Differences between APU, CPU & GPU

Sebastián Calderón
ILLUMINATION
Published in
6 min readFeb 16, 2022

--

Photo by Olivier Collet on Unsplash

APU Vs CPU Vs GPU

The APU, CPU, and GPU are the most important parts of a computer system, though each of them has its own task and parts that can’t be imitated by another. The APU is a hybrid between the CPU and GPU that can do both of their tasks despite not being as powerful as either standalone. With the shortage of graphics cards becoming more mainstream, people have been wondering what an APU is.

How do they work and what are the main differences between APU, CPU, and GPU?

Differences Between CPU, APU, and GPU

The CPU is the central brain of the system and provides commands to the remaining components.

The GPU handles the PC’s computing and rendering. As you can see, the main difference between all three components is that they are in charge of different processes, though the APU does overlap with the previous two in a different way.

What Is An APU Computer?

To put it simply, APUs are a type of CPU that integrates both an accelerated processing unit (APU) with a graphic processing unit (GPU). APU computers employ a general-purpose processor instead of a special processor for graphics, photos or voice recording.

--

--

Sebastián Calderón
ILLUMINATION

Subscribe to learn how writers earn more money through Web3, NFTs, and crypto. TW: @wordsmithsebas