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

Industry research firm SemiAnalysis counted 323 Nvidia GPU providers as of September, up from 209 less than 11 months earlier. — Jordan Novet, CNBC, 10 Oct. 2026

The same repositioning also obscured the screws that hold the GPU brace’s mounting bracket. — Thomas Soderstrom, PC Magazine, 10 Oct. 2026

Nvidia’s presence and GPU dominance may well make RTX Spark a bigger success story than Copilot Plus PCs, but these machines are targeting a niche audience for now. — Tom Warren, The Verge, 9 Oct. 2026

Microsoft says this will square up formidably against a 14-inch MacBook Pro, which comes in a powerful configuration with an M5 Pro chip (18-core CPU, 20-core GPU), 24GB RAM, and 1TB storage for $2,499. — New Atlas, 8 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

graphics processing unit

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above