Desktop AI Boost software trails its laptop counterpart, so does the Core Ultra 7 265's 33 TOPS end up underused?

  Expect less mileage on a desktop. The AI Boost ecosystem draws far fewer Windows apps than its laptop counterpart, so the 33 TOPS sits idle most of the day while iGPU and NPU lanes absorb the light always-on chores. The 20 cores are left with short INT8 quantized runs, where 5.3GHz turbo keeps single jobs snappy but sustained throughput stays out of reach.

  Buy it as a 20-thread desktop that can dip into ONNX small models when needed. Buying it for the AI badge funds a part that rarely turns. Fill dual-channel DDR5 toward the 256GB ceiling before you shop for anything else, because CPU inference is fed by memory, not by TOPS stickers.