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We show that through careful and model-specific optimizations of their GPU implementations, simulations of realistic, detailed cardiac-cell models now can be performed in 2D and 3D in times that are close to real time using a desktop computer. Previously, large-scale simulations of detailed mathematical models of cardiac cells were possible only using supercomputers. In our study, we consider five different models of cardiac electrophysiology that span a broad range of computational complexity: the two-variable Karma model, the four-variable Bueno-Orovio-Cherry-Fenton model, the eight-variable Beeler-Reuter model, the 19-variable Ten Tusscher-Panfilov model, and the 67-variable Iyer-Mazhari-Winslow model. For each of these models, we treat both their single- and double-precision versions and demonstrate linear or even sub-linear growth in simulation times with an increase in the size of the grid used to …