On their official website, Chaos Group lists the minimum system requirements for both the standalone and versioned versions of their V-Ray rendering plugin. But in every instance, the emphasis is on the minimum required rather than the optimum solution. Moreover, V-Ray is actually made up of three components: the CPU, RTX, and CUDA, each of which uses an individual piece of computer hardware. Arvuti.in has taken the opportunity to conduct internal testing in order to ascertain which hardware is most suitable for running V-Ray in light of the current circumstances. We have developed our own list of suggestions based on this testing.

The "normal" version of V-Ray is called V-Ray CPU, formerly known as Adv, and it uses the CPU to do rendering and ray tracing. It is highly scalable with respect to clock speed, number of cores, and even number of physical CPUs in a single workstation. If that's the version you intend to utilize, you should invest the majority of your money in a strong CPU. This should scale nicely to a dual CPU workstation, but you may be better off using multiple workstations or rendering servers operating in a networked rendering arrangement if you require that kind of power and can afford it.

Conversely, V-Ray CUDA started out as a rendering engine that runs on a GPU. Although we cover it in more detail in the following section, it is important to note that starting with V-Ray 3.6, you can use the CPU in addition to the GPU(s) if you so desire. V-Ray just required a simple CPU before this, but there is now a strong case for upgrading to a more potent processor, especially if you first maximize the number of video cards. If you'd like additional details, we have papers that examine how CPU performance scales with GPUs in V-Ray. Remember that the hybrid CPU+GPU mode does not take advantage of the RT cores found in contemporary GPUs to speed up ray tracing, as it uses CUDA instead.

If you intend to utilize V-Ray's classic CPU rendering features, a processor with a large core count is what you need. At the moment, the Intel i9 14900K is the largest variant of the of the Intel Core Series. Also, the Threadripper PRO 7995WX 96 Core is the best workstation option. AMD has surpassed Intel in workstation processor performance with its 96 cores and significantly better per-core performance, particularly in well-threaded tasks like rendering. Its relatively high turbo rates also make this CPU effective in modeling and animation.

While the exact quantity of RAM required may vary depending on your specific applications, we advise using twice as much VRAM on the cards for V-Ray GPU (and GPU rendering in general). Thus, we would recommend 64GB of system memory if you have four 8GB cards totaling 32GB of memory.

The possibility of a V-Ray CPU requiring more RAM ultimately depends on how big and complex your scenes are. Because RAM is very inexpensive, if you are unsure of how much you will need, it is not a terrible idea to decide on the side of caution and get 128GB or more.

Similar to the CPU advice above, a lot of this decision is based on the V-Ray version you are interested in using. The only need for the video card in relation to V-Ray is that it be an NVIDIA card. Choosing a card that is compatible with the other applications you will be using, such as Cinema 4D, Maya, 3Ds Max, etc., is your best option in this regard. We tried that using as many as four GPUs, and the results showed reasonable scaling. Naturally, faster cards also function better, so choosing the set of cards that best suits your budget requires some careful consideration.

• GeForce RTX 4080 16GB: This graphics card is a fantastic option if you only need one or two and don't work with extremely complicated situations.
• GeForce RTX 4090 24GB: With an incredible 24GB of RAM, the RTX 4090 offers the highest performance in V-Ray and is our top choice for the majority of GPU rendering customers.
• NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB: NVIDIA's professional GPUs are a good choice for people who want a lot of GPU memory and/or wish to stack multiple video cards in the same system.

Technically, V-Ray doesn't care what kind of video card is installed in your computer, so a GeForce or "professional" (previously Quadro) card should function just fine. However, there are situations in which using a Quadro card might be appropriate. First of all, because they are made to run under high loads for extended periods of time and often have more stable drivers, they are marginally more dependable. Second, larger onboard memory is often found in Quadro cards. The complexity of a scene that may be rendered with V-Ray is limited by the quantity of video RAM; hence, for exceptionally detailed rendering, you might require the extra VRAM on high-end Quadro cards.

Primary Drive: OS/Software (SSD/NVMe): Includes your operating system and the base V-Ray installation. An SSD is highly recommended as it will greatly improve how fast the OS and programs startup, but you can also upgrade to a faster NVMe drive for a small performance benefit. The recommended storage for installation of software is not more than 10 GB.

Since the primary drive will primarily be used to store Windows and software, including all software (except large Game), it doesn't need to be that large for the majority of users; a 500GB SSD will be enough for Drive C.

Secondary Drive: Project Files (Platter/SSD/NVMe) Having a second storage (either SSD or HHD) for storing assets and effects is a wonderful alternative if you have additional money to spend or keep a lot of them around for use on different projects. Of course, an internal or external hard drive is a more cost-effective option than a high-capacity SSD if you need more mass storage and preservation.