What is APU Accelerated Processing Unit – The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the computer that handles most of the processing. But there’s one area that’s not so great: graphics. To compensate for this, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) deal directly with visual output tasks.
What is APU Accelerated Processing Unit on Computer 2024
However, designing and manufacturing two units to handle this data is not efficient. The solution is the Accelerated Processing Unit or APU.
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What is APU?
The Accelerated Processing Unit is designed to combine two separate units into a single die. In this case, a single die is a small segment of semiconductor material, which contains a mass-produced copy of the circuit.
While it may seem odd to put two circuits on a single die, it is the manufacturing and design decisions that determine the performance of your computer.
Reducing processing unit footprint lowers costs, allows more space for other hardware, and is more efficient. Keeping components close together increases data transfer rates and reduces power consumption as well.
If you haven’t heard of APU technology before, there may be a reason the term is almost exclusively used by one manufacturer, AMD.
APU Benefits
When considering upgrading your CPU or GPU. There are many products out there, with the same number of names with high marketing. Each new release is touted as a major improvement over the last, even if this isn’t fully done in benchmarking tests.
Of course, it’s natural for a company to want to sell its products, so you will also have less trust in APU. However, there are some tangible benefits to using this technology. The most rapid transformation is in system performance.
If your previous computer used only one CPU and integrated graphics, then you will see a noticeable performance bump. Tasks will be faster, videos will run more smoothly, and speed will generally increase. In the long run, you will also see a reduction in power usage.
Since both processors are on the same die, they can share resources as well. This makes your computer more efficient, increases speed, and reduces manufacturing costs. For this reason, APUs are often cheaper and are a more affordable way to upgrade your hardware.
Should I Buy an APU?
Despite these performance improvements, choosing whether to buy an APU is not as easy as it seems. The first point to consider is that AMD APUs are just one type of combined processing unit. Intel and other manufacturers also produce components such as APUs.
Given that you can buy a device that looks and behaves like an APU, you might be wondering why you chose AMD. While others are thinking of a combined processor.
However, you should also consider that the APU is a good step up from your motherboard’s integrated graphics, but can still be beaten by an independent GPU. If playing games or videos is an important part of your setup, then the APU will only offer you less-than-optimal upgrades. In that case, it’s probably better to buy a high-end CPU and GPU separately.
What’s more, APUs had an impact when they were first released in 2011, but as we know technology is always evolving. As combined processors became the industry standard, designers looked for other improvements they could make to the electronics. This changes its transformation to System-on-a-Chip.
APU Development
AMD released its first APU in January 2011. As mentioned earlier, APU is the company’s marketing term for combining two processing units on a single die. However, they are not the only company exploring the benefits of this merger.
Other leading processor manufacturers are also moving in the same direction. Intel began development on its combined processing unit, released under several Intel product names. As predicted by Moore’s Law, technology costs have decreased, while capabilities have increased. The APU is the first stage in the evolution of computer processing and electronics manufacturing.
If combining two computer components on a single die brings performance benefits, then it means that adding more to the die will do the same. This led to the creation of the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design. SoCs combine most of all the important components in a single chip. The benefits of this APU design are reduced power consumption, lower heat generation, and increased performance also apply here.
This design trend was driven by the boom in mobile devices, which occurred around the same time that APUs were first launched. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, should be cheaper and more portable than their desktop counterparts. Thus, the SoC became the industry standard. However, this is only possible thanks to the progress made through the APU design.
Conclusion:
While APUs played a role in the development of processors, today, they are mostly a relic of a bygone era. Many say, their combined strengths offer advantages over your motherboard’s integrated graphics. However, times are always changing, and there are many options out there for you to choose from if you want to upgrade your computer.
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