The unsteady vortex lattice method is widely known for its robustness in modeling inviscid flow fields and aerodynamic loading. This method can be used to model a variety of configurations including multiple flapping wings in unsteady flows. One of the key computational algorithms used in this model can be expressed as nested loops or as a linear algebra based matrix vector product. Both forms are compared, and several different implementations including Matlab, C, and a GPGPU version are compared. The GPGPU based implementation is faster than the Matlab implementation by almost three orders of magnitude, and faster than the C implementation by almost two orders of magnitude. Details of the implementation are provided. The linear algebra implementation is determined to consume excess memory without a corresponding increase in computation performance. The fastest GPGPU implementation is applied to the study of ground effect, and separately, to the roll up of a vortex filament. Each of these cases would be intractable to compute without the acceleration offered by the GPGPU.