Many people have seen the abbreviation GPU, but not everyone knows what it is. This component, which is part of video cards. Sometimes it is called a video card, but this is not correct. The GPU is busy processing commands that form a three-dimensional image. This is the main element on whose power depends performance the entire video system.
Eat several types such chips - discrete And built-in. Of course, it’s worth mentioning right away that the first one is better. It is placed on separate modules. It is powerful and requires good cooling. The second one is installed on almost all computers. It is built into the CPU, making energy consumption several times lower. Of course, it cannot compare with full-fledged discrete chips, but at the moment it shows quite good results.
How the processor works
GPU is engaged processing 2D and 3D graphics. Thanks to the GPU, the computer's CPU is freer and can perform more important tasks. The main feature of the GPU is that it tries as much as possible increase a speed calculation of graphic information. The chip architecture allows for greater efficiency process graphic information rather than the central CPU of a PC.
GPU installs location three-dimensional models in the frame. Engaged in filtering triangles included in them, determines which ones are visible, and cuts off those that are hidden by other objects.
The motherboard contains many important components of the computer, which have their own unique names: CPU, GPU, HDD, SSD, RAM, and so on. Each of these abbreviations has its own meaning, but at the moment what matters is what is it - GPU?
There is a similar name to this term - it is CPU. Many inexperienced users confuse these names, which is incorrect. To begin with, it is worth explaining that the CPU is the central processing unit, which is the brain of the entire system. This abbreviation stands for Central Processor Unit.
However, it is worth knowing that a GPU is also a processor, only a graphics solution. Its task is to process and display images on the screen. The full name of the abbreviation looks like this - Graphic Processing Unit.
With these explanations, you can understand that the GPU is not a central processing unit that only processes graphics-type data. It obeys the protocols of the central processor and, unlike it, has its own logical device. Just like the main processor, the graphics processor has cores, only there are not tens of them, but thousands. Such a large number of cores is necessary to receive and process data associated with rendering and temporary multiple tasks.
Now that we already have a general idea that the GPU is a graphics processor and its task is to process graphic data, we can proceed to the enumeration.
At the moment, there are two types of integrated graphics processors - those integrated into the motherboard and those integrated into the processor.
In the first version, the graphics processor chip is soldered directly onto the motherboard PCB, and few people know that it is a GPU. It looks like an ordinary black chip, on which there is a brand name, a serial number and a combination of numbers that indicates some parameters. Since such graphic solutions do not have their own memory capacity, they borrow this parameter from RAM, using its capacity.
In the case of a chip built into the processor, it is difficult to see; this can only be done by disassembling the central processor itself. Almost all new generation processors have an additional core, which is called a graphics core. At the same time, the price of the processor does not increase much, but it eliminates the need for a discrete video card.
Built-in graphics processors allow you to save on energy consumption by several tens of percent, which has a positive effect on heat transfer. However, there are also significant disadvantages, and one of them is low performance. Such economical graphics are well suited for working with office programs and applications that do not require large amounts of power.
GPU in a computer - what is it and how to identify it? If previously two types of graphics processors were presented in an integrated form, then you can then consider the option of a discrete video card. Based on this, you can understand that GPU is just a designation for a processor, one of the parts of which is a video card. However, this detail is the most important. The video card board also contains memory chips, capacitors, a connector or connectors for power, a protective casing, a radiator and a cooler.
The difference between an integrated and a discrete video card is that the second one is much more powerful and productive than the built-in version. Firstly, it has its own amount of memory, which directly affects the speed of drawing objects. Secondly, its parameters include an expansion bus, the bit depth of which allows you to increase the throughput for data transfer.
Such graphics adapters require additional power to simply start up and produce high-quality images. Despite all the power, there are also office options for discrete video cards, which are not much different from their integrated counterparts. Gaming options are more powerful in structure and potential, but consume much more energy.
Temperature
For better functioning, you need to know what the GPU in the computer is and its temperature. How to cool the integrated and discrete GPU? To cool the integrated GPU, you just need to place fans in the case, and discrete options have their own cooling system. Depending on how many fans are placed above the chip will tell you how well the chip is cooled.
The cooling system of the video card is quite simple - the chip, with the help of thermal paste applied to it, comes into contact with the heat sink tubes, they go to the radiator, which is cooled using a cooler.
The operating temperature of the chip is no more than 70 degrees; a further increase in temperature can be considered overheating. To prevent the video card from overheating, it is enough to promptly clean the video card from dust and change the thermal paste. In order to find out the current state of the temperature in the video card, just run the appropriate programs, for example, AIDA 64. There you can see the temperature of not only the graphics adapter, but the entire system.
You have decided to buy a computer. Walk along the shopping aisles, look at the price tags, get acquainted with the characteristics. And the question arises: what is a GPU? Often you see this combination of letters, but you don’t see the meaning. Let's try to explain.
GPU - what is it and how is it different from the CPU?
GPU stands for "graphics processing unit", or graphics processor. It is a separate device for a game console, computer, or camera. Responsible for graphics rendering and performs it. The GPU copes with this task remarkably well, due to the pipeline architecture specially designed for these purposes. Modern GPUs process graphics much better than their classic central processing units (CPUs).
Currently, the GPU is used as a 3D graphics accelerator, but in exceptional cases it can be used for computing. The difference between a GPU and a CPU is as follows:
- architecture: it is aimed at the maximum at high speed of calculation of complex graphic objects and textures;
- relatively low command set.
The colossal computing power is explained precisely by the features of the architecture. Along with modern CPUs containing several cores (2/4/8, which was already considered a breakthrough), the GPU was originally developed as a multi-core structure. The number of cores here is in the hundreds!
The difference in architecture also explains the difference in operating principle. If the CPU architecture is designed for sequential data processing, then the GPU was originally designed to work with computer graphics, and therefore is designed for massive but parallel calculations.
Each of these architectures has its own advantages. The CPU is much better at sequential tasks. For huge volumes of processed information, the GPU has an advantage. The main condition is that the task must maintain parallelism.
You now know a lot about GPUs, what a GPU is, and you can even tell your friends.
CPUs and GPUs are very similar; they are both made of hundreds of millions of transistors and can process thousands of operations per second. But what exactly is the difference between these two important components of any home computer?
In this article we will try to explain in a very simple and accessible way what is the difference between a CPU and a GPU. But first we need to look at these two processors separately.
The CPU (Central Processing Unit or Central Processing Unit) is often called the “brain” of the computer. Inside the central processor there are about a million transistors, with the help of which various calculations are performed. Home computers typically have processors that have 1 to 4 cores with clock speeds of approximately 1 GHz to 4 GHz.
The processor is powerful because it can do everything. A computer is capable of performing a task because the processor is capable of performing that task. Programmers have been able to achieve this thanks to the wide instruction sets and huge lists of functions shared in modern central processing units.
What is GPU?
A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit or Graphics Processing Unit) is a specialized type of microprocessor optimized for very specific computing and graphics display. The GPU runs at a lower clock speed than the CPU, but has many more processing cores.
You can also say that a GPU is a specialized CPU made for one specific purpose - video rendering. During rendering, the GPU performs simple mathematical calculations a huge number of times. The GPU has thousands of cores that will run simultaneously. While each GPU core is slower than a CPU core, it is still more efficient at performing simple math calculations needed to display graphics. This massive parallelism is what makes the GPU capable of rendering the complex 3D graphics required by modern games.
Difference between CPU and GPU
The GPU can only do a fraction of the things a CPU can do, but it does it at incredible speeds. The GPU will use hundreds of cores to perform urgent calculations on thousands of pixels while rendering complex 3D graphics. But to achieve high speeds, the GPU must perform monotonous operations.
Take, for example, Nvidia GTX 1080. This video card has 2560 shader cores. Thanks to these cores, the Nvidia GTX 1080 can execute 2,560 instructions or operations in one clock cycle. If you want to make the picture 1% brighter, the GPU can handle it without much difficulty. But the quad-core Intel Core i5 central processor can only execute 4 instructions in one clock cycle.
However, CPUs are more flexible than GPUs. Central processing units have a larger instruction set so they can perform a wider range of functions. CPUs also operate at higher maximum clock speeds and have the ability to control the input and output of computer components. For example, the central processing unit can be integrated with virtual memory, which is necessary to run a modern operating system. This is exactly what the GPU cannot do.
GPU Computing
Even though GPUs are designed for rendering, they are capable of more. Graphics processing is only a type of repetitive parallel computation. Other tasks, such as Bitcoin mining and password cracking, rely on the same kinds of massive data sets and simple mathematical calculations. This is why some users use video cards for non-graphical operations. This phenomenon is called GPU Computation or GPU computing.
conclusions
In this article we compared CPU and GPU. I think it has become clear to everyone that GPUs and CPUs have similar goals, but are optimized for different calculations. Write your opinion in the comments, I will try to answer.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is an electronic device designed to build and process 2D or 3D images and then display them on the screen. GPUs are widely used in desktop computer systems, mobile phones, servers and game consoles.
Application of GPUModern graphics chips are installed on computer video card boards or integrated into motherboards in order to save space occupied by the computer.
GPUs can efficiently process computer graphics, making them the most used type of chip for displaying graphics information on the screen. The term GPU was first used in 1999 by Nvidia at the presentation of the GeForce 256 video card, which at that time was the company's most powerful board. The model's processor could process about 10 million graphic polygons per second. Functions The GPU consists of special transistors, most of which are used for processing three-dimensional images. Initially, graphics processors were created to speed up the construction of textures and the speed of processing graphic polygons by computers, but later graphics cores learned to perform geometric calculations, which also accelerated the speed and quality of displaying images. Recent developments in GPUs include enabling support for programmable shaders, technologies to reduce the effects of image aliasing. Also, new GPUs are able to more accurately reproduce colors on the monitor. Modern video cards support streaming video from various sources connected through special interfaces. Types of GPU Graphics cards can be divided into three types: discrete, integrated and hybrid. Discrete video cards are installed in a separate slot on the motherboard of a computer or portable device (laptop) through a special interface (for example, PCI-Express or AGP). This type of GPU has the most powerful performance characteristics due to the special structure of the video module and its power indicators. Also, if necessary, a discrete video card can be easily replaced with a board of a different model. Technologies such as SLI or CrossFire allow multiple video cards to be combined to further improve graphics performance. Embedded GPUs are used in portable devices and have modest computing performance due to the small size of the card, as well as the complexity of their cooling systems and structural features. Hybrid video cards are a new class of adapters that are designed to replace built-in and discrete modules. The new technology is being created to increase the speed of data exchange with system RAM and processor to improve overall graphics performance. A hybrid card can be built into the motherboard, but at the same time work based on PCI-Express discrete video card technology.
