Optimizing your Custom Workstation PC for OctaneRender in 2025
You need a new workstation PC to run OctaneRender, but you aren’t sure what parts you are going to need inside of the system. You are trying to find out what you need online, but some of the terminology is confusing to you. What exactly are you going to need for this, and what should you focus on partwise? Today I will go over these two questions by talking about the required specifications for an octanerender workstation pc as well as what we recommend.
If you’re interested in other software guides, check out our How to build a PC for Maya, and How to Build a PC for Adobe After Effects articles.
Recommended Specifications from the Developer
First, let’s start off with what is recommended by the developer for your major parts in the system. A fast multi-core processor (or CPU) isn’t necessary for any of the rendering in Octane; however, it can be useful to improve the loading speed of your scenes. They recommend at least 16 GB of memory (or RAM). Lastly, they say that you need a GPU with CUDA 10 drivers and a CUDA-enabled Nvidia graphics card (or GPU). They also recommend getting a GPU with a lot of video RAM (or VRAM) as that will help with how fast the rendering is. Octane v2024 supports GPU cards ranging from Kepler GPUs (3.5 and above) as the minimum requirement to RTX 4xxx GPUs. The minimum NVIDIA driver is 456.38 or newer for Windows and 455.23 or newer for Linux.
Choosing the Right GPU for Octanerender
What GPU will be the best for my octanerender workstation pc? The good news is that all the newer generation GPUs, and even going all the way back to the 20 series cards, are going to be able to support this requirement. The bigger thing that you need to worry about here is the VRAM. As a baseline, I would say a 4070 Super would be a good starting point for this type of system. You will need at least 16 GB of RAM. Lastly, though it won’t help with rendering, I would recommend going with at least a 14th Gen i5 from Intel, or an equivalent AMD CPU, or better.
Optimizing Your Workstation PC for Octane Render
Now you know what you need to run Octane. What is going to give you the best performance, though? Again, the CPU isn’t necessarily going to help with your rendering times, but it will help in loading the scenes. We would recommend going with at least the Ryzen 7 9700X, or an Intel equivalent, or better. For an OctaneRender Workstation we’d suggest going with at least 32 GB of RAM, though you could bump that up to 64 or even more. For the GPU, we recommend going with at least a 4090. 4090s have gone “End of Life” now, so they can be hard to get, but if you can find one it will work well for you here. If you have the budget, we recommend going with a professional-level GPU, like an A6000, as that will give you an even higher amount of VRAM. They also have the added benefit of scaling a bit better with multiple GPUs, so if you were wanting to get a multi-GPU system, they would perform better for you. 4090s would also still work well with multiple GPUs in there for you.
Additional Considerations when building a PC for Octanerender
What are some other things to keep in mind when building your system? You will need to make sure that you get a high enough wattage power supply if you are going to go the multi-GPU route. You are going to want to make sure that you have enough storage in the system and that they are the fastest that you can afford after focusing on the major parts (GPU specifically).
So, we have now talked about the minimum you will need to be able to use Octane as well as what we would recommend for your octanerender workstation pc. If you are going to be using other programs as well on this system, you might need to change some of these specifications to better fit your needs. As always, if you need assistance to build out a system, feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to help get you a system that will work for you.
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