This is Arnold Render Benchmark is probably the most accurate CPU and GPU benchmark ever created. What makes this speed benchmark different from the others is the fact that the scene is build and optimized by a professional, with a precise goal in mind: stress every single core of the modern CPUs and GPUs. This benchmark will reflect your hardware performance realistically, not in a theoretical manner like the vast majority of benchmarks out of there. If you are interested to see how fast is your computer on 3D applications and rendering, just run the ultimate Arnold Render Benchmark for Maya and share your results!
NOTE: this benchmark has been created in cooperation with professional reviewers on famous websites like ExtremeTech.com and HWupgrade.it.
reviewersSTEP 1: Download the Benchmark for Maya
To run the Arnold Benchmark for Maya you need to grab the archive from cgtrader.com, It is free, it takes just 1 minute to register and help me to save some bandwidth on my website. The benchmark archive is protected by a password: antoniobosi.com
STEP 2: Extract the Archive in the correct Folder
Once you have download the Arnold Render CPU and GPU benchmark you have to extract it in << C:\ >>
The path will look like this << C:\ARNOLD_RENDER_BENCHMARK_for_MAYA\ >>
You must extract the benchmark file in this folder because of the limitations of Arnold Render about relative file paths. If you don’t extract the archive in this folder the benchmark will not work properly. You can compare your renders with the output files that I put in the benchmark folder. The must look identical.
STEP 3: Run Maya and Open the right Benchmark File
After Maya is fully loaded go to the Arnold Render benchmark folder and chose what kind of benchmark you want to do. If you want to do the CPU benchmark chose the “CPU” file, otherwise open the “GPU” one to perform the GPU Arnold benchmark.
STEP 4: check the Arnold Render version (5.3.3.2)
We need to use the same version of Arnold Render to obtain comparable results. The version to use is the 5.3.3.2 You can Download Arnold Render for Maya plugin here. To check what version of MtoA plugin is installed in your system just follow the steps shown below.
* you may see a different plugin version in the screenshots below, their use is just for indications.
STEP 5: Check Render settings (GPU BENCHMARK ONLY)
It is important to check what GPU is selected under Arnold Render Settings. I activated the manual selection for the first video card of your system: probably you won’t need to touch it, but if you see something different from the image below adjust it to make work just one GPU.
STEP 6: Open Arnold Render View
Follow the steps shown below to open the Arnold RenderView inside Maya. We will launch the render benchmark from there.
STEP 7A: GPU Render Benchmark
STEP 7B: CPU Render Benchmark
Once the Arnold RenderView is open disable Progressive Refinement and click on Update Full Scene. Maya will take some time to preload the scene, but after a while you should see some little portion of the image appear: click the “reload” icon at the top right of the window and wait the render to finish!
STEP 8: Take a look at your Render Time
Congratulations you just tested the speed of your system on GPU and CPU rendering! You just need to look at the bottom left of the render view to see the render time: the lower the better.
STEP 9: Share and Compare your results
Now you can share your results using the comment form at the end of the page (no registration required). I will post the results once I collect and compare some useful data. Thank you for your contribution!
ARNOLD CPU RENDERING SPEED
Below you can find the chart with some cpu speed render benchmark on rendering in Maya and Arnold. Right now the AMD threadripper 3990X is the king of rendering. We are eager to see how fast will be the new AMD Ryzen Zen3 series on rendering in Maya.
Are you searching the old Arnold Render Benchmark and results? Click Here
ARNOLD GPU RENDERING SPEED
Arnold can make renders using the power of modern GPUs like Geforce RTX 3080, 3090 and 3070. You can run the my benchmark to test your gpu speed in gpu rendering using Arnold for Maya. Compare your results with the chart below. I tested only single card configurations.
69 thoughts on “Arnold Render CPU & GPU Speed Benchmark”
Render time 4:38
Mac Mini M4
16G RAM
6x perf cores, 4x Eff cores
Render time 2:22
Macbook Pro M4 Max
48G RAM
12x perf cores, 4x Eff cores
Impressive
Yeah, it’s a lil beast this one.
Is that for a GPU or CPU render?
The ARM version for Maya for Mac doesn’t have a CPU option actually. It’s GPU or nothing.
Render time 2:37
Mac Studio M1 Ultra
128G RAM
16x Perf cores, 4x Eff cores
Render time 7:08
2019 Mac Pro
48G RAM
16 core 3.5 GHz Intel Xeon W
AMD Radeon Pro Vega II 32 GB
This seems to only work on a windows machine. Is there any way to get it to work on a mac?
Theoretically, the files should work on mac, linux and windows. But I can’t tell you how to set everything up for Mac.
The main issue is the requirement, “you have to extract it in <>”. The fact that “C:\” is hardcoded in the directory paths prevents it from being used on linux or mac, which don’t have a concept of a “C:\” drive. Is there a way to change the assets to use relative paths, rather than absolute paths?
Unfortunately no. Arnold needs absolute paths, this is why I chose to set c:\ as the root folder. Isn’t there a mac or linux equivalent of c:/ ? That is, a location on the disk that all systems have? I could try setting it as a path only for mac/linux systems and see if it works for you.
For a mac or linux OS, the root dir is just “/” .
I was able to edit the file ARNOLD_BENCHMARK_scene.ass and replaced all the hard coded file paths with apropos ones for my system. There’s one path that is for an OCIO config. You should be able to find it under /Applications/Autodesk/maya/Maya.app/Contents/Resources/OCIO-configs/Maya-legacy/config.ocio.
Thanks for your input, mac users will definitely find your advice useful!
Render Time 3.39
13900HX
32GB 5600MHz
Thank you
actully is 13980hx
CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 5800x
GPU: Gigabyte Nvidia RTX 4060Ti
MEMORY : 32Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600Mhz
HDD : 2x SDD Nvme Samsung 980 PRO 2To
———————————————————
Autodesk Maya 2025
Arnold Core : Arnold 7.3.1.0 (MtoA 5.4.1)
GPU : 3.40
CPU : 7:57
Thank you Chris!
Maya 2024.1, Arnold 5.3.1.1
14700KF – 3m 28s stock
RTX 4090 – 3m 00s stock Nvidia driver 551.52
Ram 64 GB 3200MHz DDR4
Thank you!
I just upgraded from a GTX 1080 Ti to a NVidia RTX 4070 Super:
GPU Render Time: 2:29
CPU i7 -8700 @ 3.20 GHz
Ram: 32 GB
Thank you for a great test!
Thank you for your comment 😉
I just added a second RTX 4070 Super:
So 2 X RTX 4070 Super: GPU Render Time: 1:18
Thank you!
Render time 02:42
dual AMD Epic 7601
Ram 128 GB
Render Time GPU: 19:44
nVidia GTX 1070 Ti
Render Time CPU: 10:33
Intel 5950x, OC to 4.3 GHZ all cores
I really did not expect these results. Didn’t change any of the render settings. The only thing I can think of is that it’s a never version of the MtoA plugin (4.1.1).
I am loosing my hair in searching for gpu render. Redshift is expensive. Arnold and V-Ray gpu versions are very simillar in using lots of Vram for geometry (bad optimization), and both have strange hang when render starts. I think that i will just buy 5950x and be happy when Arnold now have cpu denoiser (have single 3060 Ti for now). Cheers.
I agree with you, sometimes gpu renders behave strangely. With the cpu render engines you are slower but you have less problems
It’s not only that. Gpu rendering is a gimmick with Arnold and Vray (my opinion). Only Redshift, Octane and Fstorm are useful in gpu rendering. But Octane is weird as Zbrush, and Fstorm is just for 3DSMax. Redshift is similar to Arnold which is great. I will buy it some day…
I agree with you, Arnold is years behind the other competitors regarding gpu render. I hope they will fill the gap soon.
I agree with you, Arnold is years behind the other competitors regarding gpu render. I hope they will fill the gap soon.
Hello, Your results shows that 5950x is fast as single 3080? Is this correct?
They are not directly comparable since Arnold use different samples settings moving from cpu to gpu. I think 3080 is way faster. Anyway you gave me a good suggestion to make a comparable benchamrk between cpus and gpus!
You will be very lucky to find a 5990X.
I have waiting over a year & they are still not available.
I also hope Intel will start to make some new HEDT cpu soon so we can have more offer in the market.
Go to gputracker website. There is plenty of 5950x, at least in Europe. I will wait probably Zen 3 architecture.
Would you recommend me buying 2x RTX 3070Ti or 1 RTX 3090 or 1 RTX 3080?
I work with 1 RTX 3080 and it goes very good. 2x rtx 3070 ti would be faster so you can think about that but they can have heat problems when work togheter. I think 3090 is the worst choice: a lot of money for a small performance boost over the 3080.
Render time 4:17
Dual Xeon e5 2697 v3
Render Time 5:57
Dual Xeon e5 2678 v3
3970X: 2:10
Quadro RTX A5000 on a EK 3090 full-nickel waterblock and active backplate: 3:54
Seems something causes a cap on GPUs, I wonder if its the memory clock on the GPU’s?
Cpu render time: 14:22 Intel Core i7 8700T with pro cooling
Gpu render time: 3:35 RTX 3080 Ti Gygabyte OC edition
Gpu render time: 5:40 RTX 3070 Ti FE
32GB Ram @2600
Amazing!!!
Threadripper 3995WX CPU Render Time: 1:08
Hey, circling back to this. I went from an 2700x to a 3950x back in Feb but forgot to update my benchmarks. Everything else stayed the same in those tests (mobo, gpu, ram, etc). And the timing for the 3950x was down to 4:23 in my best run (my worst was only 4:25, so very consistent). So it comes in a bit lower than the chart has it but part of the cpu upgrade was adding in an AIO cooler; so I’m probably just getting boosts thanks to that setup.
Since that test in Feb, I did manage to snag a 3090 Hybrid (has an AIO cooler already installed) and I got exactly the same score as the 3090 did in the chart: 3:53.
It’s a bit of a bummer that the Hybrid 3090 didn’t beat the stock, given the price differential and hassle with setup. But ~4min presumably isn’t enough to saturate the AIO loop. Still, it would be a good indication for other buyers to just stick with the air-cooled gpus as the price is better (I only wound up with this due to nothing else being available).
Hi Swade, I think the main advantage of the AIO cooled GPU is the reliability. I’ve done some overclocking tests in the past and I saw almost no difference when rising frequencies on a same model. Anyway I think a liquid cooled GPU will last longer! EDIT: just tested my 3950x and it scores 4:35 (mtoa 4.2.2)
I noticed that you posted the 3990X, but you didn’t post my 3995WX, which rendered the scene in 1:08. Did you need confirmation?
Hello, It is above this one.
I’ve overclocked 3080Ti Gigabyte Gaming OC to 2040Mhz using MSI Afterburner
GPU time = 03:14
Hi mate, thank you for submitting. It seems very fast. What version of Arnold did you use? We can compare results just if you have installed Arnold 4.0.4.
3080Ti Gigabyte Gaming OC
03:22
I posted on the older benchmark, glad to see this newer one :-).
Great work!!
(2:24) Threadripper 3970x w/ 64GB Ram
Thank you Todd! Amazing CPU
CPU Time 12:03
Intel® Xeon® W-1290P Processor CPU @ 3.70 GHz
32 GB RAM
Thanks for this test!
Thank you for the cooperation!
CPU Rendertime: 10:00 (exactly!)
AMD 2700X @ 3.925GHz (PBO on, held stable at frequency all cores at 74 C, stock wraith prism cooler)
32 GB RAM
About to pop in a different CPU in the exact same setup, will post results.
Thank you, keep us informed about the new cpu speed!
CPU Rendertime: 09:58
Intel Core i7-7820X @ 3.60GHz
32 GB RAM
No Overclocking
thanks for your Arnold Benchmark !
Thank you for your contribution 😉
CPU Rendertime: 05:12
Intel Core i9-10980XE @ 3.00GHz
32 GB RAM
Still no Overclocking
Intel i9-10980XE is still a great CPU! Thank you for the update 😉
GPU Render Time: 3:53 – RTX 3090 FE – 68 degrees celcius
CPU Render Time 3:28 – Ryzen 5950X – 72 degrees celcius
128GB Ram 3200
I am not sure why the CPU render time came down from 4:48 to 3:28 after I replaced the GTX960 to RTX3090! Tested twice!
This is very strange because Arnold Render don’t allow to use simultaneously GPU and CPU. I really can’t explain it… maybe you accidentally changed some setting?
Nevermind, 4:46 to 4:48 is still correct for the CPU.
I went with dual 3070’s to get the performance of a 3090 without the price tag and case limitations. Running fine on a 750w power supply
Dual 3070’s, 3:26
PNY XLR8 Epic-X RGB 3070 – 6:49
Zotac Twin Edge 3070 (non-OC) – 6:44
Hi Robert, thank you for your contribution. I also prefer to get 2 cheaper cards instead of one very expensive.. they usually behave better and have less problems with heat!
Render Time 4:48
Ryzen 9 5950x
Ram 128GB 3200MHz