CPU vs GPU vs TPU: One Chart Comparing Compute, Memory Architecture and Ideal Workloads

mdancho84 · x · 2026-11-03

ByteByteGo shared a comparison chart breaking down CPU, GPU and TPU across compute style, memory architecture and ideal use cases:

• CPU: scalar + SIMD, latency-optimized, hardware-managed cache hierarchy — best for OS control logic, general-purpose apps, latency-sensitive tasks.
• GPU: SIMT massive thread-level parallelism, streaming multiprocessors with warp schedulers, hardware caches + software-managed shared memory — built for throughput, AI training, graphics and scientific computing.
• TPU: tensor/matrix-first design with systolic arrays, weight/activation buffers, compiler-managed on-chip SRAM — optimized for neural network training/inference and large-scale tensor ops.

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