Are there any limitations with using DirectCompute on DX10.1 GPUs? I will do most of my development on a DX11 desktop, but I'd like to demo code on a DX10.1 laptop. It'll be a Macbook Pro running Win7 in Bootcamp. The GPU is an Nvidia 330M. What limitations can I expect?
Edit: I found a page about using Compute Shaders on DX10, but it's not entirely clear to me if these are serious limitations or not.
Edit 2: My goal is to learn a bit about quantitative finance and solving PDEs.
I can't tell you if the limitations are serious or not, as 1) it depends on what you're trying to achieve, and 2) I simply don't know enough about the compute shader.
However, you can run the DirectX Caps Viewer to see what features your device will support (or what limitations you can expect). Also, AFAIK other than the limitations highlighted in the link you posted, you will only be able to use CS 4.0, not the new features in CS 5.0.
Frankly I think CS 4.x is rather limitating because of the lack of atomics, double precision, restrictions for accessing groupshared memory, as well as the 16KB limit. Also you can have only one UAV that can be bound.
I believe most of DirectCompute developers will use CS 4.x for post-processing in games or so (probably with both CS 4.x and CS 5.0 code path). People that want to do heavy GPGPU work will learn with CS 4.x then later move on CS 5.0.
Now you're saying you haven't a clue of the CS 4.x limitations. I suggest to go with CS 4.x and stick to it for now.
But really it all depends what you are developing, how and your target audience (professional developer vs hobby coder, shipping your application now vs in two years, mainstream audience vs pro market etc).