Hi guys, in a nutshell, what’s the difference between a cpu & gpu? I understand gpu is a graphics card, but what’s the process differences? & why does bitcoin mining prefer gpu over a high end cpu?
Thanks!
In: Engineering
A Cpu is a general-purpose processor designed to handle various tasks such as running applications, handling system operations, and executing instructions. A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), on the other hand, is specialized for rendering graphics and performing parallel computations.
Graphics cards are used to mine Bitcoin because the mining process involves solving complex mathematical algorithms, which benefit from parallel processing power. GPUs excel at this type of computation due to their architecture, which allows them to perform many calculations simultaneously. This makes GPUs more efficient and faster for mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin compared to CPUs.
CPUs have a few “cores” usually only 4-8 or so, that can “think” independently of each other, and execute complex tasks together.
GPUs have hundreds or thousands of cores that are lined up together in “threads” that can process the same simple task at the same time, much quicker.
Bitcoin mining prefers GPU because you’re asking a processor to do one thing and one thing only, but you need it to be done thousands of times as fast as possible. You don’t want the processor to execute one task, and then another, and then another, and then another…. You want to give the processor one task, and ask it to execute the task across multiple threads simultaneously.
The CPU does general processing. It can do a bit of everything and is the first choice for most calculations needed by a computer. It also “manages” the rest of the computer. The GPU is also a processor, but it is specialized for graphics computing. It’s not very good at most of the stuff the CPU can do, if it can even do them at all, but it’s very, very, very good at the sort of computations needed for graphics, and computations similar to that.
CPUs are very powerful, but have to be able to do anything the computer needs. There’s lots of boring stuff the has to be done to keep the computer running. The CPU has to do all of it.
GPUs only need to do one thing: the math required for rendering graphics. They do that extremely well. Much faster and more efficiently than a CPU can. But they can *only* do those things. That’s the tradeoff.
CPU is very very fast at making decisions. So think if this number is greater than 1 you gotta do this else you gotta do that. In comp sci term, it’s called branching and cpu is really good at branching.
Gpu on the other hand is very good at doing just math. Aka addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. But slower at making decisions
A CPU is like a college professor. It can do anything, and is really efficient so he can do many things at once (4-16 usually).
A GPU is a classroom full of kindergartners. They’re kinda dumb and can only do simple things. But there’s a bazillion of them.
The reason that mining prefers a GPU is that it only requires one calculation, over and over again until you guess the correct answer. So you can teach that room full of kindergartners to do this one calculation and since there’s so many of them you can get a lot done. The professor can only do 8 at a time
CPU is a computer. GPU is a ground power unit; it’s basically a generator on wheels that can supply power to aircraft on the ground without an auxiliary power unit (APU) or a broken APU. Allows most systems to be powered up and assists in engine starting.
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