Making the case of GPUs in courses on computational physics

TL;DR

This paper advocates for integrating GPU computing into computational physics education, demonstrating its benefits through a case study and encouraging students to leverage GPU acceleration for improved computational performance.

Contribution

It presents a compelling argument and practical example for incorporating GPU computing into physics courses, highlighting its educational and computational advantages.

Findings

GPU computing can significantly accelerate physics simulations.

Students can realistically learn and implement GPU acceleration.

The case study demonstrates tangible performance improvements.

Abstract

Most relatively modern desktop or even laptop computers contain a graphics card useful for more than showing colors on a screen. In this paper, we make a case for why you should learn enough about GPU (graphics processing unit) computing to use as an accelerator or even replacement to your CPU code. We include an example of our own as a case study to show what can be realistically expected.