GNINA vs Smina: CNN Scoring vs Enhanced Empirical Scoring

By BioDockify Computational Research Team · August 9, 2026 · Comparison

Technical comparison of GNINA and Smina molecular docking engines. Same codebase, different scoring — when does CNN scoring make a difference?

Read the complete article with tables, code and references on BioDockify.

Key References

• McNutt, A.T. et al. GNINA. J. Cheminform. 13, 43 (2021).
• Koes, D.R. et al. Lessons learned in empirical scoring with smina. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 53, 1893-1904 (2013).

Scope & Limitations

Both share the same search algorithm — differences are in scoring only CNN scoring requires GPU for practical speed Smina is effectively Vina with a different scoring function