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

If Apple can get there with half as many GPU cores in just two processor generations, that’s an impressive pace of improvement. —Ewan Spence, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026

The company highlighted that its Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 systems now exceed one million H100 GPU equivalents, alongside recent product launches such as Grok 4, Grok Voice, and Grok Imagine. —Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 19 Jan. 2026

That is, both the GPU and the HBM sit on substrate called an interposer, with minimal distance between them. —IEEE Spectrum, 14 Jan. 2026

Micron supplies memory to both Nvidia and AMD, the two leading GPU makers. —Kif Leswing, CNBC, 10 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

graphics processing unit

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above