because they control much more of their product. They make the operating system, so they are able to ensure everything they make is ARM native and introduce a good conversion layer for x86 applications. They also have the benefit that their M1 chip was miles ahead of the Intel chip that it was replacing, driving demand further. Windows was able to somewhat handle the first one, but the Snapdragon chips aren't faster than the existing chips from AMD/Intel.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

It's sad that the author calls out Microsoft's marketing for saying almost as good performance is equivalent then does the exact same thing for battery life for Intel and AMD (embarrassing). Sorry, Skye, but they're not the longest-lasting PCs ever.

ARM PCs could capture a huge market share in the next 5 years because all CPUs are now fast enough for 95% of consumers, so battery life makes a bigger difference to a non-power user. (Misunderstanding the current sales data notwithstanding)

 

[hwertz]

I've used an ARM system with Linux, and it was QUITE good. I'm honestly tempted to wait until someone gets sick of their CoPilot+ PC and wants to unload it at a good price... when I used an Acer Chromebook with a Tegra K1, the quad-core CPU was nice and quick, the 22 hour battery life was crazy (and 11 hours under *full* CPU load.. it could run video encodes faster than my admittedly old at the time desktop could, so I had the chromebook running video encodes sometimes.), And even then (like 5+ years ago) the only program I ran that was non-native was a Samsung printer driver that was supplied as a binary blob. An ARM Linux distro has almost everything avaialble, and since Raspberry Pi is ARM almost any odd thing that isn't already with the distro one can find a Pi build for it and run that. Full Linux desktop, everything worked, full drivers so I could plug in even some weird USB device and it worked, really using it there was no way to tell it wasn't a conventional x86 system, other than the insanely high battery life.

Now, box86 and box64 (in contrast to people's complaints of compatibiity problems in Windows) are apparently good enough to even run Cyberpunk 2077 and the like (and the Qualcomm Ardreno GPU and the Linux driver for it are also up to the task). So I'd be running native apps except emulating to run games.

Given the battery life on these things, it sounds like I'd be able to game (even if it takes a 50% battery life hit) still with higher battery life than I'd have with a typical Intel *or* AMD system (other than some wheezy "all E-Core" type of chip... which would still not equal the ARM on battery life but at least get closer, while not having the performance.) And the rest of the time I can enjoy that nice, high battery life.