Comment by markhahn

people say this a lot, but with little technical justification.

gpus have had cache for a long time. cpus have had simd for a long time.

it's not even true that the cpu memory interface is somehow optimized for latency - it's got bursts, for instance, a large non-sequential and out-of-page latency, and has gotten wider over time.

mostly people are just comparing the wrong things. if you want to compare a mid-hi discrete gpu with a cpu, you can't use a desktop cpu. instead use a ~100-core server chip that also has 12x64b memory interface. similar chip area, power dissipation, cost.

not the same, of course, but recognizably similar.

none of the fundamental techniques or architecture differ. just that cpus normally try to optimize for legacy code, but gpus have never done much ISA-level back-compatibility.