PC Hardware Glossary

Glossary › PC Hardware

The core components that make up every desktop PC — what they do, and what to look for when buying.

CPU (Processor)

The “brain” of the computer that executes all instructions. More cores and higher clock speeds mean faster performance.

Renders images, video and 3D graphics — the most important part for gaming and AI workloads.

A GPU’s theoretical maths throughput — useful within one generation, misleading across them.

How many watts a graphics card uses — it decides your PSU size, room heat and electricity bill.

Short-term memory that holds active programs. More RAM means smoother multitasking.

Fast flash storage that makes your PC boot and load in seconds instead of minutes.

Cores, clocks, TFLOPS, VRAM and power for every desktop RTX card, plus one simple raw power score.

See these components in action in our gaming builds and office PCs, or compare graphics cards in our RTX GPU ranking.