# What Is an NPU Actually For? CPU vs GPU vs NPU in Frigate

DevFeed: [What Is an NPU Actually For? CPU vs GPU vs NPU in Frigate](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/what-is-an-npu-actually-for-cpu-vs-gpu-vs-npu-in-frigate-10577.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://technotim.com/posts/intel-npu-frigate/>)

Author: Techno Tim

Published: 2026-08-22T13:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Techno Tim](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/techno-tim.md>)

Topics: [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>), [object-detection](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/object-detection.md>), [GPU](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gpu.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/real-time.md>), [benchmarking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/benchmarking.md>), [Benchmark](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/benchmark.md>), [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [Inference](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/inference.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/intel.md>), [Latency](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/latency.md>), [cloud-infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud-infrastructure.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [benchmark](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmark.md>), [comparison](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/comparison.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [edge](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/edge.md>), [gpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gpu.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [inference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/inference.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intel.md>), [latency](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/latency.md>), [object-detection](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/object-detection.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/real-time.md>), [video](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/video.md>)

## AI overview

The article compares CPU, integrated GPU, and NPU performance for continuous real-time object detection in Frigate using OpenVINO, four repeatable camera streams, and the same YOLOv9 model. It finds that the NPU did not replace the GPU but matched the integrated GPU while using less total system power and leaving more GPU capacity available for other work.

## Source excerpt

NPUs are showing up in more computers, but their job is still harder to explain than the CPU or GPU. I know what I use a CPU for. I know what I use a GPU for. The NPU was kind of a mystery to me. To find out where it actually fits, I ran the same real-time object detection workload on the CPU, GPU, and NPU inside the MINISFORUM MS-03. The test used Frigate, OpenVINO, four repeatable camera st...