NVIDIA Iray is a physically based, GPU-accelerated renderer that delivers high-end photorealism using real-world light simulation. Designed by NVIDIA to run on its own GPUs, Iray enables professionals to create highly realistic images with minimal setup and faster render times. When paired with GPU servers from UltraRender, Iray reaches full performance potential, making it an efficient, scalable solution for demanding rendering workflows.
This article explains how Iray works, highlights its key features, and shows why it performs best on dedicated GPU infrastructure.
What is NVIDIA Iray?
NVIDIA Iray is a rendering engine that simulates light using physics-based models. Instead of approximating visual effects through shortcuts, Iray calculates how light interacts with materials in a way that matches real-world behavior. This leads to photorealistic renders with accurate lighting, reflections, caustics, and shadows.
Because Iray is built for NVIDIA GPUs, it takes advantage of CUDA cores to parallelize rendering tasks. This architecture significantly reduces render times compared to CPU-based engines. Additionally, Iray integrates directly into many popular 3D design applications — including Autodesk 3ds Max, Rhino, Maya, and CATIA — so designers and artists can render without leaving their native environments.
Thanks to its simplicity, accuracy, and GPU-native performance, Iray is widely used across industries such as architecture, automotive design, product visualization, and simulation.
Key Features of NVIDIA Iray
1. Physically Based Rendering
At its core, Iray simulates the actual physics of light. It traces rays as they interact with surfaces, refract through glass, or bounce off diffuse materials. This physically accurate approach ensures a high degree of realism with less manual tuning. As a result, your renders often look correct from the first pass.
2. GPU Acceleration
Iray is built to run on NVIDIA GPUs using CUDA. By distributing rendering tasks across thousands of GPU cores, it renders images much faster than CPU-based tools. As the number of available GPUs increases, so does performance. Whether you’re rendering a single high-resolution still or a multi-shot animation, Iray scales accordingly.
3. Interactive Rendering for Faster Feedback
With Iray’s interactive mode, you can modify scenes and instantly preview the result. Lighting changes, material adjustments, and camera shifts update in real time. This drastically reduces guesswork and speeds up the design process — especially during review or prototyping stages.
4. Network Rendering for Scalability
For larger or more complex projects, Iray supports networked rendering. Multiple machines can collaborate on a single render job, dramatically improving throughput. This is particularly useful in studio environments where high-resolution output or large frame counts are required.
5. Material Definition Language (MDL)
Iray uses NVIDIA’s MDL to define materials. This open standard makes it easier to share and reuse materials across different software platforms that support MDL. It also ensures consistent material behavior in various rendering environments, reducing the need to rework assets.
6. Built-in AI Denoising
To speed up rendering without sacrificing quality, Iray includes integrated support for NVIDIA OptiX AI denoising. This feature reduces image noise in lower-sample renders, which helps deliver final-quality visuals with shorter render times. It’s especially helpful for preview renders or fast-paced workflows.
How Iray Works with GPU Servers
Iray’s GPU-centric design makes it a natural fit for high-performance GPU servers. Instead of investing in and maintaining your own machines, you can use UltraRender’s powerful GPU infrastructure to run Iray at scale — from a single render task to a full production pipeline.
1. Multi-GPU Rendering for Performance
Iray scales with the number of GPUs available. A system equipped with multiple RTX 4090 or 5090 GPUs can render images far faster than a single-GPU workstation. Complex lighting, large scenes, and high-resolution output all benefit from parallel rendering across multiple cards. On UltraRender’s servers, up to eight GPUs can work together on a single render.
2. Cloud GPU Access for Flexibility
With UltraRender, you can rent high-performance GPU servers on demand. This eliminates the need for upfront investment in expensive hardware. Whether you need GPU power for a few hours or several months, UltraRender provides reliable machines with full access to all system resources — including CUDA cores, RAM, and NVMe storage.
3. Remote Workstations for Full Control
In addition to cloud render nodes, UltraRender offers remote GPU workstations. These systems provide a full desktop environment with GPU acceleration and support for 4K displays. You can install your preferred 3D software, configure your pipeline, and work as if you were on a local machine — just with significantly more power.
4. Distributed Rendering Across Servers
For rendering large animations or handling many concurrent jobs, UltraRender supports distributed rendering. You can link several GPU servers to process scenes in parallel using Iray’s built-in network rendering features. This significantly reduces render time and improves workflow efficiency for teams and studios.
Why Iray is Perfect for GPU Servers
1. High-Speed Rendering at Scale
Because Iray uses the GPU for all major rendering calculations, it benefits directly from more GPU power. With GPU servers, render speeds increase linearly as you add more cards. This makes it possible to meet deadlines, even on large-scale, photorealistic projects.
2. Reliable, Physically Accurate Results
Iray’s physically based engine produces consistent and predictable output. Combined with UltraRender’s optimized infrastructure, you get a stable, production-ready environment that delivers high-quality results every time — without excessive test renders or manual correction.
3. Efficient Use of Resources
Renting GPU servers means you only pay for what you use. There’s no need for ongoing hardware maintenance, upgrades, or infrastructure overhead. This is ideal for studios that need to scale capacity during peak projects, or for freelancers working on occasional high-demand jobs.
4. Seamless Integration into Your Workflow
With Iray’s integration into software like 3ds Max and Rhino, you don’t need to change your workflow to use it. Simply load your scene, connect to a GPU workstation or server, and start rendering. UltraRender supports both interactive sessions and remote batch rendering.
Conclusion: Get More from Iray with UltraRender
NVIDIA Iray is a rendering engine built for realism, speed, and flexibility. It simulates real-world lighting with precision and takes full advantage of modern GPU hardware to deliver impressive results, fast. When used with GPU servers from UltraRender, Iray becomes even more powerful — enabling studios, designers, and engineers to render more, wait less, and scale on demand.
Whether you need a short-term burst of rendering power or long-term infrastructure for production work, UltraRender provides ready-to-use GPU machines optimized for Iray. With no setup delays, predictable pricing, and full hardware control, it’s rendering without the overhead.
Ready to accelerate your Iray renders?
Rent a GPU server from UltraRender — and focus on your work, not your hardware.