For those looking into some insight around the Intel neural processing unit (NPU) utilization with modern Core Ultra systems, pending Linux patches will finally introduce the ability for user-space to obtain the current NPU frequency.

A set of patches posted on Tuesday fir the Intel IVPU accelerator kernel driver allow for reporting the NPU frequency to user-space. This is wired up for current Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake Core Ultra laptops/systems.

With these patches from Intel, there is a new sysfs "npu_current_frequency_mhz" file for reporting the current NPU frequency in MHz. Additionally, there is a "npu_max_frequency_mhz" sysfs file added for obtaining the maximum frequency capable of the NPU. Thus for Linux users this provides some insight over the current NPU frequency/utilization and whether it's ramped up to its peak frequency or not, etc.

These Intel IVPU kernel driver patches are currently out for review with [1]this patch series . Hopefully these Intel NPU frequency patches will be queued up in time for the Linux v6.16 cycle this summer.



[1] https://lore.kernel.org/dri-devel/20250401155912.4049340-1-maciej.falkowski@linux.intel.com/