PC and PC Component Terms Defined: Tom’s Hardware Glossary
The PC enthusiast's glossary
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
- 1440p
- 10-bit color
- 12-bit color
- Alder Lake
- APU
- AVC
- Binning
- BIOS
- Bus
- Cache
- Cannon Lake
- Capacitor
- CAS latency / CL timings
- CCX
- Chassis
- Chipset
- Clock speed
- Coffee Lake
- Comet Lake
- Contrast ratio
- Core
- CPU frequency
- DCI-P3
- Delta E (dE)
- DIMM slots
- Delidding
- Discrete GPU
- DLSS (deep learning super sampling)
- DRAM
- EOTF
- ECC memory
- Eye tracking
- FALD (full-array local dimming)
- Favored Core
- FOV (field of view)
- FHD
- FPGA
- FreeSync
- Full HD
- FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution)
- Gamma
- GPU
- GPU Boost
- Graphics card
- Grayscale
- G-Sync
- H.264
- H.265
- HBM
- HBM2
- HBM2E
- Heatsink
- HEIC
- HEVC
- HD
- HDR
- Hyper-threading
- IHS (integrated heat spreader)
- Input latency
- 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
- Refresh rate
- Response time
- Rocket Lake
- SDRAM
- Skylake
- SLI
- SoC (system on a chip)
- Socket
- SRAM
- Simultaneous multithreading
- S/PDIF
- sRGB
- SSD
- TDP
- Thread
- Thunderbolt 4
- TPM header
- TN
- UEFI
- UHD
- Ultra HD
- USB 3.1
- USB 4
- USB Type-C
- VA
- Variable rate shading (VRS)
- Viewing angle
- Video card
- VRM
- Whiskey Lake
- Windows 10X
- WUXGA
- WQHD
- X570 chipset
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Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.
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shrapnel_indie I know you don't see it often anymore, but where's the definition for HSF (I know you cover the HS portion - Heatsink and the F portion, once you realize it, is "Fan"...Reply -
littleleo Reply
Hope this helps:jpe1701 said:I'm sure people will be wondering about rasterization and raytracing.
Ray Tracing = Crap