Blender 5.0 released, new GPU baseline and Vulkan path now in effect
Blender 5.0 is now available as a major update to the open-source 3D suite. The release centers on a new color management pipeline with native wide-gamut and HDR support, ACES 1.3/2.0 views, and updated Rec.2100 displays. It also brings a refreshed UI, new node tools, a reworked Video Sequencer, and rendering changes in both Cycles and EEVEE.
Blender can now display and export HDR and wide-gamut images and video, with ACEScg and linear Rec.2020 working spaces, plus new AgX HDR and ACES views for production pipelines. On Linux, HDR output requires Wayland and the Vulkan backend.
With 5.0, the Blender team is also enforcing the GPU and driver requirements it outlined about four months ago during the 5.0 planning and 4.5 LTS cycle. The project raises its baseline from older Fermi/Kepler-era parts to newer hardware, dropping official support for many cards that were still covered in previous requirement lists, such as GeForce 400–700 and early GCN generations.
The new GPU hardware requirements are now: NVIDIA GeForce 900 and newer (plus Quadro based on Tesla and later), AMD GCN 4th gen and newer, and Intel GPUs starting from Kaby Lake. Older GPUs may still launch Blender but are considered unsupported.
Source: VideoCardz
Cycles GPU rendering now follows the same tightening. Supported devices are NVIDIA GPUs with Compute Capability 5.0 or newer (effectively GeForce 900 series and later), AMD RDNA1 and newer via HIP, and Intel Arc for oneAPI. Cards below these tiers lose Cycles GPU rendering and must use CPU rendering instead, even though the rest of Blender may still run.
On the viewport side, EEVEE and the Vulkan backend get more attention. Blender reports up to four-times faster material compilation when running on Vulkan with NVIDIA hardware, and general overlay and probe baking improvements. Linux-focused reports also highlight that HDR output currently targets Wayland plus Vulkan first, while Intel’s Vulkan drivers still lag behind the AMD and NVIDIA paths used in Blender’s own render tests.
For users on older GPUs, the foundation’s advice remains to stay on previous versions such as Blender 4.5 LTS, which keep the older requirements, while newer hardware and drivers are now expected for full Blender 5.0 rendering and HDR workflows.
Source: Blender
