diff --git a/bypy/windows/__main__.py b/bypy/windows/__main__.py
index 8ae57e86ec..76785f5bc6 100644
--- a/bypy/windows/__main__.py
+++ b/bypy/windows/__main__.py
@@ -137,7 +137,10 @@ def freeze(env, ext_dir, incdir):
     # piper
     for x in ('espeak-ng-data',):
         shutil.copytree(os.path.join(PREFIX, 'share', x), os.path.join(env.share_dir, x))
-    copybin(os.path.join(libdir, "onnxruntime.dll"))
+    for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(libdir, 'onnxruntime*.dll')):
+        copybin(f)
+    for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(libdir, 'DirectML*.dll')):
+        copybin(f)
 
     for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(bindir, '*.dll')):
         if re.search(r'(easylzma|icutest)', f.lower()) is None:
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/tts/piper.cpp b/src/calibre/utils/tts/piper.cpp
index 357000a3bd..02d73dc77b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/tts/piper.cpp
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/tts/piper.cpp
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <limits>
+#include <chrono>
 #ifdef _WIN32
 #define ORT_DLL_IMPORT
 #endif
@@ -35,6 +36,8 @@
     (45 | CLAUSE_INTONATION_EXCLAMATION | CLAUSE_TYPE_SENTENCE)
 #define CLAUSE_COLON (30 | CLAUSE_INTONATION_FULL_STOP | CLAUSE_TYPE_CLAUSE)
 #define CLAUSE_SEMICOLON (30 | CLAUSE_INTONATION_COMMA | CLAUSE_TYPE_CLAUSE)
+static const bool USE_GPU = false;
+static const bool PRINT_TIMING_INFORMATION = false;
 
 typedef char32_t Phoneme;
 typedef int64_t PhonemeId;
@@ -99,8 +102,25 @@ static std::vector<std::string> available_providers;
 
 static void
 set_available_providers() {
-    if (!available_providers.empty()) return;
-    available_providers = Ort::GetAvailableProviders();
+    static bool providers_set = false;
+    if (providers_set || !USE_GPU) return;
+    providers_set = true;
+    Ort::SessionOptions opts;
+    opts.DisableCpuMemArena();
+    opts.DisableMemPattern();
+    opts.DisableProfiling();
+    Ort::Env ort_env{ORT_LOGGING_LEVEL_WARNING, "piper"};
+    ort_env.DisableTelemetryEvents();
+
+    for (const std::string& s : Ort::GetAvailableProviders()) {
+        if (s == "CPUExecutionProvider") continue;
+        std::unordered_map<std::string, std::string> provider_options;
+        try {
+            opts.AppendExecutionProvider(s, provider_options);
+            available_providers.push_back(s);
+        } catch (const Ort::Exception& e) {
+        }
+    }
     sort_providers_by_priority(available_providers, PRIORITY_ORDER);
 }
 
@@ -182,6 +202,11 @@ phonemize(PyObject *self, PyObject *pytext) {
     return phonemes_and_terminators;
 }
 
+static
+long long now() {
+    return std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::nanoseconds>(std::chrono::steady_clock::now().time_since_epoch()).count();
+}
+
 static PyObject*
 set_voice(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
     PyObject *cfg; PyObject *pymp;
@@ -228,13 +253,19 @@ set_voice(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
 
     // Load onnx model
     Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS;
-    static Ort::SessionOptions opts;
+    Ort::SessionOptions opts;
     opts.DisableCpuMemArena();
     opts.DisableMemPattern();
     opts.DisableProfiling();
     Ort::Env ort_env{ORT_LOGGING_LEVEL_WARNING, "piper"};
     ort_env.DisableTelemetryEvents();
+    for (const auto& p : available_providers) {
+        std::unordered_map<std::string, std::string> provider_options;
+        opts.AppendExecutionProvider(p, provider_options);
+    }
     session.reset();
+    long long st;
+    if (PRINT_TIMING_INFORMATION) st = now();
 #ifdef _WIN32
     wchar_t *model_path = PyUnicode_AsWideCharString(pymp, NULL);
     if (!model_path) return NULL;
@@ -243,6 +274,7 @@ set_voice(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
 #else
     session = std::make_unique<Ort::Session>(Ort::Session(ort_env, PyUnicode_AsUTF8(pymp), opts));
 #endif
+    if (PRINT_TIMING_INFORMATION) { printf("model loading time: %f\n", (now()-st) / 1e9); fflush(stdout); }
     Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS;
 
 
@@ -385,9 +417,12 @@ next(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
 
     // Infer
     Ort::RunOptions ro;
+    long long st;
+    if (PRINT_TIMING_INFORMATION) st = now();
     output_tensors = session->Run(
         ro, input_names.data(), input_tensors.data(),
         input_tensors.size(), output_names.data(), output_names.size());
+    if (PRINT_TIMING_INFORMATION) { printf("model run time: %f\n", (now()-st) / 1e9); fflush(stdout); }
     Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS;
 
     if ((output_tensors.size() != 1) || (!output_tensors.front().IsTensor())) {