Best GPU for rendering
Best Graphics Cards for 3D Rendering and Modeling Professionals. It is not acceptable to waste 3 hours rendering a model that could be finished in half the time. You are a 3D modeling and rendering expert at this point with a high workload of complex designs that need to be completed as soon as possible. Our graphics cards are the best in the market, and now is the time to invest in the best. Our comparison table below outlines our top 3 GPU picks for 3D rendering and modeling professionals. To read the full reviews, simply click on the ‘review’ link below each GPU’s row.
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NVIDIA RTX A6000~The Absolute Best GPU for Professionals
CUDA Cores: 10752 | Base Clock: 1410 MHz | Boost Clock: 1800 MHz | Memory: 48 GB GDDR6 (ECC) | Memory Clock Speed: 16 Gbps | Memory Bus: 384-bit | TMUs: 336 | ROPs: 112 | Max. Monitors Supported: 4 | Power Consumption: 300 W | Dimensions: 10.5” x 4.4” (dual-slot)
REASONS TO BUY
In terms of creative professionals, this GPU is by far the best available today
More than twice as fast as the previous generation of Quadro RTX 8000 in terms of GPU rendering
Professional rendering applications are nearly universally compatible due to CUDA support
Rendering projects that require a lot of detail and complexity benefit from 48GB VRAM (the best VRAM available on the market)
The GPU has 10,752 CUDA cores for multitasking and fast rendering
Exceptional rendering speed
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Comparable to the RTX 3090 in rendering speed
Review
3D rendering and modeling professionals still rely on the 2021 NVIDIA RTX A6000 as their top tier professional graphics card in 2022. It is believed that the performance gains associated with the Quadro branding have remained with the RTX A6000, despite the drop of the Quadro name. With a wide range of professional certifications for rendering applications, the A6000 from NVIDIA is aimed and designed exclusively for 3D rendering and modeling professionals.
Its main feature is the integration of NVIDIA’s Ampere Architecture, which streamlines multiprocessor functions in the new generation of professional NVIDIA cards. Additionally, RT Cores (second-generation) are introduced to improve hardware acceleration of ray-tracing. Additionally, DLSS is introduced to boost performance at higher resolutions. Furthermore, CUDA cores are strongly increased to speed up rendering times for the development of 3D models.
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Strong reliability
With its certified drivers and ECC memory, the RTX A6000 provides strong reliability, a variety of specialized features, and a wide range of features geared toward professional visualization. This card offers top-tier performance for real-time ray-tracing and fine frame ray-tracing output with its 10,752 CUDA cores and 84 RT cores. We are quite impressed with the power and performance of the RTX A6000, which is the fastest card we have seen so far.
It is currently the most expensive upgrade you can purchase for your editing, rendering, or 3D modeling workstation. Creative professionals can create large 3D scenes without sacrificing complexity with the A6000’s 48GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which lets it work with the largest 3D datasets. Moreover, the reliability features of the A6000 ensure that even when editing complex datasets or renderings, this card will run smoothly on your computer.
The A6000 outperformed the Quadro RTX 8000 in almost all categories except Koro by 40 seconds in real-world testing environments. We have seen the most impressive professional-grade GPU we have seen so far, the A6000, which boasts a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, 10,752 CUDA cores, and 84 RT cores. Aside from the impressive 38.7 teraflops of single precision performance, we also found it the most powerful card we have ever tested for 3D rendering.
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Performance being comparable to NVIDIA’s RTX 3090
In addition to its overall performance being comparable to NVIDIA’s consumer-oriented RTX 3090, this card offers niche features such as real-time ray tracing and fine-frame ray-tracing output in editing programs that make it stand out. Also, the RTX A6000 has been certified for professional applications, which makes it incredibly reliable for workstation computers, and a GPU that crashes when you are editing a complex film or VR experience is the last thing you want.
In today’s market, the RTX A6000 from NVIDIA is the best option if you’re looking to push visual fidelity to its limits. NVIDIA’s next generation of cards is expected to arrive sometime in 2023, but the A6000 still performs exceptionally well in rendering and design environments, ensuring you get longevity for your cash.
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EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra~Best Value Card for Professionals
CUDA Cores: 10496 | Base Clock: 1395 MHz | Boost Clock: 1800 MHz | Memory: 24 GB GDDR6X | Memory Clock Speed: 19.5 Gbps | Memory Bus: 384-bit | TMUs: 328 | ROPs: 112 | Max. Monitors Supported: 4 | Power Consumption: 350 W | Dimensions: 11.8” x 5.4” (triple-slot)
REASONS TO BUY
Because CUDA is supported by most professional rendering applications, it provides near universal compatibility
A total of 10496 CUDA cores for high performance rendering
The A6000 offers similar rendering speeds, but at a significantly lower price
High-detail renderings are possible due to a massive amount of storage
Construction of high quality
Under heavy loads, it stays cool
REASONS TO AVOID
VRAM without ECC, without professional certification
Energy-hungry
Quite large
Review
In our list of 3D rendering and modeling cards, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is our favorite value card since it offers some of the fastest rendering times. In professional editing situations, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 offers a comparable experience to this card, even though it’s geared toward gamers and enthusiasts.
Featuring 10496 CUDA cores, 24GB of VRAM, and 10496 CUDA cores, we consider the GeForce RTX 3090 to be the top value card. With a CUDA core count of 10,496 cores, this card is capable of handling intensive workloads efficiently and quickly. Furthermore, the RTX 3090 is one of the fastest 3D rendering cards on the market right now while keeping a relatively low price when compared with previous generations of professional cards like the RTX Quadro, Titan, and A6000.
The NVIDIA Ampere architecture is also included in the 3090, just as it is in the A6000 and A4000 on our list. This architecture boosts 3D modeling and rendering workflows greatly by increasing the number of CUDA cores, which speeds up rendering times and performance when developing 3D models.
In our benchmarking of the GeForce RTX 3090, we discovered that the 24-GB GeForce RTX 3090 outperformed all of its competitors, scoring 782 Millions of Paths per Second (mpaths), while the 10-GB GeForce RTX 3080 scored 638 mpaths. Compared to the RTX 3080 or previous generations of graphics cards, the RTX 3090 reduces rendering time significantly.
A decent return on investment
You can save a significant amount of time on your projects if you work as a freelance 3D artist with the RTX 3090 24GB, and you will also get a decent return on investment when compared with the other cards on this list. Despite its budget-friendly nature, the 3090 is not a cheap card, so multi-GPU setups based on it will become extremely expensive very quickly.
GeForce RTX 3090 surpasses all other RTX cards from NVIDIA and AMD Radeon by far with its ability to render 4K and 8K HDR video quickly thanks to its 10,496 CUDA cores.
With 24GB of VRAM, you can model 3D models in no time at all, and it will probably be powerful enough for generations to come. With its blower-style fan model, the RTX 3090 will keep your rendering workload cool while working with large digital assets or rendering complex environments. In your workstation, you can also run a multi-GPU setup efficiently.
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Drawbacks
It is notable that the RTX 3090 lacks ECC (error-correcting code) VRAM, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of it as a professional 3D renderer and modeler. With ECC-VRAM, errors are detected and corrected in the GPU memory chips and offer a much higher degree of reliability than with non-ECC VRAM, which is found on the majority of gaming-oriented cards.
In general, the RTX 3090 is comparable to the RTX A6000, but is much cheaper to purchase. As opposed to the A6000, the 3090 consumes more power and doesn’t have the same certifications and reliability for rendering 3D images that the A6000 does. The RTX 3090 will however be compatible with almost any rendering software with similar performance due to its Ampere architecture and CUDA cores.
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AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100~Best Budget Graphics Card for Professionals
Shading Units: 1792 | Base Clock: 2331 MHz | Boost Clock: 2580 MHz | Memory: 8GB GDDR6 | Memory Clock Speed: 14 Gbps | Memory Bus: 128-bit | TMUs: 112 | ROPs: 64 | Max. Monitors Supported: 4 | Power Consumption: 100 W | Dimensions: 9.5” x 4.4” (single-slot)
REASONS TO BUY
Price point under $800
AMD’s professional cards have improved dramatically since the last generation
Workflows for rendering are sped up by AMD Ray Accelerator Technology
Rendering and modeling 3D models with Ray Tracing
Rendering drivers certified by AMD for professional compatibility with industry standards
A Radeon-based professional rendering application that supports Radeon Pro Rendering
Design with a single slot for compactness
Eco-friendly
REASONS TO AVOID
The rendering of medium resolution details is limited by only 8GB VRAM and limited bandwidth
Compared to Nvidia GPUs, it offers less performance
Review
Professional 3D rendering cards made by AMD have always been cost-effective, and the AMD Radeon ProWX 7100 is no exception. In comparison to other professional-level cards on our list, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 is a reliable card that isn’t too power-hungry, capable of handling 3D workloads and isn’t too power-hungry for under $800.
There are only 8GB of VRAM, 10.4 teraflops of single precision performance, and 1792 cores in the Pro W6600, the least powerful card on this list, but it is also one of the most affordable current-gen 3D rendering cards on the market for the price range of $500-700, which makes it the most affordable certified professional workstation card.
RTX A6000 cards or RTX 3090 cards can be handled by the Pro W6600 if your workstation is not up to date with the latest technology. It’s suitable for professional 3D rendering and visualization applications as well as 4K content. You can also connect your workstation to a multi-monitor setup when working on expansive rendering projects by using the four DisplayPort 1.4 ports on the W6600.
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A performance below that of NVIDIA cards
According to our testing in Blender of the W6600, it took 80 seconds to render in the BMW rendering test, a performance below that of NVIDIA cards like the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090. Despite the differences between Blender and NVIDIA cards, the W6600 was on par with similar gaming cards (like the 6800 XT) once we switched to Radeon ProRender.
We can’t measure workstation GPUs against a single metric like we can with gaming cards, which is part of the territory of reviewing workstation GPUs like the W6600. The AMD Pro W6600, however, performed well in video encoding tests, Adobe Premiere Pro tests, and rendering tests, all of which were highly impressive.
Although AMD’s Radeon ProRender supports RDNA2 ray-tracing, only RDNA2 ray-tracing is supported as of writing. The W6600 performed well in our daily rendering workflow, but at times could be slowed down when rendering complex 4K environments with a large number of individual details.
This entry-level workstation card comes at a value of under $800, making it the best deal for anyone seeking a professional workstation GPU that is current-gen, rendering application certified, and optimized for 3D rendering and modeling. It is particularly noteworthy that this card is only 100W TDP, which is very low in power consumption. You should definitely consider the AMD Radeon Pro W6600 if you are a freelance 3D renderer who may not be running the latest hardware.
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Best Graphics Cards for 3D Rendering and Modeling for Advanced Users
You are now fully acquainted with 3D modeling and rendering. You can create complex models, but you need much more processing power to render them efficiently. However, you are still not getting enough return on your GPU investment.
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Final thoughts on best GPU for rendering
VRAM works in a similar way to RAM in situations where you had too little in the first place. With all other specs equal, having a GPU with more VRAM won’t have any impact on performance if your 3D scene fits perfectly into your GPU’s memory. In many GPU render engines, more free VRAM makes it possible to use larger ray-trees or other optimizations, so even though your scene is simple and easily fits into your GPU(s)’s VRAM, you may see a small performance improvement with more free VRAM.
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