12.1 CUDA Basics

From 3D-Coat Wiki

At first, 3D-Coat uses CUDA acceleration for voxel sculpting only.

Voxel sculpting requires more computing resources because it handles pictures in volume. So we decided to use CUDA to speed up operations in volume. CUDA is supported by all the recent NVidia cards starting from 8-series. However the acceleration is hugely dependent on the number of processors available on the card. The real advantage of CUDA over a 4-core CPU can be achieved only if GPU has more then 64 processors, otherwise the 4-Core CPU will yield better speed. So there is no reason to use CUDA accelerated version on some video cards, even despite they support the technology, like GeForce 8400/9400, 8500/9500, G100, G120, G130, QuadroFX 1700 because they have less then 64 processors. We can recommend any card starting from GeForce 9800GT (very low price). Acceleration speed is dependent on cores number and memory bandwidth. CUDA gives best advantage if you are applying masks and materials over voxel sculpture using big brushes. The advantage depends considerably on the tool used.