Arnold GPU vs CPU – which one should you choose for your project?

If you are using Arnold for your project, are you using GPUs or CPUs? Which do you think is better to use? In this article, we will discuss the advantages of using Arnold and Arnold GPU, as well as provide advice on which one to use for your project.

Is Arnold a CPU or GPU? 

Since Arnold Version 6, you can render with both CPU và GPU. 

Arnold GPU 

Arnold GPU makes it easier to produce and iterate material, enabling you to work quickly and flexibly to meet production schedules and increase rendering capacity as necessary.

Arnold GPU is based on Nvidia’s OptiX framework and optimized for the new Nvidia RTX technology. Not only that, but when you want to speed up your performance and want faster render times, you can render with multiple cards. You can link more GPUs of the same architecture to share memory using a bridge called NVLink.

Additionally, Arnold GPU is accessible in all Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D, and Katana-enabled plug-ins.

In contrast, Arnold’s CPU is only focused on a certain activity. As a result, 3D artists frequently prefer Arnold GPU over CPU for complex scenes, while CPU is still preferred for single scenes requiring high quality. 

How to link the Arnold GPU and CPU?

The designers made it simple to switch between GPU and CPU rendering while maintaining the same settings. Rendering with Arnold GPU still has some restrictions, though. The list of restrictions is below.

Drivers	cryptomatte_manifest_driver, driver_deepexr
Filters	All filters (except blackman_harris_filter, box_filter, gaussian_filter, triangle_filter, closest_filter)
Shaders	clip_geo, crypto_matter, float_to_matrix, matrix_interpolate, matrix_transform, motion_vector, toon, trace_set
Shapes	cone, cylinder, disk, implicit, volume_implicit
AOVs	Pref, motion_vector, shadow_matte, volume_Z, volume_albedo, volume_indirect, volume_opacity
Custom plugins	BSDF, Camera, Filter, Shader
Other	Mipmap bias is not supported. Light linking is not supported on volumes. Trace sets are not supported. Noice has not supported

Choosing a GPU or CPU renderer for Arnold

With just one click, you may quickly switch between GPU and CPU render devices. The Render Device setting may be found in the Arnold plugins under Render Settings > System.

Additionally, you might alter which GPUs Arnold can see by setting the default values CUDA VISIBLE DEVICES.

Difference between rendering with Arnold and Arnold GPU

The performance of your rendering might also be impacted by how your system hardware is configured. Perhaps a powerful CPU would perform better than dozens of GPUs, or perhaps your process can be supported by a modest CPU and strong GPUs. Through the use of hardware benchmarks, this can be assessed.

For your workflow, a multi-core CPU with a faster clock speed is preferable. The most recent AMD 3rd generation CPUs perform significantly better than Intel CPUs while being comparably less expensive. But when it comes to CPU rendering, the Threadripper 3990x is very much untouchable if you want the best of the best.

The rendering scores, performance, and cost of several GPUs are evaluated in the Octanebench benchmark. When it comes to rendering, Nvidia RTX GPUs come out on top. After careful consideration, it is also clear that adding additional GPUs to a system would likely result in higher VRAM, greater performance, and better value from the GPUs.

The most obvious difference between CPU and GPU is the rendering results. The same scene will have different rendering results with CPU and GPU, which you can see with your own eyes. Quality-wise, GPUs simply fall short of CPUs. Generally speaking, a GPU render contains more noise.

A GPU rendering solution would be beneficial for you if your workflow demands speed, is straightforward, and is consistent in the work it produces. In addition to having cheaper hardware expenditures, the output is of equal quality to CPU renderings. Additionally, GPU rendering might be more appropriate for a beginner’s profile.

CPU rendering is the best option if you value quality, have more money to invest on hardware, and are willing to wait for superior results. You’ll gain from high-quality renders, but you’ll also have an advantage over rivals if you can easily handle difficult scenarios.

So you already know for your project whether to choose Arnold rendering or Arnold GPU rendering.

Conclusion 

Whether you use Arnold CPU or Arnold GPU rendering, you should pay attention to the hardware you use. You can also look for render farms that support both Arnold CPU and Arnold GPU to save money. In the listing review of the render farm, we have made it very clear which render farm supports Arnold. Or you can also ask the render farm directly for the software, render engine, and plugins that you use in your project to speed up the rendering process. If you have any questions, you can contact us.