The CPU has cores for parallel processing like a GPU does (though not as fast or numerous; think hundreds vs thousands). These are not to be confused with the main CPU cores meant for fast single-threaded performance. Intel calls them “execution cores.”
The bigger difference for performance is that integrated graphics share RAM with the CPU while GPUs have their own ultra-fast dedicated RAM for the type of work they do.
Note that there’s really nothing inherently slower about sharing RAM; Apple’s processors have integrated graphics and the memory bandwidth can be higher than some dedicated GPUs. Apple just uses faster memory. Some PCs are (finally) taking this approach too, like the DGX Spark boxes from nVidia.
The CPU has cores for parallel processing like a GPU does (though not as fast or numerous; think hundreds vs thousands). These are not to be confused with the main CPU cores meant for fast single-threaded performance. Intel calls them “execution cores.”
The bigger difference for performance is that integrated graphics share RAM with the CPU while GPUs have their own ultra-fast dedicated RAM for the type of work they do.
Note that there’s really nothing inherently slower about sharing RAM; Apple’s processors have integrated graphics and the memory bandwidth can be higher than some dedicated GPUs. Apple just uses faster memory. Some PCs are (finally) taking this approach too, like the DGX Spark boxes from nVidia.