Chaos Corona does not need any special hardware to run. It uses the CPU and you can run it on any processor from Intel or AMD released in the past decade.

Why only CPU?

By rendering only on the CPU we avoid all bottlenecks, problems, and limitations of GPU rendering, which include the unsuitability of GPU architectures for full GI, limited memory, limited support for third party plugins and maps, unpredictability, the need for specialist knowledge or hardware to add nodes, high cost, high heat and noise, and limited availability of render farms. Read our in-depth look at the advantages of CPU-based rendering.

Using GPUs for what they are actually good at

We’re not anti–GPU in any way, we just believe in using them for what they are good at! In the future, you will see the GPU put to use by Chaos Corona, but in the areas in which the architecture excels. This will be in things like post–processing, e.g. bloom & glare, where the predictable, self–similar nature of each calculation can be shared between the processors in an efficient and effective way.

It doesn’t have to be either / or

There’s no doubt that both GPU and CPU approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, which is why we still see strong products on both sides being developed and used for commercial work.

While completely switching to only a GPU–based solution is just not worth the risk at the moment, you and your company don’t have to be on just one side or the other – with Corona’s pricing options, you can always have a CPU–based approach at your disposal to use based on the needs of each project, whether or not you also have a GPU–based alternative in your pipeline.

And in the future…

We are always watching and researching existing and upcoming technologies whether that is CPU, GPU or other coprocessors. If things change with the hardware, we won’t rule out changes to the software – but right now, and for the foreseeable future, the hardware just is not at that point.

Intel Embree ray tracing kernels

Chaos Corona uses the Intel Embree ray tracing kernels, the fastest CPU ray tracing primitives on the market. Since they mesh well with the Corona architecture, they are an important factor in its performance.