Are these gadgets GPUs or Graphics Cards?

ZodaEX

Supreme [H]ardness
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I've noticed in recent years a lot of folks on here have been calling these parts that I've always known as Graphics Cards or video card, simply GPUs.
Is that really what their name is though? I've always understood that a GPU is specific component, along with many other components that when built together come to form a graphics card.
It reminds me of back in the 80's when my mother would refer to my entire PC tower as a "CPU".
In this same way, isn't a GPU the specialized processor in a graphics card and not the proper name for the entire graphics card it's self? I'd love to hear your opinions/knowledge about this.
 
Well of course you are correct, the GPU is not the entire graphics card, just the main and most important component of the graphics card. If for example you look at the GeForce RTX 3090, the GPU would be the GA102 chip. Obviously there's other important components of the graphics card, such as the vRAM. Yeah, people use the term "GPU" and "graphics card" interchangeably, and overall I don't see a problem with that because the main reason you are buying the graphics card is for the GPU (usually). So if a friend says to me "I bought a new GPU" instead of "I bought a new graphics card" I know what he means. Technically it isn't wrong either, cuz if you bought a new graphics card you did buy a new GPU (and new vRAM and new MOSFETs and new VRMs and whatever the fuck else is on the card's PCB). I do realize it is kinda silly, cuz when you buy an SSD you don't say "I bought some new NAND chips" or "I bought a new SSD controller." But overall I don't think it's a big deal either. Most of the time when I think about a graphics card, I'm mainly thinking about the GPU that's on it. On the other hand, I do have a problem when people refer to a UEFI as a BIOS, or when TV manufacturers used to call LCD HDTVs with LED backlighting "LED TVs."

It reminds me of back in the 80's when my mother would refer to my entire PC tower as a "CPU".
LAWLZ, that would be like referring to an entire car as an engine.
 
It is historically more complex and older people that lived through history were not that out of pace calling a computer a CPU:
Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.
The naming is generic enough:

Graphics processing unit​


That what will be englobed in that unit make it a tiny bit more open than engine vs car type.

And it is a bit of marketing influenced in the past, what was one, ATI called some card VPUs for a while:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati-takes-3d-technology-leadership-radeon-9700,491-3.html
ATi calls it 'VPU' for Visual Processing Unit to distinguish it from the term 'GPU,' which was invented by NVIDIA at the introduction of GeForce256 in 1999.

Now it is quite understood has the actual chip, to the point that a dual GPU video card fully make sense to people or dual CPU computers, but someone that would have grew up in the mainframe taken a room era, called a personnel computer a CPU could have made some sense.
 
It's probably just a colloquialism by way of marketing. Like how some people call vacuum cleaners a hoover. Everyone else is certainly correct about Nvidia being the first place that they read about a GPU. Back in the day I called them 3D Accelerators I remember the magazine ads with that guy holding a gravis controller towards something from Descent and promising to make it play better. I didn't like descent plus it cost more money than I thought I could beg from my parents.
 
Eh, I've heard it all. The computer case called the "CPU", the old 3 1/2" floppy called hard disks, hard disk called memory, CDs called records, etc. Some are inadvertently correct, but didn't follow the mainstream definition.

Technology moves faster than most people do. Including me, you whippersnappers!
 
I still call ground squishers , steam rollers.
The young guys just couldn't understand.
 
The dark truth is that at this point, the words "GPU," "VPU," "3D Accelerator," or even "Graphics Card," are false.

If it was only crypto mining, it'd be one thing, but we are in an era of stable diffusion and CUDA. It would be like calling a car a "chair."
Well, a car has a chair, but it's much more than that, and if that's not taken into account, then you don't know what you're buying.

It's why AMD has such a rough time in this market.
If it was merely benchmarks for games and graphical applications, I'm sure AMD would be doing better. But without CUDA or Nvenc or support for other random abilities, like delivering a good VR experience, DLSS, or high hash-rates, then anyone who is buying JUST a graphics card, and not this "RTX Card" is missing out, as if you had watched all your friends buy new cars, but the one you picked out is just a chair with a seatbelt, and it's just sitting there on the ground.

However, I don't know an alternative name that encompasses all the features and abilities a modern gadget has. =p
 
It's probably just a colloquialism by way of marketing. Like how some people call vacuum cleaners a hoover. Everyone else is certainly correct about Nvidia being the first place that they read about a GPU. Back in the day I called them 3D Accelerators I remember the magazine ads with that guy holding a gravis controller towards something from Descent and promising to make it play better. I didn't like descent plus it cost more money than I thought I could beg from my parents.
Well back in the day they had 2D and 3D accelerators (hardware designed specifically to accelerate the computations involved in rasterizing 2D and 3D shapes). Today the hardware is more fluid and changable, and not specifically designed to accelerate raster graphics rendering. It has a more general use in pre- and post- rasterization as well as other computations ("gpgpu")
 
The whole thing about Nvidia using the term GPU in their marketing got me thinking.

GPU = GeForce processing unit
APU = AMD processing unit
iGPU = Intel processing unit


Haha, do you think that pattern was intended?
 
I'm sure it's just patent shenanigans like how Intel had mmx and AMD had 3Dnow or the difference between a rail based shooting game like lethal enforcer and a guided experience like dead space extraction.
 
The whole thing about Nvidia using the term GPU in their marketing got me thinking.

GPU = GeForce processing unit
APU = AMD processing unit
iGPU = Intel processing unit


Haha, do you think that pattern was intended?
Just remember, there was "life" even before Nvidia. And no, I don't think we need to complicate things even more.
 
LAWLZ, that would be like referring to an entire car as an engine.
Well technically engine refers to the entire drivetrain and it's more accurate to call an entire vehicle an engine(i.e.- Fire Engine) than it is to refer to a motor as an engine but I agree with the rest.
 
And a car has seats in it, not chairs. Unless you're the Beverly Hillbillies :p
 
I've noticed in recent years a lot of folks on here have been calling these parts that I've always known as Graphics Cards or video card, simply GPUs.
Is that really what their name is though? I've always understood that a GPU is specific component, along with many other components that when built together come to form a graphics card.
It reminds me of back in the 80's when my mother would refer to my entire PC tower as a "CPU".
In this same way, isn't a GPU the specialized processor in a graphics card and not the proper name for the entire graphics card it's self? I'd love to hear your opinions/knowledge about this.

It's just what is shortest to type while still getting the point accross. typing on cellphones is hard :p

I have bigger problems with people calling 1440p 2k
 
It's just what is shortest to type while still getting the point accross. typing on cellphones is hard :p

I have bigger problems with people calling 1440p 2k

If you get an Android or iPhone style phone, they both have the option for speech to text input. It enables you to type without ever having to actually type if that makes sense. I use it myself.
 
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Eh, I've heard it all. The computer case called the "CPU", the old 3 1/2" floppy called hard disks, hard disk called memory, CDs called records, etc. Some are inadvertently correct, but didn't follow the mainstream definition.

Technology moves faster than most people do. Including me, you whippersnappers!
You missed out on video game cartridges being called tapes.
 
Thanks for all of the very insightful information on this topic.
My takeaway from this is that Nvidia Graphics Cards are GPUs since Nvidia has named their specific cards as such. But Intel and AMD cards aren't GPUs. Those are simply Video Cards/Graphics Cards.
 
they are all both, the terms are interchangeable. i use video card with non-knowledgably people though, where gpu would just get a blank stare...
 
Thanks for all of the very insightful information on this topic.
My takeaway from this is that Nvidia Graphics Cards are GPUs since Nvidia has named their specific cards as such. But Intel and AMD cards aren't GPUs. Those are simply Video Cards/Graphics Cards.
the terms "GPU" and "graphics card" are used interchangeably to refer to the same thing. GPU is just faster to type and say. stop looking so far into it
 
We used to call them Display or Video cards as that is how you got video out of the computer and to the monitor if there wasn't onboard video.
When I had my Amiga 3000 back in the 90's, I had this graphics card called the Picasso IV. You plugged the Amigas onboard video out to the input on the back of the Picasso card and then the monitor plugged into the output of the Picasso.
I can't remember exactly how it worked, but I think it would pass through onboard display modes straight to the monitor if the Picasso card didn't support it.
I think that was a $600 card back in 1994 when I bought it.
 
GPU is just faster to type and say. stop looking so far into it

Just because it's faster to say doesn't mean that it's what they are called. And just because Linus Tech Tips calls them GPUs doesn't mean it's correct either.
 
Just because it's faster to say doesn't mean that it's what they are called. And just because Linus Tech Tips calls them GPUs doesn't mean it's correct either.
I don't watch Linus. lol. The GPU is the most important part (to most people) of the graphics card - so people often refer to their graphics card as "gpu" for the sake of convenience. Sorry this upsets you because people didn't do it 25 years ago
 
I don't watch Linus. lol. The GPU is the most important part (to most people) of the graphics card - so people often refer to their graphics card as "gpu" for the sake of convenience. Sorry this upsets you because people didn't do it 25 years ago

Oh so you do know what a GPU is. I thought you didn't know at first but you were just trolling me all along. Please go troll in someone else's thread instead of this one. Thanks.
 
GPU = GeForce processing unit
APU = AMD processing unit
iGPU = Intel processing unit
GPU doesn't stand for "GeForce Processing Unit," it stands for "Graphics Processing Unit." And these 3 comparisons don't make sense. An AMD APU is a combination CPU+GPU. And "iGPU" stands for "integrated GPU", which are the parts of Intel CPUs that are capable of handling basic video output tasks. I guess technically AMD APUs are just CPUs with iGPUs too, but I tend to think of the GPU part of APUs as something of a higher class than traditional iGPUs. I don't consider iGPUs to be "real" graphics hardware, but APUs have real graphics hardware (however weak they may be). Although I don't really know what to say about Zen 4 CPUs, because all of those have Radeon graphics built-in too. So does that make them APUs as well?

My takeaway from this is that Nvidia Graphics Cards are GPUs since Nvidia has named their specific cards as such. But Intel and AMD cards aren't GPUs. Those are simply Video Cards/Graphics Cards.
nVidia GeForces, AMD Radeons, and Intel Arc cards are all graphics cards (which are video cards), and they all contain GPUs, which is the main and most important part of the card that handles the rendering of 3D environments, the drawing of frames, and the sending of those frames to the display device (such as a monitor or TV).

The GPU is the most important part (to most people) of the graphics card - so people often refer to their graphics card as "gpu" for the sake of convenience.
Yeah this, pretty much.

You know i still refer to the act of recording a TV show on a DVR as "Taping" it.
I still refer to skipping/seeking forward or backward as "fast-forwarding" or "rewinding" even though those terms don't apply anymore.
 
The whole thing about Nvidia using the term GPU in their marketing got me thinking.

GPU = GeForce processing unit
APU = AMD processing unit
iGPU = Intel processing unit


Haha, do you think that pattern was intended?
That is completely wrong.

GPU = Graphics processing unit, In the 1970s, the term "GPU" originally stood for graphics processor unit and described a programmable processing unit independently working from the CPU and responsible for graphics manipulation and output. Later, in 1994, Sony used the term (now standing for graphics processing unit) in reference to the PlayStation console's Toshiba-designed Sony GPU in 1994. The term was popularized by Nvidia in 1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 as "the world's first GPU". It was presented as a "single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines". Rival ATI Technologies coined the term "visual processing unit" or VPU with the release of the Radeon 9700 in 2002.

APU = AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), formerly known as Fusion, is a series of 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), combining a general-purpose AMD64 central processing unit (CPU) and 3D integrated graphics processing unit (IGPU) on a single die. If you haven't heard of APU technology before, there may be a reason; the term is almost exclusively used by a single manufacturer, AMD. The first generation desktop and laptop APU, codenamed Llano, was announced on 4 January 2011 at the 2011 CES show in Las Vegas and released shortly thereafter. The main difference from an IGPU, is the way the CPU and GPU can transfer information. The chip has the CPU and GPU on the same single die like some intel CPUs but AMD’s APUs support Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) which allow for the CPU and GPU to be on the same bus and thus reducing communication latency.

iGPU is not = Intel processing unit (what happened to the G in iGPU?)
iGPU = Integrated Graphics Processing Unit is where the GPU is included within the CPU. The IGPU works in the same way as a GPU but all the cooling, ports, memory etc are taken from other components. The term comes from the idea that the GPU is integrated with the CPU.
 
We used to call them Display or Video cards as that is how you got video out of the computer and to the monitor if there wasn't onboard video.
I recall display adapter but I always refer to them as video card or graphics card. It's a card, PCB with various chips, that I insert into my PC to display video and graphics. But if someone were to say, "I just got a new GPU," I would automatically think they are referring to a video card, whether right or wrong.
 
Monitor?! What is a "monitor"? What are you monitoring exactly?

No, it's a Visual Display Unit. Your 'Televsion' and mobile phones are also Visual Display Units.
 
Monitor?! What is a "monitor"? What are you monitoring exactly?

No, it's a Visual Display Unit. Your 'Televsion' and mobile phones are also Visual Display Units.
Monitoring PC visual output maybe?

Here is what Wikipedia says, it is long but interesting. You should read the last line at least ;)
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.

The display in modern monitors is typically an LCD with LED backlight, having by the 2010s replaced CCFL backlit LCDs. Before the mid-2000s, most monitors used a CRT. Monitors are connected to the computer via DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C, DVI, VGA, or other proprietary connectors and signals.

Originally, computer monitors were used for data processing while television sets were used for video. From the 1980s onward, computers (and their monitors) have been used for both data processing and video, while televisions have implemented some computer functionality. In the 2000s, the typical display aspect ratio of both televisions and computer monitors has changed from 4:3 to 16:9.

Modern computer monitors are mostly interchangeable with television sets and vice versa. As most computer monitors do not include integrated speakers, TV tuners, nor remote controls, external components such as a DTA box may be needed to use a computer monitor as a TV set.


History
Early electronic computer front panels were fitted with an array of light bulbs where the state of each particular bulb would indicate the on/off state of a particular register bit inside the computer. This allowed the engineers operating the computer to monitor the internal state of the machine, so this panel of lights came to be known as the 'monitor'. As early monitors were only capable of displaying a very limited amount of information and were very transient, they were rarely considered for program output. Instead, a line printer was the primary output device, while the monitor was limited to keeping track of the program's operation.[4]

Computer monitors were formerly known as visual display units (VDU), particularly in British English. This term mostly fell out of use by the 1990s.
 
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