Eli5 What is a “4NM/6NM etc process” and why is it better? Also GPU vs CPU?

Question

I see so much of this stuff going on in ads for computers but I just don’t understand why one is better than another and why.

In: 4

Answer 1

Nowadays it’s just marketing. Smaller number = better, but you can’t compare the nm number from one company to that of another, because the actual number is meaningless now outside of marketing.

It used to refer to the smallest part of a transistor or the wires or circuits, but this is no longer the case and hasn’t been for a long time.

You can check out [this YouTube video](https://youtu.be/1kQUXpZpLXI) where they compared TSMC 7nm to Intel 14nm under an electron microscope and … the different parts are more or less the same size.