GPU

abbreviation or noun

ˌjē-(ˌ)pē-ˈyü 

variants or less commonly gpu

plural GPUs also gpus

: a specialized CPU designed to efficiently perform calculations for generating computer graphics

A GPU can deliver hundreds of billions of operations per second—some GPUs more than a teraflop, or a trillion operations per second—while requiring only slightly more electrical power and cooling than a CPU.

—Andrea Di Blas et al.

Examples of GPU in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Analyst’s Take While companies like Nvidia dominate the GPU market and cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud lead the AI services space, IBM is carving out a different path. —Steve McDowell, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025

It's powered by the M4 chip, with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, which are great for basic tasks. —Brenda Stolyar, Wired News, 8 Apr. 2025

Instead, it's built on the same GPU (GB203) as the desktop RTX 5080. —Luke Larsen, Wired News, 27 Mar. 2025

Compared with the Nothing Phone (2a)'s MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro, Nothing says the new chip is 33% faster and GPU performance is 11% better. —PC Magazine, 26 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

graphics processing unit

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above