Video Cards and rendering

TechSmith

I had a bit of a disagreement with someone on another forum about rendering. He states that rendering in a 3d app uses the video gpu and ram. I on the other hand said that it uses the cpu and system memory. Were either of us right?

Daz

You were right, he was wrong. Rendering is done in software and doesn't use your 3D card at all whatsoever.

However, Im pretty sure there are moves to change this. And there damn well should be. I vaguely recall nVidia or somebody announcing some software ( perhaps it was hardware too ) that had the capability of using it for rendering. I shall have a hunt around.

CrazyButcher

the nvidia software to render on gpu is called gelato

thomasp

hi there, it all depends.

most apps do not utilize the gpu for speeding up rendering, some do. discreet flame has been doing this for a decade or more. apparently other apps like ifx piranha can do it as well or at least leave you the choice whether the gpu should kick in.
however, these are effect compositors with 3d modules, not 3d animation packages with complex material trees.