Render Settings
Denoising Options for Cycles Renders
Choose OpenImageDenoise, OpenImageDenoise GPU, OptiX or no denoiser for a Cycles job in RenderGod, and see which options your hardware supports.
The Denoiser removes leftover grain from Cycles renders so you can use fewer samples. RenderGod lists every denoiser Blender offers and marks the ones your computer cannot use.
![Denoiser dropdown open with None, OpenImageDenoise (selected), OpenImageDenoise [GPU] and OptiX](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fdenoiser-dropdown-options.15c24648.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Pick a denoiser
- Select a Cycles job. The Denoiser field is not shown for EEVEE.
- Open the Denoiser dropdown.
- Choose an option.
| Option | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| None | No denoising. Every bit of noise stays in the image. | Heavy sample counts, or when you denoise later in compositing |
| OpenImageDenoise | Intel's AI denoiser, running on the CPU. Works on every computer. | Default choice for high quality on any machine |
| OpenImageDenoise [GPU] | The same denoiser running on a supported graphics card | Faster denoising when your GPU supports it |
| OptiX | NVIDIA's AI denoiser on RTX and other supported NVIDIA cards | Fast denoising on NVIDIA hardware |
The job starts with the denoiser saved in the scene.
Options marked as unavailable
RenderGod checks the Blender version that will render the job. Options that cannot run are greyed out with a reason on the right:
| Reason shown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| not in this build | This Blender build has no OpenImageDenoise |
| no OIDN GPU | No graphics card that can run OpenImageDenoise on the GPU was found |
| no OptiX GPU | No NVIDIA card that supports OptiX was found |
Greyed options can still be selected. Nothing is marked until the check finishes.
If OptiX is selected but not available when the render runs, Blender uses OpenImageDenoise instead so the render still completes.
On macOS, and on Windows PCs without an NVIDIA card, OptiX always shows no OptiX GPU.
Tips
- Denoising works best with a noise threshold around 0.01 and enough samples that the image is already mostly clean.
- In animations, very low sample counts combined with a denoiser can shimmer between frames. Raise samples if you see flicker.
- To keep the raw noisy passes for compositing, choose None and add denoising in your compositor instead.