How to optimise your workstation for Autodesk Arnold 2025

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Arnold is a raytracing renderer programme from Autodesk for calculating three-dimensional, computer-generated scenes and has become one of the most widely used rendering programmes in professional film production worldwide in recent years. Over 300 leading studios and production houses use Arnold as their standard renderer. As an interactive renderer, Autodesk Arnold is a component of Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max. From version 6, Arnold is able to utilise the CPU and GPU for its renderings. Plug-ins are available for the following programmes: Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D, Katana and Softimage.

Check your Autodesk Arnold workstation with our ultimate system guide

High-performance CPU for Autodesk Arnold 2025

Small to medium-sized Autodesk Arnold projects

the Intel Core series offers an excellent balance of price and performance. The latest Intel Core processors, such as the Intel Core i9 13900K, are equipped with up to 18 cores and 36 threads, enabling fast and smooth processing of rendering tasks. With high clock speeds and advanced technologies such as Intel Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading, these CPUs can handle complex calculations efficiently, making them ideal for individual users and small teams. 

Key benefits:

  • High clock speeds: Ideal for interactive rendering and design processes.

  • Expandable memory capacity: Support for large amounts of RAM to improve rendering performance.

  • Cost-efficiency: Excellent price-performance ratio for smaller budgets.

  • Maximum performance with Intel Xeon Dual CPUs

Medium to complex Autodesk Arnold projects

Intel Xeon Dual CPUs are the perfect choice. These systems offer extreme computing power by combining two CPUs, resulting in a significant increase in multithreading capabilities. With up to 56 cores and 112 threads in a dual-CPU setup, Intel Xeon processors like the Xeon Scalable Series are specifically designed for intensive workloads and demanding rendering.

Key Benefits:

  • Advanced multithreading capability: Great for parallel processing tasks and large render farms.

  • High reliability and stability: Designed for continuous operation and critical applications.

  • Scalability: Support for large amounts of RAM and storage to handle even the most complex projects.

Whether you're working on small, medium or complex projects, our enterprise workstations with Intel Core and Intel Xeon dual CPUs offer the perfect combination of performance, reliability and scalability. They're designed to maximize your productivity and enable you to realize the full potential of Autodesk Arnold. Contact us today to learn more about our customized solutions and find the ideal workstation for your needs.

Whether you are working on small, medium or complex projects, an enterprise workstation with powerful memory is essential to getting the most out of Autodesk Arnold. With the right RAM configuration, you can ensure that your workstation can meet the challenges of every project and that you can implement your creative visions without restrictions. Invest in a high-quality workstation that meets your requirements and offers you the performance you need to complete your projects successfully and efficiently.


Small Autodesk Arnold projects

  • For small projects that mainly consist of simple scenes and limited rendering tasks, 32 GB of memory is often sufficient. This configuration allows you to work smoothly and perform rendering processes quickly. The workstation can run several programs at the same time without sacrificing performance. A high-clock DDR4 RAM ensures that your work steps are processed quickly.

Medium Autodesk Arnold projects

  • For medium projects that include more complex scenes, detailed models and more complex textures, a memory of at least 64 GB is recommended. This size ensures that your workstation will not stall even under more intensive workloads. With enough RAM, you can easily manage and render large scenes in Autodesk Arnold. You can also work on multiple projects in parallel without affecting system performance.

Complex Autodesk Arnold projects

  • For highly complex projects that involve a large amount of detail, extensive simulations and high-resolution textures, a memory of 128 GB or more is ideal. This configuration gives you the power and capacity you need to efficiently handle even the most demanding tasks. With such powerful memory, you can ensure that your workstation always runs smoothly, even when you are processing large amounts of data and creating high-resolution renderings.

Optimized performance for Autodesk Arnold 2025

In addition to the sheer amount of memory, quality also plays a crucial role. Fast RAM with low latency and high bandwidth will help reduce rendering times and increase the overall performance of your workstation. By using the latest RAM technologies, such as DDR5, you can get the maximum efficiency out of your workstation.

Whether you're working on small, medium or highly complex projects, an enterprise workstation with the right graphics card is crucial to unlocking the full potential of Autodesk Arnold. With the right GPU configuration, you can ensure that your workstation is up to any challenge and that you can realize your creative visions without limitations. Invest in a powerful graphics card that meets your needs and gives you the performance you need to complete your projects efficiently and successfully.


Small Autodesk Arnold projects

For smaller projects that involve simple scenes and less complex rendering tasks, a mid-range graphics card like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060Ti is often sufficient. This GPU offers enough power to display and render basic 3D models and animations smoothly. It is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is more than enough for smaller projects. It also supports ray tracing, which significantly improves your rendering quality.


Medium Autodesk Arnold projects

Medium projects require a more powerful GPU that can handle more complex scenes and detailed textures. A suitable choice here would be the Nvida GeForce RTX 4080. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and significantly higher processing power, this graphics card can efficiently handle larger models and more demanding rendering tasks. It allows you to create detailed scenes and render them in high quality without compromising performance.


Complex Autodesk Arnold projects

For highly complex projects that involve a large number of details, extensive simulations and high-resolution textures, you need a top-notch GPU like the Nvidia RTX A6000. This workstation GPU is specifically designed for professional applications and offers 48 GB of GDDR6 memory. Its immense processing power and memory capacity allow you to efficiently handle even the most demanding rendering tasks in Autodesk Arnold. It supports advanced features such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-optimized processes, which significantly speeds up your workflows.

Performance optimization for Autodesk Arnold 2025

In addition to pure performance, the GPU architecture also plays an important role. Nvidia RTX series GPUs are based on the Ampere architecture, which has been specially optimized for intensive rendering tasks. It offers outstanding performance when processing real-time ray tracing, which is essential for photorealistic renderings. In addition, you benefit from CUDA technology, which enables high parallel processing and thus significantly reduces rendering times.

An optimally equipped enterprise workstation with the right hard drives is crucial to exploiting the full potential of Autodesk Arnold. Whether you are working on small, medium or complex projects, the right storage solution ensures that your workstation is up to the task and that you can implement your creative visions without restrictions. Invest in fast, reliable and sufficiently dimensioned hard drives to complete your projects efficiently and successfully.


Small Autodesk Arnold projects

For small projects that involve less extensive data volumes and simpler scenes, an NVMe SSD with 500 GB to 1 TB of storage space is sufficient. An NVMe SSD (Non-Volatile Memory Express) offers a significantly higher data transfer rate and shorter access times compared to conventional SATA SSDs and HDDs. This minimizes loading times and keeps your workstation responsive even when working on multiple files at the same time. This configuration is ideal for users who edit and render smaller 3D models and scenes.


Medium Autodesk Arnold projects

For medium projects that include more complex scenes, more detailed models and more extensive textures, a larger NVMe SSD with 1 TB to 2 TB of storage space is recommended. This storage capacity provides enough space for larger project files and enables fast data processing. In addition, you can add a second SATA SSD or a fast HDD with 2 TB or more as secondary storage. This second hard drive is used to archive older projects and back up your data without affecting the performance of your main SSD.


Complex Autodesk Arnold projects

For highly complex projects that include a large number of details, extensive simulations and high-resolution textures, you need a high-performance storage solution. An NVMe SSD with 2 TB or more as the primary hard drive is essential here. This hard drive allows you to quickly load and process even the largest project files. In addition, you should consider one or more SATA SSDs or fast HDDs with a total of at least 4 TB as secondary storage. These additional hard drives provide enough space for backup, archiving and fast access to large amounts of data.


Performance optimized for Autodesk Arnold 2025

In addition to storage capacity and speed, hard drive reliability is also crucial. NVMe SSDs not only offer fast read and write speeds, but also high durability and reliability. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configurations can also be considered to increase data security and further optimize performance. RAID 0 offers increased speed through data partitioning, while RAID 1 offers mirroring for data security.

Workstation recommendations for Autodesk Arnold