GPU

intermediate
hardware
Enhanced Content

Definition

Graphics Processing Unit - specialized hardware designed for parallel processing that accelerates AI training and graphics rendering. Like having thousands of workers doing calculations simultaneously instead of one at a time.

Real-World Example

Training large AI models on GPUs can be 100x faster than using regular CPUs because GPUs can process many calculations at once.

Cloud Provider Equivalencies

All major clouds provide GPUs primarily through VM/compute offerings. AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI let you run GPU-accelerated workloads (AI training/inference, rendering, HPC) by selecting GPU-enabled instance/VM types (or attaching GPUs on GCP). Differences are mainly in available GPU models, networking/storage options, and regional availability.

AWS
Amazon EC2 GPU instances (e.g., P5, P4d, G6, G5)
AZ
Azure GPU Virtual Machines (e.g., ND, NC, NV series)
GCP
Compute Engine GPUs (NVIDIA L4, T4, A100, H100 attached to VM instances)
OCI
OCI Compute GPU shapes (e.g., BM.GPU, VM.GPU, NVIDIA A100/H100 shapes depending on region)

Explore More Cloud Computing Terms