> seeing intel and AMD include this sort of useless thing is anger inducing. I am paying for this.
So don't pay for it. No one is making you. Wait for a model that doesn't have an NPU, or buy an older model that doesn't. It's not like it won't still be fast enough.
How many years from now? There isn't any high end CPU in laptops without those useless things now.
> buy an older model that doesn't
I don't think you've ever shopped for laptops, or you're lucky and live in a country that is particularly plentiful for choices in PCs. Looking for the specific combination of having 32gb of ram, 1tb of SSD, an AMD CPU (with Intel's current manufacturing woes I was not willing to gamble), an NVIDIA GPU with a minimum of 8 gb of vram took far more efforts than I am normally to spend doing activities like shopping. And now you tell me "do all that while looking for a model that predates NPUs"?
Of course I could order online from god knows where but I like buying from retailers that are known to honor their warranty well and good since there's always the possibility of buying lemons and I don't feel like wasting time shipping crap myself when I could just exchange it in place if it happened.
Entirely up to you. Point is, vote with your money.
> There isn't any high end CPU in laptops without those useless things now.
Even not considering processors from Intel/AMD?
> I don't think you've ever shopped for laptops,
I've purchased 6 in my life.
> Looking for the specific combination of having 32gb of ram, 1tb of SSD, an AMD CPU (with Intel's current manufacturing woes I was not willing to gamble), an NVIDIA GPU with a minimum of 8 gb of vram took far more efforts than I am normally to spend doing activities like shopping.
So be less picky or find a laptop that lets up upgrade the parts.
> I don't feel like wasting time shipping crap myself when I could just exchange it in place if it happened.
Fine, but this is a compromise you are willing to make, just like paying for the NPU. That's my point.
So don't pay for it. No one is making you. Wait for a model that doesn't have an NPU, or buy an older model that doesn't. It's not like it won't still be fast enough.