A Performance Study of CUDA UVM versus Manual Optimizations in a Real-World Setup: Application to a Monte Carlo Wave-Particle Event-Based Interaction Model

The performance of a Monte Carlo model for the simulation of electromagnetic wave propagation in particle-filled atmospheres has been conducted for different CUDA versions and design approaches. The proposed algorithm exhibits a high degree of parallelism, which allows favorable implementation in a GPU. Practical implementation aspects of the model have been also explained and their impact assessed, such as the use of the different types of memories present in a GPU. A number of setups have been chosen in order to compare performance for manually optimized versus Unified Virtual Memory (UVM ) implementations for different CUDA versions. Features and relative performance impact of the different options have been discussed, extracting practical hints and rules useful to speed up CUDA programs.