The term was popularized by Nvidia in 1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 as 'the world's first GPU'. Later, in 1994, Sony used the term (now standing for graphics processing unit) in reference to the PlayStation console's Toshiba-designed Sony GPU in 1994.

In the 1970s, the term 'GPU' originally stood for graphics processor unit and described a programmable processing unit independently working from the CPU and responsible for graphics manipulation and output. In some CPUs, they are embedded on the CPU die.

In a personal computer, a GPU can be present on a video card or embedded on the motherboard. Their parallel structure makes them more efficient than general-purpose central processing units (CPUs) for algorithms that process large blocks of data in parallel. Modern GPUs are efficient at manipulating computer graphics and image processing. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles. A graphics processing unit ( GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.

Intel graphics control