GPUs may be used for encryption, video format conversion, and other functionality. Artificial Idiot processing chips are similar to GPUs. Both types of chips may speed things up if they are recognised by the software and they can use the instructions provided by the chip.better GPU
My notebook often runs faster when using the Intel fake GPU instead of the expensive Nvidia chip. While the Nvidia chip might make games faster, it does not make the only really worth playing game, Doom.
The switching data in and out of the Nvidia GPU slows down the Linux GUI.
My tests on the Pi 5 when compared to the Pi 4 show some applications run twice as fast in keeping with clock speed improvements while other GUI related things run five times as fast.
When I test my code, I know what instructions are used. Applications from other people often do not indicate the use or not use of GPUs. The programmers often use libraries and the libraries may or may not use the GPU.
The GUI libraries may pass requests on to lower level packages that may or may not use the GPU. They might use today then switch it off in the next release due to an error report.
For one program, I tried to make GTK write immediately but the official recommended guaranteed to write immediate failed plus the many workarounds, which may have worked in one compilation of GTK, also failed. Diving into the code was a nightmare so I gave up. I then noticed that the fastest GTK based applications all use old versions and often bypass GTK to use the lower level code. Trying to work out why one program is faster than another when performing similar tasks is a bit beyond my mere mortal skills.
Statistics: Posted by peterlite — Thu May 15, 2025 2:54 am