Speed Up Your Blender Renders

Smart Tips for Brender Cloud Users to Optimize Rendering Performance

Why Optimization Matters

Even the strongest hardware benefits from a well-optimized project. Cleaner scenes = faster renders = lower costs on the cloud. And if your local machine struggles, Brender Cloud is ready to handle the heavy lifting with GPU-powered instances. All techniques are based on Blender 4.4 and Cycles, but most apply to EEVEE too.

What You'll Learn

  • Fine-tuning sampling settings for optimal quality-to-speed ratio
  • Trimming light bounces and eliminating fireflies
  • Optimizing hardware settings for maximum performance
  • Simplifying scenes without compromising quality

Fine-Tune Your Sampling

Lower the Render Samples

High sample counts = longer renders. Try lowering 'Render Samples' under Render Properties ‣ Sampling for Cycles or EEVEE without losing too much quality. Preview tweaks in viewport samples first!

Learn more about Sampling in Blender docs

Turn on Adaptive Sampling

Save time by letting Blender decide when a pixel has enough samples. Activate 'Noise Threshold' in Sampling Settings.

Learn more about Adaptive Sampling

Denoise Smartly

Fewer samples + denoising = clean images faster. In Render Properties ‣ Denoising, choose a fast AI denoiser like 'OpenImageDenoise' or 'OptiX'.

Learn more about Denoising

Pro Tips

  • Start with a low sample count (64-128) and increase only if needed
  • For adaptive sampling, try a noise threshold between 0.01-0.05
  • OptiX denoiser works best with NVIDIA GPUs on Brender Cloud

Trim Light Bounces

Cut Bounce Limits

Each light bounce adds to render time. In Light Paths, reduce 'Max Bounces' for diffuse, glossy, and transmission types. Start with low values and increase only if necessary.

Learn more about Bounce Control

Clamp Bright Spots (Fireflies)

Under Light Paths ‣ Clamping, set 'Indirect Light' clamp to something like 10. It helps kill annoying bright pixels without crushing your highlights too much.

Learn more about Clamping

Disable Caustics

Fancy light patterns like caustics are expensive to render and often not worth it unless your scene really needs them. Turn them off in Caustics Settings.

Learn more about Caustics

Recommended Settings

  • Total Bounces: 8-12 for most scenes
  • Diffuse Bounces: 2-4 for interiors, 1-2 for exteriors
  • Glossy Bounces: 2-4 for reflective scenes
  • Transmission Bounces: 4-8 for glass/transparent materials

Boost Speed with Hardware Settings

Render with GPU

Always! Set your device in Preferences ‣ System. CUDA, OptiX, Metal — whatever fits your hardware. Brender Cloud provides powerful NVIDIA GPUs for maximum performance.

Learn more about Render Devices

Tune CPU Threads (if needed)

If you're stuck on CPU rendering, make sure your thread settings in Performance are optimized.

Learn more about Thread Settings

Tile Your Renders

For big images, tiling is essential. In Performance ‣ Memory, set reasonable tile sizes: larger tiles for GPUs (256x256+), smaller for CPUs (16x16–64x64).

Learn more about Memory Settings

Brender Cloud Advantage

  • Our servers are equipped with high-performance NVIDIA GPUs
  • Tile sizes are automatically optimized for our hardware
  • Parallel processing allows multiple frames to render simultaneously

Simplify Your Scenes for Maximum Gains

Clean Up Meshes

Remove Hidden Geometry

Delete faces that the camera won't see. Fewer vertices = faster renders.

Decimate Non-Essentials

Use Mesh ‣ Cleanup tools to reduce polycount without noticeable visual loss.

Learn more about Decimating Geometry

Pre-Bake Simulations

Bake Your Physics

Cache simulations like cloth, fluids, or rigid bodies before sending to Brender Cloud. Go to Physics Properties and 'Bake' everything you can.

Learn more about Baking Physics

Optimize Curves and Hair

Tame Hair Systems

In Render Properties ‣ Curves, use simple shapes and limit subdivisions. Hair and fur can otherwise explode your render times.

Learn more about Hair Rendering

Optimization Checklist

  • Use the Decimate modifier on background objects (0.5-0.8 ratio)
  • Replace high-poly objects with lower-poly versions when far from camera
  • Bake all physics simulations before uploading to Brender Cloud
  • For hair, reduce strand count and use child particles instead

Scene-Wide Shortcuts

Simplify Settings Globally

Enable Simplify Mode

Blender's Simplify lets you cap subdivisions, texture sizes, and particles across the whole scene. Great for quick test renders!

Learn more about Simplify Settings

Cull Hidden Objects

Under 'Simplify ‣ Culling', activate camera and distance culling to skip objects not visible or too far to matter.

Quick Wins

  • Use Simplify to limit subdivision levels to 1-2 for test renders
  • Set maximum texture size to 2048px for faster loading

Ready to Render?

Once your scene is tuned up, Brender Cloud will make your final renders fly. Save time, save money, and spend your energy where it matters — on the art, not the waiting!

Remember

Even small optimizations can lead to significant time savings when rendering complex scenes. The techniques in this guide will help you get the most out of Brender Cloud's powerful GPU servers.