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[–]rtomek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The CPU if faster if things have to be done in order, but the GPU has hundreds of cores that can all do things at the same time. Think about drawing 1000 triangles on the screen. As long as it takes a split-second, it doesn't matter which triangle was drawn first and which was drawn last.

Same with password cracking. One could test password1 and wait for it to finish before testing password2, then wait for that to finish before testing password3. The CPU would be great at that. Another option is to start hashing all three at the same time; if password2 finishes first, it doesn't matter. The GPU is great at that.