Which DCC apps really take advantage of GPUs

#1

Which DCC apps really take advantage of GPUs? I know that certain simulations in Houdini will and that some processes in After Effects will; but I would like to know what other ones really take advantage of GPUs

Thanks.

#2

Practically all of them do except ZBrush.
You might have to offer more details, or maybe define if you’re trying to figure out whether you should invest into something specific, or just want to know more.

If you mean what DCC apps will take advantage of a GPU in general, practically all of them will for qualities like the base clock and amount of RAM.
From drawing the viewport to storing GPU caches (when supported, such as in Maya) to actually using it (Mudbox, Mari, NukeX) for computation.

If you mean GP-GPU functionalities through CUDA or OCL, so doing things like using the GPU for deformers, or fluid sims, or other similar applications of the more generally purposed access layer to GPU vector units, then not many.
Houdini has (or had, it’s been bounced back and forth) some solvers that do, Mari and Nuke-X do to some extent or with some nodes/ops, and that’s more or less it really.

Then you have GPU rendering engines, those really do squeeze it, RedShift, Octane, VRay RT etc.

Does that answer it? It’s a bit vague as questions go, and I can only guess that you are asking about GPU used for general computing rather than the more traditional video and viewport ops it’s been used for for the last 20 years :slight_smile: