Intel’s new Iris Xe Max Graphics Processor Unit is now showing up in laptops, and it’s reportedly a big deal. But what is a GPU, and why does it matter? Spoiler: it’s not for gaming, or even graphics.
Should You Combine Intel and AMD CPU/GPU?
The CPU in your computer, the one that does the day-to-day work, is expensive and highly specialized. A GPU, on the other hand, is really good at math. They can multiply large numbers in particular and they can perform many operations in parallel. This makes them suitable for generating complex 3D graphics, but they are used for much more than that.
“GPUs are great for big data, machine learning, and image processing,” 3D animator David Rivera told Lifewire via instant message. “I have a lot of colleagues who use it in medicine to get MRI results.”
Anything that requires a lot of complicated math is ideal to offload to the GPU.
