Best Image Formats for Blender Textures
JPG, PNG, or TIFF? Which one renders faster and uses less VRAM in Cycles?
1
Albedo/Color
For color maps, **JPG** is fine and saves RAM. The compression artifacts are usually hidden by lighting.
2
Normal/Height Maps
NEVER use JPG for data maps (Normal, Roughness, Displacement). The compression creates blocky artifacts that ruin the 3D surface. Use **PNG** or **TIFF** (16-bit).
3
Power of Two
Resize textures to powers of two (1024, 2048, 4096). GPUs process these dimensions much faster than random sizes like 1920x1080.