GPU stands for graphics processing unit. You’ll additionally see GPUs generally known as graphics playing cards or video playing cards. Each PC makes use of a GPU to render photographs, video and 2D or 3D animations for show. A GPU performs fast math calculations and frees up the CPU to do different issues. Whereas a CPU makes use of a couple of cores centered on sequential serial processing, a GPU has 1000’s of smaller cores made for multi-tasking.
There are two various kinds of GPUs:
- Built-in GPUs are situated on a PC’s CPU and share reminiscence with the CPU’s processor.
- Discrete GPUs dwell on their very own card and have their very own video reminiscence (VRAM), in order that the PC doesn’t have to make use of its RAM for graphics.
Backside line: For finest efficiency, go for a discrete GPU.
Many graphics playing cards right this moment run on GDDR SDRAM, which stands for graphics double knowledge charge synchronous dynamic random entry reminiscence. Additional variations, from worst to finest efficiency, are: GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR5, GDDR5X, GDDR6 and GDDR6X.
This text is a part of the Tom’s {Hardware} Glossary.
Additional studying: