High quality visual graphics are essential to media, film, graphic design, animation, space research, architecture, interior design and other industries. All of these industries rely on the rendering process to get all the results for various specialized projects. Over the past few years, GPU rendering technology has taken the IT industry by storm. While gpus are inspired by the DESIGN and architecture of the CPU, they are considered to be much faster but at a much higher cost.

What is theThe GPU to render(GPU Render)?

GPU stands for graphics processing unit. It is similar in design and construction to a normal CPU, but it is designed to handle complex graphics processing. The GPU shares the resources of the entire computer processing by being responsible for processing the graphics output on the screen. However, in recent years gpus have been designed to render on specific rendering software available on the market today, such as NVIDIA’s IRay, Chaos Group’s VRay RT, Otoy’s OctaneRender; MAXON’s Redshift et al. In this article today, Renderbus will point out many aspects before deciding whether GPU Render is worth investing in, and answer the question: Which is the best GPU worth investing in?

1. Best GPU for Redshift rendering

Unbiased engines are often difficult for artists to render because they calculate processes such as lighting physics much more accurately. However, Redshift is a biased engine, which means artists have more freedom to get the desired render without having to overset the Settings — which means you can focus on creating.

As mentioned above, video card selection is the driver of Redshift performance. The faster the better, and you can use multiple Gpus to speed up rendering even more. There are two aspects of a graphics card that affect rendering ability: the raw speed of the GPU itself and the amount of memory on the card. Video memory will limit the size and complexity of scenes that can be rendered efficiently, although Redshift does support “out-of-kernel” rendering, which will allow system memory to be used when there is not enough dedicated GPU memory… But this reduces speed, so it’s best to have a video card with enough RAM onboard if possible. GeForce cards tend to have good raw performance, with a fair amount of video memory, and while Quadro cards come with more VRAM, they cost more at the same raw performance level.

In the chart above, we can see: NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 is faster than any RTX 20 series card, and nearly twice as fast as the RTX 2080 Super for the same price. Combined with a 25% increase in video memory over 2080 Super, the increased rendering speed makes it a very valuable product.

NVIDIA’s RTX 3090 is 60 percent faster than the previous generation of top consumer graphics cards, the RTX Titan, while reducing costs by $1,000 and maintaining the same amount of VRAM. Also, the RTX Titan is only available with a dual-fan cooling solution from NVIDIA, which means it can’t be used effectively in multi-GPU configurations. The Founders Edition RTX 3090 we tested for this article may not be ideal either, but Gigabyte has released a blower-like variant of the 3090 that should work in this type of configuration. However, with 350W of power per card, the current power supply may not be able to run a full set of four.

There are many trade-offs to consider when comparing these new cards with one another. The RTX 3090 renders about 15% faster in Redshift than the 3080, which isn’t bad, but it’s also not great considering it costs more than twice as much. However, the 24GB OF VRAM on the RTX 3090 is more than double the 10GB offered by the 3080, and the 3090 is the only Series 30 card released to date that supports NVLink. This means it will be better suited for handling large scenes and detailed geometry.

Bottom line: So, in terms of raw price, performance, the RTX 3080 wins, but in terms of maximum performance, features, and support for rendering more complex scenes, the GeForce RTX 3090 is clearly superior.

2. Best GPU for Octane rendering

Octane Render is a GPU-based renderer that easily handles processor-intensive algorithms. It is considered one of the fastest real-time rendering software plug-ins on the market to date. Leveraging its interactive real-time viewport system, it smoothly speeds up your workflow by essentially displaying the final render as you work, edit and place materials, and compose frames.

An ideal contender for architectural visualization, this rendering software also has a comprehensive interface that can produce beautiful results fairly quickly, with processing speeds that dwarf other GPU-based plug-ins by 10-50 times. In particular, Octane only supports NVIDIA cards. Unfortunately, Octane rendering engines don’t support AMD Radeon Gpus — no matter how good and powerful they are.

  • RTX 3070 8GB — This is a solid budget card for those just starting out with GPU rendering or on a budget.

  • RTX 3080 10GB — This card is more affordable than the 3090 if you consider it alone, and offers better rendering performance per dollar. However, its low VRAM count may limit the complexity of the scenes you can render, and it also lacks NVLink support. However, if you don’t deal with very complex scenarios, one or two of them might work well for their price.

  • RTX 3090 24GB – This card is 75% faster than the previous generation of top consumer graphics card RTX Titan, while reducing the cost by $1000 and maintaining the same amount of VRAM. The RTX 3090 renders about 20% faster than the 3080, increases onboard memory by 140%, and supports NVLink. This means it will be better suited for handling large scenes and detailed geometry. In addition, Gigabyte has released a dual-slot, single-fan version of the card, which should allow the use of multiple Gpus in a single system to improve performance.

In addition to choosing which card to use, there is a question of how many cards there are. OctaneRender scales very well on multiple graphics cards, but the cooling systems on most older GeForce models were not designed with multiple Gpus in mind. Variations of a single fan (often called a “blower” card) with heat expelled from the back are ideal for best overall performance. Stacking some of them will provide excellent rendering performance, although it does require a larger chassis, a powerful power supply, and plenty of airflow from the chassis fans. This is why we recommend the RTX 30 series, especially the RTX 3090.

3. Best GPU for Vray rendering

V-ray is a biased computer generated image rendering software application developed by the Chaos Group in Bulgaria, founded in Sofia in 1997. V-ray is a commercial plug-in for third-party 3D computer graphics software applications for visualization and computer graphics in the media, entertainment, film and video game production, industrial design, product design and architecture industries.

However, with v-Ray RT, graphics card choice is the single biggest factor in rendering speed/performance. RT has several different modes, but not all plug-in versions support either mode. OpenGL mode for use with AMD graphics cards exists in some versions, but the main focus is CUDA mode for NVIDIA cards. (AMD users will not get Embree acceleration, as this is a NVIDIA reward)

Beyond raw performance, let’s talk about value. In each benchmark, a pair of GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards outperformed a single RTX 3090. With the cost of the two 3070s reduced by $500, this seems like an attractive option, and for some people, it might actually work. However, the following points need to be kept in mind when making such comparisons:

  • Video memory – Since the RTX 3070 only has 8GB of onboard video memory, it is much more limited in terms of scene complexity and texture resolution compared to the RTX 3090’s 24GB. Some rendering engines can use system memory for partial data, but doing so usually has a negative impact on performance.

  • Upgrade capacity – If you choose dual RTX 3070 (or even 3080), then you can’t really upgrade further without taking them out and putting in new cards, while systems with a single RTX 3090 blower card can add another one or two in the future. GeForce RTX 3090 — We recommend to most GPU rendering customers that the RTX 3090 offers the best performance in V-Ray while still having a huge 24GB of ram. It also offers a blower cooler that can be used with multiple cards as needed.

As we’ve seen in the past, GPU rendering scales very well across multiple video cards. Both OctaneRender and V-Ray Next have effective perfect scaling: two cards perform twice as well as one, with small variations within the margin of error. The expansion from the second video card is still substantial – in the 83 % to 93% improvement range.

4. Best GPU for Iray rendering

Developed by Nvidia, Iray’s is biased GPU renderer designed to be one of the best 3D CAD rendering software available for people without expertise in rendering who are beginners, students and amateurs, as well as professionals. This physics-based intuitive rendering technology uses AI noise reduction, CUDA, NVidia OptiX, and Material Definition Language (MDL) to generate lifelike images with extreme speed and efficiency, making it one of the most lifelike 3D rendering software available.

Support for NVIDIA Ggpu with Iray driver: technical support for all RTX, GTX, Quadro and TITAN cards from the Turing, Pascal, Maxwell and Kepler/Fermi generations. Rendering speed depends primarily on the number of CUDA cores (the more the better) and the CLOCK speed of the GPU. Unfortunately, Iray rendering engines don’t support AMD Radeon Gpus — no matter how good and powerful they are.

The NVIDIA graphics card family goes back a long way. For simplicity, I’ll focus here only on cards available in recent years:

The first thing to note in the diagram above is that using Quadro clearly has no advantage over GeForce. In fact, the Quadro M4000 is about 20% slower than the GTX 970, even though the GTX 970 costs almost a third as much. Specifically, some Quadro Gpus offer more VRAM, but at a much higher cost for the same raw level of performance as GeForce cards. So if IRAY is your primary application, we recommend the NVIDIA Geforce series. As of October 2020, these are roughly the top tier of consumer Gpus from fastest to slowest.

  • RTX 3060 Ti (4864 CUDA core, 8GB video memory)
  • RTX 3070 (5888 CUDA cores, 8GB video memory)
  • RTX 3080 (8704 CUDA core, 10GB video memory)
  • RTX 3090 (10496 CUDA cores, 24GB video memory)

Second, Iray’s performance scales well when it comes to using multiple Gpus. While you won’t get twice as much performance with two cards as you would with just one, you do get a very good performance boost. On average, going from one card to two reduced rendering time by about 33% (a third). Going from one card to three resulted in about half the render time (49% to be exact), while going from one card to four reduced the render time by less than two-thirds (60%).

5. Best GPU for Blender rendering

Blender takes full advantage of GPU acceleration, which means that a good GPU can have an impact on everything you do in Blender. However, not all Gpus are created equal, and there are some important differences you should be aware of before you choose a specific brand or price point. Blender renders faster and runs smoother on CUDA Gpus for obvious reasons: CUDA is built the same way Blender is used. OpenCL is not meant to compete with CUDA. The Blender development team is actively working with Nvidia to fully integrate OptiX functionality into Blender, and OptiX accelerated CUDA rendering is already available with existing CUDA and OpenCL implementations.

Blender’s heavy use of GPU acceleration and its rock-solid CUDA implementation make Nvidia graphics a safe choice for most users. Non-cuda cards (e.g. AMD cards) are not the best choice for rendering, but they are still a good choice for users interested in consistent viewport performance. If you navigate a scene a lot by moving the camera around or playing animations in Blender, an Nvidia GPU is a good choice.

When viewing GPU specifications, note the number of computing cores (CUDA or OpenCL, depending on the brand you buy) and the number of VRAMS. Blender is just as hungry for VRAM as regular RAM, and if you’re interested in sculpting, high-polygon modeling, or GPU rendering, it’s worth paying extra for a GPU with ample VRAM.

For all of the above reasons, we definitely recommend:

  • Performance selection: Nvidia RTX 3090 or RTX 3080
  • Recommended value: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070
  • Budget choice: Nvidia GTX model

Conclusion:

In summary, certain Quadro Gpus are worse value for GPU rendering than mainstream or “gaming” Gpus, even though these “professional” Gpus offer more VRAM. There are features such as ECC VRAM, higher floating-point accuracy, or official support and drivers that make them valuable to enterprise, machine learning, or CAD users. Similarly, the RTX Titan can only be supplied with its dual fan cooling solution from NVIDIA, which means it can’t be used effectively in multi-GPU configurations. For your GPU rendering needs, stick with mainstream RTX Gpus for best value, especially the Beast RTX 3090.

The bad news is that Gpus are so powerful that they have become very popular devices in the crypto mining community, resulting in a significant increase in the price and scarcity of the RTX 30 series on the market. Investing $1,500 for a graphics card, not to mention the cost of building a computer for compatibility, is also expensive. It’s such a big investment for a single person or freelancer.