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You can use Blender without a dedicated graphics card for final renders: choose the Cycles render engine and set its device to CPU. What you cannot do is use Eevee as a CPU alternative, because Eevee is documented as a GPU-only renderer.
Render on the CPU with Cycles
- Open the Render Properties tab and set Render Engine to Cycles.
- Set the Device to CPU. The Blender manual describes CPU mode as compatible with all Cycles features, while GPU Compute is an alternative that uses selected graphics devices (Blender Manual: Cycles Render Settings).
- Optionally, check Edit > Preferences > System. If the Cycles Render Device is set to None, the CPU is used (Blender 3.3 Manual: System preferences). Menu labels can differ slightly between versions.
- Render a single still frame or a short test animation first, so you can judge how long the full job will take on your machine.
- If renders are too slow, reduce scene complexity or output demands. This is general workflow advice, not a guarantee that a given scene will run smoothly.
Why Eevee is not a workaround
Eevee is a rasterization engine and runs on the GPU. The Blender Manual’s limitations page says: “Being a rasterization engine, EEVEE only uses the power of the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit, also known as Graphics Card) to render.” It adds: “There is no plan to support CPU (Central Processing Unit) (software) rendering as it would be very inefficient.” (Blender Manual: Eevee limitations). The CPU does prepare scene geometry for each frame, but that is not CPU rendering. For final images without a GPU, use Cycles.
CPU versus GPU in Cycles
| Option | What you need | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cycles on CPU | Only a CPU | Supports all Cycles features. Render time depends on your CPU and scene. |
| Cycles on GPU | A supported GPU, backend and driver | Enabled by choosing a compute backend in Preferences and GPU Compute in the scene. |
| Eevee | A GPU | No CPU rendering is planned. |
The Blender 4.5 LTS manual lists CUDA and OptiX for NVIDIA, HIP for AMD, and oneAPI for Intel Arc. Support depends on manufacturer, model, operating system and driver, and these details change between releases, so check the manual for your installed version (Blender 4.5 LTS Manual: GPU Rendering; this page is the Portuguese edition).
Quick Recap
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What to expect on speed and compatibility
- Speed: The manuals do not give a universal CPU-versus-GPU speed ratio. Test your own scene on your own hardware rather than trusting a fixed figure.
- Requirements: The Blender documentation reviewed here does not set a universal minimum CPU, memory or operating system for every computer. Check the official system requirements for the exact Blender release and OS you plan to install.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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