> What is the benefit of having GPU rendering rather than just going to
> the store and buying yourself a faster processor? Are GPUs inherently
> better at this stuff than CPUs?

For very simple algorithms that run a huge number of times on slighty 
different input parameters, a GPU can often be several orders of 
magnitude faster than a CPU. For example I ported a very simple 
path-tracer from CPU to GPU, it ended up about 1000x faster as it is 
perfectly suited to running on a GPU. There's a short video of it in 
action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXQa5kHspFk

The issue is with more complex real-world applications, they need to be 
broken down into "bitesize" chunks that a GPU can run efficiently, and 
between each "chunk" being run on the GPU, some amount of processing is 
likely required to prepare. Often not easy from a conceptual point of 
view, and there is no guarantee that the resulting application will be 
much faster than the original CPU-only version.

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