12.2 The Benchmark
Here is the benchmarking info for a standard PC with 4-core CPU
(Q6600, 2.4 GHz, GPU 9800GT).
Draw with sphere: CUDA+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:31.3
Draw with sphere: CPU+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:30.5
Carve: CUDA+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:34.1
Carve: CPU+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:30.5
Carve with mask: CUDA+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:31.0
Carve with mask: CPU+thin pen(10) Avg. FPS:26.4
Draw with sphere: CUDA+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:13.6
Draw with sphere: CPU+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:10.4
Carve: CUDA+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:18.3
Carve: CPU+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:10.3
Carve with mask: CUDA+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:14.3
Carve with mask: CPU+thick pen(40) Avg. FPS:7.2
There were 6 tests run: several types of drawing with mask enabled
or disabled. The particularly big advantage of CUDA over
CPU is visible when the mask is used. The bigger FPS means of
course the better result. 9800GT is a very low-priced card, using
GTX260 or later, QuadroFX with big amount of cores will give
better advantage. It is cheaper to buy a good video card then, for
example, a Core i7 processor. Also we can recommend buying
a video card with 1GB+ memory on board because it will allow
you to edit really big textures in 3D-Coat. CUDA usage is limited
on very big brushes, so after reaching some radius CUDA will be
automatically disabled in some tools like airbrush, increase, build,
smudge. In scale 1:1 it is a radius of around 65.
Surface and object tools are not getting any advantage from
CUDA.