Top 5 3D Software Work Best with Single GPU

#beginners #discuss #design #software

When building a rendering workstation, many artists and designers assume that adding more GPUs will automatically multiply rendering performance. While this is true for many offline render engines like Redshift, Octane or Blender Cycles, not all 3D software can take advantage of multiple GPUs. In fact, some popular real-time rendering tools are still limited to a single GPU, which often surprises users who have invested heavily in multi-GPU setups.

In this article, we will look at several widely used 3D visualization tools that only render on one GPU, explore why a single GPU is enough or sometimes necessary for their workflows and find the suitable software for your projects.

Why Multi-GPU Rendering Matters?

For offline render engines such as V-Ray, Redshift, or Octane, multi-GPU rendering is a game changer. By distributing the rendering workload across several graphics cards, artists can significantly reduce render times, improve workflow efficiency and handle more complex scenes.

Faster rendering: Multiple GPUs can process frames or tiles in parallel, making high-quality output much quicker compared to a single GPU.
Bigger projects: Large architectural scenes, animations, or VFX shots often exceed the memory of one GPU. Multi-GPU setups combine resources, allowing artists to work with heavier files.
Efficient iteration: Faster feedback cycles mean designers can test different lighting setups, materials, or animations without waiting hours for results. This is why many professionals invest in workstations with two, four, or even eight GPUs. However, as we’ve seen, not every 3D software is built to take advantage of this power, especially real-time visualization tools, which typically stick to one GPU for stability and interactivity.

Top 5 3D Software Work Best With Single GPU

1. D5 Render

D5 Render is a fast-growing real-time tool focused on architectural visualization. It is powered by real-time ray tracing but currently relies on a single GPU to handle the rendering pipeline. The reason lies in its architecture: D5 Render is optimized for responsiveness and interactivity rather than distributed GPU scaling. Since the workflow emphasizes “what you see is what you get” previews, one powerful GPU can efficiently handle both the viewport and the final render.

2. Twinmotion

Developed by Epic Games and built on Unreal Engine, Twinmotion is designed for architects and designers who need quick visualizations without complex setup. Like D5, it is a real-time tool that favors speed and interactivity. Twinmotion is optimized to run smoothly on a single GPU to ensure stable performance, avoiding the complications of multi-GPU synchronization in real-time rendering environments.

3. Lumion

Lumion has long been a favorite in architectural visualization for its ease of use and massive asset library. Despite its strong GPU acceleration, Lumion does not scale across multiple GPUs. Its philosophy is straightforward: simplicity and instant results. By focusing on a single GPU pipeline, Lumion ensures that the rendering process is stable and predictable across different user hardware.

4. Unreal Engine (Real-Time Rendering)

Although Unreal Engine is incredibly powerful and used for everything from games to virtual production, its real-time rendering system is also GPU-bound to a single card in most workflows. Multi-GPU setups are mainly useful in highly specialized rendering clusters, not in everyday design visualization. For individual artists, Unreal prioritizes stability and real-time feedback over scaling across multiple GPUs.

5. Enscape

Enscape is another popular real-time visualization plugin for Revit, SketchUp, Rhino and ArchiCAD. Known for its one-click rendering and VR capabilities, it also runs on a single GPU. The reasoning is similar to the tools above: Enscape’s real-time feedback loop is designed for smooth interactivity, not offline distributed rendering. This makes one powerful GPU sufficient for most design workflows.

Why These Tools Stick to One GPU?

Real-time rendering focus: These tools prioritize smooth interactivity and instant feedback, where adding more GPUs could actually slow performance due to synchronization overhead.
Simplicity and stability: Limiting rendering to a single GPU reduces driver conflicts and scaling issues, ensuring the software runs reliably on most machines.
Target users: Aimed at architects and designers, these software values ease of use and quick setup over complex multi-GPU optimization.

Which 3D software should you choose?

After learning that some 3D tools only use a single GPU, the key question is: which one best fits your workflow? Each of the five software mentioned earlier serves a slightly different purpose. Based on that, you can choose the suitable software for your projects:

D5 Render: Ideal for architects and interior designers who need real-time visualization with straightforward controls
Twinmotion: A good fit for designers who want fast presentations and VR support, while still benefiting from Unreal Engine’s foundation
Lumion: Best for those who value ease of use and a vast asset library, especially for architectural walkthroughs
Unreal Engine: Suitable for users aiming at advanced, interactive experiences like VR, AR, or cinematic-quality visuals, even though it’s more complex to learn
Enscape: Perfect if you work mainly inside CAD/BIM tools (Revit, SketchUp, Rhino) and want a seamless, integrated plugin for real-time rendering

Conclusion

While real-time software like D5 Render, Twinmotion, Lumion, Unreal Engine and Enscape deliver impressive results, they all share a common limitation: they only utilize one GPU. This means that adding multiple graphics cards will not necessarily improve performance in these applications. For users, the most practical approach is to rely on the powerful single GPU available (like NVIDIA RTX 4090) to ensure smooth interactivity and stable performance across demanding design workflows.

iRender - Optimized Solution for Single-GPU Software

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