I found the culprit for the memory hog, and it's not the strand-based hair at all, but a hair prop called WildHair Male (which I love, but have been having trouble with in Carrara as well). Once I eliminated that from my scene, the Cuda errors ceased.

Since I'm working with a Genesis figure anyway, I substituted the Wildhair with the WildMane hair (for Genesis), and the render is currently in progress. :)

Thanks for your help, face_off. Very happy to be able to continue with a scene despite the Cuda errors with the fix of the current beta. Keep up the good work!