Heard of CPU, GPU and APU? What's the difference?

The CPU is the brains of the computer that tells the other components what to do. ​The GPU handles rendering and computing tasks. Lastly, an APU is AMD’s take on a CPU/GPU hybrid that can do both of the above tasks while being power-efficient and cost-efficient, albeit not as powerful overall. Click "Read More" to know more of the differences.

PC lingo can feel like a geek language in itself. All the geeky terms, acronyms, and jargon can be very confusing, especially if you’re new to the whole PC thingy. Among these acronyms are three that you’re certain to encounter when building a PC: CPU, GPU, and APU. Today, we’ll take a closer look at what these acronyms mean and shed some light on the differences between them.

1) What is a CPU?

The CPU, or central processing unit (colloquially also commonly referred to as a processor), is a computer by definition – to put it bluntly, it is an extremely powerful calculator able to manage countless computations and calculations at any given moment and it is the brains of every computer, processing information and telling all the other components what to do.

And while CPUs with four cores were serious stuff only 10 years ago, we now have mainstream CPUs that can have as many as sixteen cores, which can then further be divided into virtual/logical cores via hyper-threading/multi-threading.

However, a CPU isn’t as important for gaming as a GPU is, as it is the GPU that does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to rendering detailed 3D environments in real time. The only issue that a gamer needs to worry about in this regard is bottlenecking. Basically, if a CPU can’t keep up with a GPU, then the GPU won’t be utilized to its fullest extent. Fortunately, a mid-range CPU is usually more than adequate, even for high-end gaming. 

Today, most CPUs found in desktops and laptops are manufactured by Intel and AMD, and they have been on fairly even terms since AMD’s Ryzen leveled the playing field in 2017. There are other companies that manufacture CPUs, too, though they mostly fit in specific niches. These include recognizable names such as IBM, Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, HiSillicon, Acer, and others.

2) What is a GPU?

A GPU, or graphics processing unit, is pretty self-explanatory: it is responsible for rendering, be it simple things like the operating system’s GUI, image files, and video files, or something more complex such as video games and professional software used for animation, video editing, 3D modeling, etc.

Produced as a programmable electronic circuit card, the GPU can perform high volume, repetitive computations very rapidly to process images or frames that are then fed to a monitor. A modern GPU consists of hundreds of cores (CUDA cores for Nvidia and Stream processors for AMD), which compute large clusters of data in parallel to one another alongside a certain amount of integrated VRAM memory.

On top of that, integrated GPUs exist, too. And as the name suggests, they are integrated with either a CPU or a motherboard, but the former is more common today. These GPUs don’t have their own dedicated VRAM, so they utilize a portion of the available system RAM. That said, they are cheaper to produce but also far less powerful than regular graphics cards, thus being best-suited for casual users who don’t intend on using their PCs for gaming or as workstations.

Nvidia and AMD have been the leading forces in the dedicated GPU market for a while now, the former more so than the latter. Namely, Nvidia dominated the high-end and the upper mid-range of the price spectrum while AMD generally offered users better value for their money when it came to the low-end and mid-range solutions, but their GPUs still weren’t as popular as Nvidia’s in the recent years.

3) How about an APU? What is it?

And finally, we have the APU, the accelerated processing unit. This moniker was invented by AMD and the first generation of APUs was released in 2011.

An APU consists of both CPU and GPU cores on a single die. While there is a technical difference between an APU and an integrated GPU, their application is pretty much identical: they serve as approachable entry-level graphics solutions for budget PCs and non-gaming laptops.

At the moment, AMD has several series of APUs compatible with the current AM4 socket: The A-Series APUs, which are the weakest of the bunch and most commonly used in the more affordable PCs and laptops. The new Athlon series APUs, which are newer, generally more powerful than the A-series, and come with Vega graphics cores. The Ryzen APUs which are the most powerful APUs made so far

Ultimately, APUs are quite efficient and have low power consumption but the performance that they offer isn’t quite good– that is, excluding the new Vega-equipped APUs that really do push the boundaries regarding what kind of in-game performance one can expect from an APU. They even give some low-end graphic card like GTX1050 a good run for their money. Keep a lookout for AMD Vega APU for 2020.

Conclusion
CPU – central processing unit, the brains of the operation that does the arithmetic and ensures the rest of the computer components do what they’re supposed to do.

GPU – graphics processing unit, the heavy lifter who ensures that the in-game landscapes look as good as the CPU says they should look.

APU – accelerated processing unit, a CPU/GPU hybrid, a jack of both trades but a master of neither. Power-efficient, cost-efficient, and can save space in laptops and notebooks, but is not powerful enough to run AAA games properly.

​At the end of the day, if you’re trying to decide whether an APU would be a better choice for you instead of the classic CPU + GPU combo, then you only need consult your wallet. As mentioned above, they can be a great means of saving money when building a budget gaming PC, but even the most powerful APU currently available (the Ryzen 5 3400G) would have a hard time with anything that’s not an indie or an eSports game.

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