Modern PC's have both very powerful CPU's and GPU's. But why do we need 2 processors?

From workstations to full on gaming battle stations, you are almost guaranteed to find a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) inside the computer. When you look back at some of the early PC's, they only had the one CPU to handle both the data and the graphics processing. What changed?

What is the Difference?

• To find out what changed, we first need to look at the fundamental differences between the 2 types of processor.
  Imagine the CPU is like a Hotel Janitor. He is very good at everything, good at word processing and spread sheets, can send and fetch data very quickly, stream videos or music for you to listen too, great at web surfing and awesome at email sending and receiving. The CPU is a Jack of all trades that can do almost anything you ask of it. It handles a wide variety of data, workloads and can multitask meaning it can handle simultaneous Data and workloads at the same time.
  Now imagine the GPU is the Hotel Chef. He is exceptional at at rendering 2D and 3D images in real time on your screen, and that is it. He is a master at doing only one task while the Janitor can do everything else. The GPU concentrates on raw throughput, handling complex calculations as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  CPU's, Lets take an AMD Ryzen 2700x for example, has 8 physical cores that are all identical, this will help in multitasking workloads, are very large when compared to there GPU counterparts and is very powerful.
  GPU's have lots of smaller cores, Up to 3000 in some GPU's, that are all identical to handle the complex calculations faster and to get that fast raw throughput to render the 3D graphics.
  There are Some CPU's that do have integrated graphics, but even still, the GPU is a separate chip located directly next to the CPU.

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Gaming.

• Gaming is the real reason why we have separate processors in our PC's. Some of the first PC's handled everything from the data and 2D graphics via a solitary CPU. But as games became more demanding on system resources, it became apparent that a separate processor was needed, and be a more specific one to handle what you see on screen.
  Some of the very first GPU's were soldered to the same board as the CPU, but it wasn't until 1996 when we would see the worlds first 'Add in Card' that could handle all 2D and 3D tasks. The 3DFX Voodoo 1 was developed to not only play games such as the original Doom and Quake, but to also help with other graphically demanding programs such as video encoding and CAD work.
  This set of the 'Graphics Card Wars' of the Late 90's, early 00's, with both ATI and Nvidia entering the arena. Eventually 3DFX doomed themselves by making there own graphics cards instead of licensing vendors as ATI and Nvidia were doing. 3DFX went bust and Nvidia bought out the company.
  As games got more and more demanding... ''Can it Play Crysis?'' forced the GPU manufactures to constantly improve on there designs.

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CPU and GPU market....

• Today there is really only 2 of each type that dominate there respective markets.
  For the CPU side we have Intel and AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) who produce CPU's for both the Private and Public sectors.
  For GPU's we have Nvidia and AMD Radeon, Formally ATI for the graphics side of there company. While AMD may have a smaller market share in both the CPU and GPU sectors, they are the only company that has a presence in both sides of the industry. Nvidia have no interest in making CPU's, and Intel have integrated graphics in some of there mobile chips and have been developing a stand alone GPU for over 6 years with no success as the power of the existing GPU's are more powerful with each new generation. There are rumours they may release one within the next 12-18 months, but nothing substantial.

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Other Uses.

• CPU's can be found in almost any device from toasters to super computers. They obviously range dramatically in there power and performance, but without them we would not have the society we live in today.
  GPU's on the other hand are very specific and can only handle certain types of data. Apart from games, and other everyday PC related stuff, GPU's have been found to be very useful in Cryptocurrency mining, with thousands upon thousands working to achieve the same goal.
  They can also be found in Super computers to help with complex mathematical problems, and they can be found in Ai Computers that are used for deep learning, such as the new Nvidia Volta Titan V.

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So the next time you render a large 4k video file or play some FarCry 5, or Crysis, you can be thankful that there is a dedicated GPU to handle such tasks. Likewise when you use you PC for everything else, your CPU handles it.

They do talk to each other and the GPU can not do its job without the CPU, but it is a marriage that has many uses, but is ultimately awesome at gaming.

Thanks for reading.

Stu @TechMojo

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