Why are games rendered with a GPU while Blender, Cinebench and other programs use the CPU to render high quality 3d imagery? Why do some start rendering in the center and go outwards (e.g. Cinebench, Blender) and others first make a crappy image and then refine it (vRay Benchmark)?

Question

Why are games rendered with a GPU while Blender, Cinebench and other programs use the CPU to render high quality 3d imagery? Why do some start rendering in the center and go outwards (e.g. Cinebench, Blender) and others first make a crappy image and then refine it (vRay Benchmark)?

In: Technology

Answer 1

~~Blender~~ Cycles can be configured to render from the center outwards, or from a side to the other side, and in many other patterns. It also can be configured to render a “crappy first image then refine it”, and that is called progressive rendering.

Cycles can utilize either the CPU or GPU for the task. Rendering with the GPU is usually much faster, but either partially does or doesn’t support some effects.