AI Accelerators for Machine Vision
Multi-Stream Performance and Developer Experience
by Hot Tech Vision and Analysis (HTVA)
Go to the Metis AIPU Benchmark Page
About This Report
Hot Tech Vision and Analysis (HTVA) conducted an independent evaluation of AI accelerator hardware for multi-stream computer vision workloads. The study compared the Axelera Metis PCIe and M.2 AI Accelerator Cards against NVIDIA GPU solutions and the Hailo-8 M.2 accelerator, testing seven object detection models across 14 simultaneous Full HD 1080p video streams on an x86 Ubuntu 22.04 workstation. HTVA assessed inference throughput, power efficiency, detection accuracy, and developer setup experience across all platforms.
What Was Tested
The test scenario simulated a real-world multi-camera security system — the kind used in retail stores, warehouses, schools, and secure facilities. The following hardware and models were included:
Hardware compared:
- Axelera Metis PCIe AI Accelerator Card and Metis M.2 Inference Acceleration Card
- NVIDIA RTX A4000, RTX A2000 6GB, L4 Tensor Core GPU, and GeForce RTX 3060
- Hailo-8 M.2 AI Accelerator
AI models evaluated:
- SSD MobileNet v1 and v2
- YOLOv5s, YOLOv5m, YOLOv7, YOLOv8s, and YOLOv8l
Key Findings
- Highest throughput: The Metis PCIe card ranked first across all seven models tested, up to 5x faster than CPU-only inference and consistently ahead of all GPU competitors.
- Best energy efficiency: Both Metis cards outperformed all competing devices on Joules per frame in every model tested, with the PCIe card averaging under one Joule per frame in five of seven tests.
- Superior detection accuracy:Axelera accelerators detected more objects with higher confidence scores than NVIDIA GPUs and the Hailo-8, particularly for subjects at distance in the frame.
- Easiest developer experience:The Voyager SDK required only a single script install to get fully operational, including drivers. Competing platforms required 12–32 hours of custom development work to reach the same starting point.
- Best total cost of ownership: When combining hardware price, energy cost, and time to deployment, the Metis M.2 and PCIe cards offered the strongest TCO among all devices evaluated.
Read the Full Report
The complete HTVA report covers detailed per-model benchmark charts, power efficiency graphs, developer setup workflows for each platform, and annotated accuracy screenshots comparing detection output across all tested devices. Download the report to explore the full data.