Keeping up with the latest PC technology is difficult, but it’s overwhelming if you don’t understand all the jargon you encounter when reading articles and spec sheets. From CPUs to GPUs and their inner workings, to motherboards and their varying parts, different display technologies and types and vendor-created phrases, you can wind up in tech terminology turmoil.
That's why we have developed this handy glossary. With the information below, you can learn the meaning of—or refresh your memory on—commonly used--but often confusing--tech terms. We’ll be adding to the glossary over time as we find more PC terms and phrases that leave us scratching our heads...so you don't have to.
Index
- 2K
- 4K
- 5K
- 720p
- 1080p
- 10-bit color
- 12-bit color
- 1440p
- APU
- AVC
- Binning
- BIOS
- Bus
- Cache
- Cannon Lake
- Capacitor
- CAS latency / CL timings
- CCX
- Chassis
- Chipset
- Clock speed
- Coffee Lake
- Comet Lake
- Core
- CPU frequency
- DCI-P3
- Delta E (dE)
- DIMM slots
- Delidding
- Discrete GPU
- DLSS
- DRAM
- EOTF
- ECC memory
- Eye tracking
- FALD (full-array local dimming)
- Favored Core
- FOV (field of view)
- FHD
- FPGA
- FreeSync
- Full HD
- Gamma
- GPU
- GPU Boost
- Graphics card
- Grayscale
- G-Sync
- H.264
- H.265
- HBM
- HBM2
- HBM2E
- Heatsink
- HEVC
- HD
- HDR
- Hyper-threading
- IHS (integrated heat spreader)
- Integrated GPU
- Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
- IPC
- IPS
- Kaby Lake
- LED
- LCD
- M.2
- Max-Q
- MOSFET
- Motherboard
- Motherboard firmware
- N-key rollover
- NVMe
- OCP (overcurrent protection)
- OPP (overpower protection)
- OLED
- PCIe
- PWM (pulse width modulation)
- QHD
- RAID Controller
- RAM
- Ray tracing
- SDRAM
- Skylake
- SLI
- SoC (system on a chip)
- Socket
- SRAM
- Simultaneous multithreading
- S/PDIF
- sRGB
- SSD
- TDP
- Thread
- TPM header
- TN
- UEFI
- UHD
- Ultra HD
- USB 3.1
- USB Type-C
- VA
- Variable rate shading (VRS)
- Video card
- VRM
- Whiskey Lake
- Windows 10X
- WUXGA
- WQHD
- X570 chipset