A GPU is made in two stages. First, a foundry such as TSMC prints the chip onto a silicon wafer using photolithography, then cuts and tests the individual dies. Then a board maker mounts that chip on a circuit board with memory, power parts, and a cooler, tests the finished card, and packs it for sale.
- The chip is printed onto silicon wafers using light, in a process called photolithography.
- Wafers are tested, cut into individual dies, and packaged.
- Board makers then solder the chip, memory, and parts onto a circuit board.
- Every finished card is stress tested before it ships.
Stage 1: Making the GPU Chip
It starts with design. Engineers use electronic design automation software to lay out the circuits, simulate performance, and catch problems before anything is built. Nvidia and AMD do this part, but as covered in our guide to who makes GPUs, the physical fabrication is outsourced to a foundry like TSMC or Samsung.
The foundry then builds the chip in these steps:
- Grow a cylinder of ultra-pure silicon (an ingot) by dipping a seed crystal into molten silicon and slowly pulling it upward while rotating.
- Slice the ingot into thin wafers.
- Coat the wafer and expose it to ultraviolet light through a mask, which acts like a stencil for the GPU’s circuit layout. This is photolithography.
- Test the chips while they’re still on the wafer.
- Cut the wafer into individual dies and package each one.
What comes out is the bare chip, the part explained in how a GPU actually works. It isn’t a graphics card yet.
Stage 2: Building the Graphics Card
The packaged chip then goes to a board maker, which builds everything around it. In a factory visit written up by PCGamesN, the line at PC Partner, the company behind the Zotac and Inno3D brands, ran through these steps:
- Print solder paste onto the bare circuit board.
- Have pick-and-place machines set the tiny components on the board.
- Bake the board in reflow soldering so everything is fixed in place.
- Run each board through automated optical inspection to check every small component.
- Drop the GPU onto the board, the point where a plain board becomes a graphics processor.
- Add the larger parts, like capacitors, power connectors, and video ports, partly by hand and then wave soldered.
- Clean off flux residue, then attach the cooling fans.
Scale: in that 2021 visit, PC Partner was making about 400,000 graphics cards a month, with each line turning out roughly 4,000 a day. That’s why the same chip reaches you as very different cards from Zotac, Asus, and others.
How Every Card Gets Tested
Each card that comes off the line goes through roughly 30 minutes of stress testing on an open test bench, using software that pushes the parts hard. Anything that fails, at any stage, is sent to troubleshooting, repaired, and put back on the line.
The same factory also ran an accelerated life test: 144 hours at 85°C and 85% humidity, meant to simulate five years of use. That heat figure is part of why it’s worth knowing what GPU temperature is actually normal once the card is in your PC.
How Long Does It Take?
Start to finish, from growing the silicon crystal to a boxed card, the process can take several months. Chip fabrication is the slow part. Board assembly and testing are comparatively quick, which is why a factory can switch between similar card models in minutes.
On the CPU side: how CPUs are made.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a GPU made of?
The chip itself is made of ultra-pure silicon. The graphics card around it adds a circuit board, memory chips, power components, a cooler, and video ports.
Who makes the GPU chip itself?
Nvidia and AMD design it, but a foundry such as TSMC or Samsung fabricates it. Neither designer owns the factories.
Are graphics cards assembled by hand?
Mostly by machine. Robots place the small components, but people are still involved in fitting the larger parts and in inspection and troubleshooting.
How are graphics cards tested before sale?
Each card runs a stress test of about half an hour, and the factory also runs longer tests, such as a heat and humidity life test that simulates five years of use.
