I'm confused about GPU vs. Graphics Card

Is a GPU or Graphics Card better?

  • Total voters
    44
Viruz said:
For example:

3LqnauAQWOo5OUf1.png
Click to expand...
That not your typical run of the mill GPU.
 
A gpu is the chipset that contains all the elements used for processing computer graphics and display data, before feeding it back to you by displaying it on your monitor. A graphics card is the whole unit, which contains the chipset itself and all its subsystems and ports on a board (called the pcb) as well as the heat sink and fans that are used to dissipate heat and draw air in the chipset respectively to keep it cool and prevent overheating.
 
alabtrosMyster said:
The GPU is the graphical processing unit on the graphics card (or builtin a CPU\system on a chip).

Calling the whole thing a "GPU" is like calling the whole computer a "CPU".... it makes no sense.

Like the AMD RX 580 is the GPU model, but the card is NITRO+ RX 580 8G G5.

A branch is not a tree, a motor is not a car, etc.
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For someone retarded like me, this might be the best explanation so far.
 
Technical a gpu is ON a graphics card.


I think Nvidia pushed the term gpu to popularity but before that the term graphics card was used a lot as well as graphics accelerators.
 
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GPU, the UNIT that processes graphics:
hulk smash GIF


If this unit is integrated in the system (on the board or in the SoC/APU somehow:
angry thor ragnarok GIF
Happy Chris Hemsworth GIF by Marvel Studios


When it's external so it has its own board with all the systems required so it can interface as an add-in system called a Graphics Card:

Captain America Running GIF by Marvel Studios
 
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Plies said:
A GPU is essentially an advanced microcontroller of a system?
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It's the entire chip - but the term was simply a marketing invention.
In 1999 when transition was starting from Graphic Chip = Rasterizer to Graphic Chip = Rasterizer + Geometry acceleration, NVidia came up with idea to call the latter 'GPU' as opposed to traditional accelerator chips that only worked on pixels to differentiate their products from most of competitors that didn't have geometry accelerators yet.

The rest as they say, is history.
 
Fafalada said:
It's the entire chip - but the term was simply a marketing invention.
In 1999 when transition was starting from Graphic Chip = Rasterizer to Graphic Chip = Rasterizer + Geometry acceleration, NVidia came up with idea to call the latter 'GPU' as opposed to traditional accelerator chips that only worked on pixels to differentiate their products from most of competitors that didn't have geometry accelerators yet.

The rest as they say, is history.
Click to expand...

Actually, while Nvidia likes to claim they invented the "GPU" because the tech in it as you say, was quite different than anything back then, the 1999 Geforce 256 "the world's first GPU", the first use of the term GPU for graphics processing unit was first done by Sony in 1994 for Playstation's Toshiba GPU.
 
GPU is outdated tech. You need Integrated Graphics Processors to play even basic games these days. Don't let GAF trick you.
 
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