[Bf-committers] Using Graphics Card GPU for rendering DSM

[David Bryant]

An often asked question is what's the difference between a more expensive graphics workstation card and a regular "gamers" card that seems to work equally as well?

The answer is that high end workstation cards are often equally as fast as the "gamers" card and some gamers cards are even faster as far as GPU core clock speed goes.
But, the workstation cards have extra driver abilities that 3DS Max, AutoCAD, and Maya in specific can harness to use the GPU power in ways the gamers cards can't.
That is often the only difference between a $250 dollar gamers card and a $1500 dollar workstation card.

The GPU is an awesome proccessor and Blender would be a trailblazer as far as 3D packages go to have an option to use the GPU power on a gamers card to render DSM.

So, the idea is not far fetched but realistic and doable provided the low level code is written and plugged in.

The whole goal is to take some of the load off of the CPU and let the GPU which is often more efficient do the work of rendering DSM. And as far as most grpahics cards go  these days, inexpensive ATI and Nvidia cards are fully capable of doing the job. So, no need to panic about the idea because it's already being done.

Digikiller 

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