Nvidia offers Gelato GPU-accelerated renderer for free

Santa Clara (CA) - Nvidia has released a free version of its Gelato GPU assisted rendering software. Gelato 2.0 will be available for both Windows and Linux operating systems for free, though users requiring more features can purchase a professional version. The program uses the GPU as a secondary math coprocessor to speed up frame rendering in 3D applications like Maya and 3d Studio Max.

Users must have at least a GeForce 5200 video card or a Quadro FX card in order to use Gelato. In previous demos of an earlier version of the Gelato software, Nvidia executives showed TG Daily near real-time rendering of frames. This is a great improvement from the typical several second to minutes that it takes to render a frame using CPU power alone.

The professional version will only work on Quadro FX systems, will have network rendering capabilities, and support multithreading and 64-bit operating systems. Big production houses typically have a "render farm" - dozens, even hundreds of computers rendering the same scene.

TOPICS

Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.