We can often wonder what a name used to name an object or component means, and it is increasingly common to see names that may seem a little strange to us. This can happen to us, for example, when we see a GPU “discreet“, since in principle it is a component that does not really go unnoticed, we will therefore explain to you the reason why they are given this name.
Every day we can see words that we do not know what they mean, or that we only know one meaning, so this can lead us to think that they are used incorrectly, but in most cases, it is enough to consult a dictionary to resolve our doubts.
What is a discrete GPU
When we talk about graphics cards, we can always think that there are two types that usually predominate on the market, the integrated graphics cards, which are those that are integrated into the chip of the processor itself, and the dedicated cards, which are a completely different component from the one that it integrates the CPU. Taking this into account, we can often see in various places how some models of GPU as “discreet”, and this is something that at first can surprise us a little if we only know some of the uses of this adverb.
To clarify any doubts we may have, when someone talks about this component as “discrete” or “discrete”, they are referring to a dedicated video card, which, as we have indicated, is the one that represents a completely different component from the others. But we may have wondered on more than one occasion what is so discreet about this component when it is, literally, one of those that attracts the most attention and stands out within a computer, since they usually have very large sizes compared to the rest of the components.
In fact, the use of the word “discrete” to define these components comes from a literal translation of the English word “discrete,” which is used to denote an object that is separate or distinct in form or concept.
This usage also exists in our language, but it is not as standardized.
Without thinking too much about it, yes, this is indeed a way in which one can call a component of this style, since the RAE itself accepts as meaning of this adverb “Separate, distinct”, which implies that the literal translation that we use in passing “discreet” in our language, in this case it could be valid.
But it is also true that if we only think of the first meaning of our adverb (which is also the most used), obviously these types of components do not exist or it would not be the concept that we would use to define them.
Ultimately, one of the advantages of the language we speak is the lexicon, that is, the variety of words we have to define any object is extremely wide, so we can simply take advantage of our vocabulary and use different adverbs to avoid the confusion that can arise from using a system that is not very common in these cases, right?
