We are thrilled to announce that thanks to our close partnership with Blender®, select AMD graphics cards are supported in today’s release of version 3.0 of their incredibly popular 3D digital content creation software suite.
Broadly speaking, the goal of the new release is to build upon previous versions’ UI and workflows, and to improve it further. Blender 3.0 offers several improvements to the user experience across the entire 3D pipeline. Highlights include a node-based procedural modeling system and advanced asset browsing and management.
A complete refresh of the code and architecture of the Blender Cycles rendering engine is also part of the new Blender version. To support these changes, we’ve developed a new way to take the standard code that Blender uses for GPU acceleration in the new “Cycles X” update and have compiled it for AMD devices, using the open-source AMD HIP API. Our AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 21.12.1 or Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q4 (or newer) drivers are required to use Cycles in Blender 3.0. Support is currently validated on AMD Radeon PRO W6800 and AMD Radeon RX 6000 series desktop GPUs and enabled on other AMD RDNA™ and AMD RDNA 2 architecture graphics cards.
Highlights of the major update to the Blender Cycles renderer include much-improved GPU rendering performance, better viewport interactivity, revamped sampling settings, new GPU volume sampling, and a lot more. AMD is delivering a significantly better user experience in Blender 3.0 thanks to our support for these improvements to Cycles. When using the Blender 3.0 Cycles X renderer with the AMD HIP API, the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 renders across 8 Blender scenes at a combined average of 1.97x than when rendered using the Blender 2.93.5 Cycles renderer with OpenCL™(1). When using the Blender 3.0 Cycles X renderer with the AMD HIP API, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT renders across 8 Blender scenes at a combined average of 2.12x than when rendered using the Blender 2.93.5 Cycles renderer with OpenCL(2).
You can also see the performance uplift in individual scenes in the chart below:
Blender have long championed the freedom to create. We have a shared purpose of developing, maintaining, extending, and promoting open software solutions.
We are proud that our contributions have helped to improve workflows and experiences for the Blender community - the driving force behind Blender development. Our commitment to the community extends to our contributions to the Blender Development Fund which helps to ensure the future of Blender. It provides for ongoing development of powerful, stable software including a robust feature set that benefits the greater Blender community.
AMD’s creator focused software and hardware solutions help to power limitless possibilities and incredible value to a happy and expanding number of users. Whether you are a full-time, part-time, or occasional content creator, our Radeon graphics cards and Ryzen™ processors power productivity and offer features that help inspiration to take hold so that you can drive any creator project on the application of your choice across multiple platforms.
Download Blender 3.0 HERE.
Download AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.12.1 HERE.
Download AMD Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q4 HERE.
Kevin Jessop is Product Marketing Manager for AMD. Links to third-party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-5
FOOTNOTES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
1. Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of Nov 26, 2021, on the AMD Radeon™ PRO W6800 with pre-release AMD Radeon™ PRO Software “RC-13 21.Q4 beta Nov 8” driver, on a test system comprised of an Intel® Core™ i5-9400 6-core CPU, 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM, ASRock Z390 Taichi motherboard with BIOS version P4.30 at default settings, and Windows® 10 Pro October 2020 Update. Benchmark Application: Blender® 2.93.5 Cycles using OpenCL™ and Blender® 3.0 Cycles X using the AMD HIP API rendering the Blender® “Agent 327 Barbershop”, “Cosmos Laundromat Demo”, “Classroom”, “Car Demo”, “Monster Under the Bed”, “Lone Monk”, “Barcelona Pavilion”, and “Italian Flat” scenes with 800, 600, 300, 1,225, 1,024, 4,096, 1,000, 576 samples, respectively. Recorded the average render time of three runs in seconds (lower is better). Scores are based on AMD internal lab measurements and may vary. RPS-139.
2. Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of Nov 26, 2021, on the AMD Radeon™ RX 5700 XT with pre-release AMD Radeon™ Software “RC-11 Adrenalin 21.40” driver, on a test system comprised of an Intel® Core™ i5-9400 6-core CPU, 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM, ASRock Z390 Taichi motherboard with BIOS version P4.30 at default settings, and Windows® 10 Pro October 2020 Update. Benchmark Application: Blender® 2.93.5 Cycles using OpenCL™ and Blender® 3.0 Cycles X using the AMD HIP API rendering the Blender® “Agent 327 Barbershop”, “Cosmos Laundromat Demo”, “Classroom”, “Car Demo”, “Monster Under the Bed”, “Lone Monk”, “Barcelona Pavilion”, and “Italian Flat” scenes with 800, 600, 300, 1,225, 1,024, 4,096, 1,000, 576 samples, respectively. Recorded the average render time of three runs in seconds (lower is better). Scores are based on AMD internal lab measurements and may vary. RS-437.
“Blender 3.0 – Sprite Fright” image by Blender Studio is licensed under a CC BY license
“Classroom” image by Christopher Seux is licensed under a CC0 license
“Monster Under the Bed” image by Metin Seven is licensed under a CC BY license
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