Thinking about setting up a dedicated computer for rendering in your office? Before doing so, there are a few important considerations to ensure optimal performance.

Determine How Many Users Will Use the Render Server

• Consider how many users will send render jobs to the same machine.

• The Render Server is designed to leverage idle computing power across multiple machines, not just one or two.

• While you can dedicate a single computer, this approach may create bottlenecks under heavier user load.

Prevent Job Queues

• Render jobs are processed one at a time on each server.

• Multiple users submitting jobs simultaneously can create a queue.

• To reduce the risk of queue build-up:

  • Consider using multiple moderately powerful computers rather than a single high-performance machine.

  • Distributing jobs across multiple machines allows rendering to complete faster and avoids delays.

Recommended Hardware

• CPU: More cores = faster render times.

• RAM: At least 8 GB; more is better.

• GPU: Not required; all rendering is done on the CPU.

Tip: The server does not currently split jobs across multiple cores for simultaneous tasks; each job uses the allocated CPU cores until completed.

Recommended Setup

• Install the Render Server on several networked computers to share idle CPU power efficiently.

• Under typical office load, two or more mid-range computers may outperform a single high-end machine.

• This approach aligns with the original design of the Render Server, which is intended to distribute rendering tasks across multiple machines.