Graphics cards and Maya Hardware Renderer

Maya's new hardware renderer presents a seamlessly integrated rendering solution that leverages the ever-increasing power of next-generation graphics cards to render frames.

Only specific hardware and platform combinations are able to support Maya Hardware Rendering.
The following card, driver and OS combinations will provide the level of functionality indicated.

Windows

Card Driver Functionality Comments
3DLabs Wildcat VP 870/970/880pro/990pro/760/560 3.1.6210 Full  
nVidia Quadro2 43.51 Partial  [w1]
nVidia Quadro DCC 43.51 Full  
nVidia Quadro4 700, 750, 900, 780, 980. 43.51 Full  
nVidia FX500 45.28
 Full
  [w2]
nVidia FX1000 43.51 or
45.28
 Full  [w2]
nVidia FX2000 43.51
45.28
 Full  [w2]
nVidia FX3000 45.28
 Full
  [w2]
ATI X1 6.13.10.1034 Full Driver properties must be set to "Maya NT"
ATI Z1 6.13.10.1034 Full  
ATI X2
 7.93.4.1-030917a-011258E Full  
[w1] Many Hardware Rendering features are not available, including, (but not limited to) specular highlights, per-pixel reflection, shadows, etc.
[w2]
 Multi-sampling is available using 45.28 and Maya 5.0.1

Linux

Card Driver Functionality Comments
nVidia Quadro4 700, 750, 900, 780, 980 1.0-4349 Full  
nVidia FX2000 1.0-4349 Full  
ATI X1 X4.2.0-2.9.6 Full  
       

Mac

Card Mac OS X Functionality Comments
nVidia GeForce3
 10.2.4 Some Restrictions [m1,2 4]
10.3
 Restrictions
 [m6]
nVidia GeForce4 Ti 10.2.4 Restrictions [m1,2,3,4]
10.3
 Restrictions
 [m6]
nVidia GeForceFX 5200 10.2.8 Restrictions [m1,2,3,4]
10.3
 Restrictions
 [m6]
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 10.2.8
10.3
 Restrictions [m4,5]
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 10.2.8
10.3
 Restrictions [m4,5]
[m1] If the hardware renderer crashes, or any kind of noise appears on screen, or an unexpected black image is rendered, it is best to reboot your machine before continuing.
[m2] It is possible to get hangs when driver memory gets fragmented too much. It is possible to do this by binding a large number fairly large textures (e.g. 1024x1024 or larger).
[m3] Multi-point, multi-streak and point particles, and hardware shadows do not render
[m4] Line smoothing does not work in the hardware renderer
[m5]
 Shadows are not rendered in the hardware renderer
[m6]
 Lights with shadows enabled do not render

IRIX

Maya Hardware Rendering is not supported on IRIX.

Non-Supported Cards

Attempting to use Hardware Render on cards or drivers that are not listed above can cause unpredictable effects. Maya attempt to intercept problems and display messages, but sometimes you may still get one of: