SUBSTANCE PAINTER WORKSTATION PC

Compact Intel Core Ultra Workstation

AMD Ryzen Workstation

Intel Xeon W Workstation

Substance Painter

One of the most tedious parts of creating a high-end 3D model isn’t the modelling itself, but the application of a texture to the model. With Substance Painter from Adobe, the process of realistically applying textures to your 3D model is greatly simplified. Whether you want natural-looking skin on a human model or realistic weathering on inanimate objects, Substance has the right tool for you. It also offers a great selection of automated smart tools that speed up workflow when texturing complex models. It’s strongest features may however be the non-destructive nature of editing and the fact that all of your changes are shown in real time. So there’s no need to wait for offline rendering to see what your work will look like in practice. That convenience does come with a hardware cost however, so what sort of workstation should you build for use with Substance Painter?

CPU RECOMMENDATIONS

Substance Painter is a very GPU-centric application, so there’s no need to have a very high-end CPU. High-performance single-core performance is useful for general-purpose editing in the application, so we recommend a modern 6- or 8- core CPU with a healthy boost clock when only one or two cores are in use.

GPU RECOMMENDATIONS

Due to its real-time rendering nature, Substance Painter benefits from having a beefy GPU. How beefy depends on the rendering resolution and how smoothly you want to manipulate the model. However, since you are painting a largely static model this isn’t the highest priority. Upper mid-range GPUs should be adequate for most users, but special attention must be given to GPU VRAM. Since you’re working with ultra-detailed textures, it’s essential that there’s enough room to store it all! Adobe recommends a GPU with at least 4GB of VRAM, with 8GB recommended for more advanced texturing techniques. 8GB has become the standard for modern cards, but some less expensive GPUs, such as the RTX 3060, come equipped with more. 12GB in this particular case. We recommend a card with at least 8GB of VRAM, starting at the 3060 and up.

RAM RECOMMENDATIONS

Adobe recommends 16GB at a minimum, with 32GB recommended for certain special texturing methods. We recommend treating 32GB of RAM as the practical minimum for this program, leaving room to upgrade in future. This is especially true if you want to run other applications in the background.

STORAGE RECOMMENDATIONS

Adobe recommends an SSD for your system drive, Substance Painter and project data. We of course agree with this and suggest having a modern NVME drive as your main system drive to ensure the snappiest experience when editing or performing any other function, really.

For more information on this application please visit their website at: https://www.substance3d.com/products/substance-painter/

Operating systems supported by Substance Painter:

Windows, macOS and Linux

LIST OF COMPATIBLE WORKSTATIONS