Blender is an awesome 3D modelling and rendering software that is free to use and the preferred choice for several users.
In this article, we list the best GPU for Blender.
Get this if you want the best performance in Blender.
The NVIDIA RTX 3070 is a powerful card with an attractive price point.
NVIDIA GTX 1650 is the best budget GPU for starting out in Blender.
Get this if you want the best performance in Blender.
The NVIDIA RTX 3070 is a powerful card with an attractive price point.
NVIDIA GTX 1650 is the best budget GPU for starting out in Blender.
Last update on 2024-04-26 at 20:04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Blender System Requirements
Minimum
- 64-bit dual-core 2Ghz CPU with SSE2 support
- 4 GB RAM
- 1280×768 display
- Mouse, trackpad or pen+tablet
- Graphics card with 1 GB RAM, OpenGL 3.3
- Less than 10 years old
Recommended
- 64-bit quad-core CPU
- 16 GB RAM
- Full HD display
- Three-button mouse or pen+tablet
- Graphics card with 4 GB RAM
Optimal
- 64-bit eight-core CPU
- 32 GB RAM
- Full HD displays
- Three-button mouse and pen+tablet
- Graphics card with +12 GB RAM
Is Blender CPU or GPU Intensive?
Both. Blender allows you to choose between CPU, GPU or both (both for Blender 2.8) to render your models or projects.
The catch is that if your models and projects have a lot of polygons to render. Then it becomes GPU intensive and having a great GPU will speed up rendering times.
Simulations, scene states, etc. are more CPU intensive and a great CPU will shorten rendering times when you switch from GPU to CPU.
So if you think of not getting a GPU and only rely on CPU when it comes to rendering in Blender or vice versa. Then you are shooting yourself in the foot.
Because your projects or models might get large along with increasing detail. Or there might be times where you have a lot of polygons than scene states etc.
To sum it all up, having a good CPU and GPU will go a long way for you in Blender.
Does Blender Need GPU?
As explained above, Blender doesn’t need a GPU for rendering. However, not having a GPU is not a good idea.
In fact, having the best GPU helps immensely when rendering in Blender. So you can’t overlook this.
What Graphics Card Do I Need For Blender?
A graphics card that complements the CPU, fits your budget and can handle your level of expertise when using Blender. That’s the graphics card you need for Blender.
Fortunately, our list has already taken care of that so you can choose the one that fits your budget.
What Is CUDA, OptiX and OpenCL In Blender?
NVIDIA GPUs are supported and implemented in Blender than AMD GPUs. And that brings us to CUDA, OptiX and OpenCL in Blender. These are options that can be chosen depending on the graphics cards.
CUDA is for NVIDIA GTX and RTX cards that have compute capability 3.0 or higher. CUDA is supported on Windows, macOS and Linux.
OptiX is for NVIDIA RTX (GeForce and Quadro) cards only with Ray tracing technology. Selecting this option results in better performance.
However, OptiX is still in the experimental stage and doesn’t support a lot of features. OptiX is supported on Windows and Linux.
OpenCL is supported for GPU rendering with AMD Graphics cards.
Is Nvidia Better than AMD for Blender?
Both GPUs are good for Blender. You will be able to get fast rendering times with their top-of-the-line GPU.
The reason why NVIDIA is seen to be better than AMD for Blender is because of its popularity.
Can I Run Blender Without Graphics Card?
Yes, you can run Blender without a graphics card. But, you wouldn’t be able to render on Blender projects.
Dedicated GPUs are very important when it comes to rendering.
How To Look For The Best GPU For Blender?
The Blender system requirements give you a fair idea on what to look for when getting the best GPU for Blender.
But, we will take things further and explain a few things to help you make the best choice.
Clock Speed
This metric is pretty straightforward and provided on the spec sheet. The higher the clock speed the more powerful the GPU. However, clock speed is not the only determining factor in GPU performance.
For example, it is well known that the RTX 2060 is more powerful than the GTX 1650. But, when you take a look at their clock speeds (MHz).
They are almost similar. So clock speed shouldn’t be the only thing that you should use to gauge a GPU’s performance.
VRAM
Just like how having a lot of RAM helps in system performance and multitasking. VRAM is RAM specifically used by the GPU.
That means the more VRAM a GPU has the more it can handle graphical loads. And Blender is hungry for not only RAM but VRAM too. Better to have a lot than little to be on the safer side.
Graphic cards with a high amount of VRAM are more often powerful cards. For example, the RTX 2060 has 6GB of VRAM whiles the GTX 1650 has 4GB VRAM. The RTX 2080 Ti has a whopping 11GB RAM.
Cores
Just like how CPUs have their own cores. GPUs also have cores except that GPU cores are far more numerous than CPU cores. Furthermore, the more powerful the GPU. The higher number of cores it has.
For example, the RTX 2060 has 1920 NVIDIA CUDA Cores whiles the RTX 2070 Super has 2304 NVIDIA CUDA Cores.
Also, NVIDIA calls their cores NVIDIA CUDA cores whiles AMD refer to theirs as Stream processors. Depending on the complexity of the project having a GPU with a lot of cores helps a lot.
Best Graphics Cards for Blender [Reviewed & Rated]
Where To Buy
- Clock Speed: 1440 MHz
- NVIDIA CUDA Cores: 8704
- VRAM: 10GB
- Memory Bandwidth: 912GB/s
- Clock Speed: 1500 MHz
- NVIDIA CUDA Cores: 5888
- VRAM: 8GB
- Memory Bandwidth: 760GB/s
Where To Buy
- Clock Speed: 2321 MHz
- Stream Processors: 2560
- VRAM: 12GB
- Memory Bandwidth: 384GB/s
Where To Buy
- Clock Speed: 1500 MHz
- NVIDIA CUDA Cores: 1920
- VRAM: 6GB
- Memory Bandwidth: 336GB/s
Where To Buy
- Clock Speed: 1485 MHz
- NVIDIA CUDA Cores: 896
- VRAM: 4GB
- Memory Bandwidth: 128GB/s
Final Thoughts
Having the best GPU along with the CPU will do wonders for your Blender rendering times. So although the CPU is important. You can’t ignore the GPU. That’s it for the best GPUs for Blender.
