I last upgraded my system at the end of 2012, and at the time it seemed nVidia was the only real choice GPU wise. Even at that, though, GPU rendering was limited in various ways compared to CPU rendering.

Anyway, I'm presently contemplating my GPU, and was wondering what the current state of things is. Here are a few questions:

1. Is nVidia still the better choice for Poser users? (I'm contemplating the GTX 1060.)
2. What disadvantages does GPU currently offer versus CPU?
3. Any thoughts of the benefits of a 6GB vs 3GB version of the video card?

Anything else relevant to the current GPU situation would also be welcome.

For what it's worth, my current GPU is a GTX 550 Ti.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

GPU rendering is a Poser 11 Pro only feature and is currently limited to Nvidia cards only.

Some aspects of rendering may not always be available using a GPU (until later SR releases GPU didn't support displacement for example) or results may not be comparable to CPU rendering. Volume rendering I believe is one of the things that should be better with CPU rendering.

The scene has to fit into the memory of the card when rendering using GPU so the more memory a graphics card has, the better, so a 6gb one would definitely be better than a 3gb one.

I'm currently using a 6gb GTX980ti.

Thanks. Definitely important to know it's still Nvidia only! Looking more & more like the 1060 is the best option.

This thread over at the SmithMicro forums (the later pages especially) has more info on the newer graphics cards.

superfly test scene thread