CPU and GPU are two components of a computer and some of you are curious about CPU vs GPU – what they are & what’s the difference between them. In this post, you can know much information on them from this post written by MiniTool and some related knowledge is also described here.
What Are GPU and CPU?
On the computer, there are many components. Among them, GPU and CPU are two crucial parts. In this part, we will show you what they are.
What Does GPU Stand for?
The graphics processing unit, short for GPU, is also called a video card or graphics card. It is a specialized type of microprocessor and it is designed to display graphics and perform very specific tasks on the computer.
To put it simply, a GPU is a single-chip processor that is used mainly to manage and enhance the performance of the video and graphics. It can run at a lower clock speed than a CPU but has many times the processing cores’ number.
The obvious merit of a GPU is quick image rendering since it does simple mathematical operations over and over again. A GPU has thousands of processing cores running at the same time. Although each core is slower, it is especially efficient for video rendering. With the massive parallelism, GPUs is able to render complex 3D graphics required by modern games.
In addition to video rendering, CPU can perform other tasks like certain forms of cryptocurrency mining and password cracking that rely on the same kinds of massive data sets with simple mathematical operations.
What Is CPU
CPU, also known as processor, is made of millions of transistors that can be manipulated to perform various calculations. To all modern computing systems, CPU is essential and it can be the brain of the computer since it can execute the commands and processes that are needed for the operating system and your PC.
CPU interacts with other computer components including memory, input and output for performing instruction. Besides, CPU plays an important role in determining how fast your programs run.
Today, some CPUs have up to 28 cores and each core focuses on a unique task. A multi-core processor is a single chip containing two or more CPU cores. The common is a dual-core processor and quad-core processors are more popular now.
CPU VS GPU: What’s Difference Between GPU and CPU
After knowing the definitions of GPU and CPU, you should know GPU acts as a specialized microprocessor while CPU is the brain of a computer. GPU is good at handling a few specific tasks (repetitive and highly-parallel computing tasks) but CPU is able to handle multiple tasks very fast.
How is CPU different from GPU? Now, let’s see the following table to learn the basic difference between CPU and GPU.
| Basis for Comparison | CPU | GPU |
| Stands for | Central Processing Unit | Graphics Processing Unit |
| Emphasizes on | Low-latency | High throughput |
| Suitable for | Serial instruction processing | Parallel instruction processing |
| Contains | Fewer powerful cores | A large number of weak cores |
| Memory consumption | High | Low |
| Speed | Effective | Higher than the CPU’s |
| Feature | Control logic for out-of-order and speculative executions | Architecture is tolerant of memory latency |
CPU VS GPU Gaming
After seeing the difference between CPU and GPU in tabular form, you may ask: what is more important for PC gaming: CPU or GPU?
Many persons universally think CPU is most important since CPU renders the images, scenes, and animations you see and today’s fast-paced games are demanding for the type of rendering power from GPU.
Actually, CPU and GPU are both important. Some games require both a smart CPU and a powerful GPU. Their significance for PC gaming depends on they will be used for mainly and for which games particularly.
Some first-person shooters (FPS), open sandbox games and multiplayer games are designed to reap advantages of the latest CPUs and their multi-cores and threads. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto V and Fortnite Battle Royale has a requirement for CPU. But these games also ask a lot from the GPU.
As for the specific requirements, you can search for them on the Internet.
Final Words
After learning this post on GPU vs CPU, you know the difference between them and some tips on CPU vs GPU gaming. In short, CPU and CPU hold equal importance, and both are indispensable.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 7 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.