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

Newer Chinese players such as Enflame Technology and Biren Technology have also entered the AI space, aiming to capture a share of the billions in graphics processing unit, or GPU, demand no longer served by Nvidia. —Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 17 Dec. 2025

Heather Planishek was appointed CFO of Lambda, an AI cloud infrastructure provider that specializes in high-performance GPU computing. —Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 12 Dec. 2025

This is a more than capable midrange battlestation with an RTX 5070 GPU, which on its own retails for $580. —PC Magazine, 2 Dec. 2025

Yet capturing its full physical structure demanded nearly Perlmutter’s entire GPU fleet. —Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 17 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

graphics processing unit

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above