Blender 5.0 Beta: Free, open-source 3D modelling and animation program launches with slew of tweaks and performance updates
Blender 5.0 is slated to launch on November 11, 2025, and ahead of that scheduled release, the development team has officially announced the Blender 5.0 beta, which packs basically all the features and changes expected in the final version and will be used for testing those same changes.
If you want to test the new 3D modelling suite, you can download the beta for Linux, macOS, and Windows from the Blender site.
Blender 5.0 UI and design changes
The latest version of Blender makes a few changes to the UI to clean things up and improve readability. For starters, nodes now have a smaller drop shadow, and the default Blender layout workspace now shows the 3D viewport, outliner, properties panel, and a dope sheet. Grouped nodes also have a clearer stacked view indicator that should make them easier to identify.
The dope sheet replaces the timeline view that used to be part of the layout view, and it should make it easier to manage animations and key frames while reducing clutter somewhat. There's also a new accessibility option to eliminate non-essential animations.
A few UI options have been renamed, like the HDRI Preview becoming Reference Spheres, and there are a few QoL improvements to window and sidebar management, with snapping now being enabled on the latter. Temporary windows will also remember their shape and size when closed and reopened.
Blender 5.0 has also been simplified significantly, with a number of settings consolidated in order to make it easier to create custom themes. According to the release notes, over 300 custom theme settings were removed from Blender. There are, however, a number of new theming settings, like being able to adjust widget outlines depending on its state. Toolbar and sidebar regions have also been unified to make themes more cohesive and easier to manage.
Blender 5.0 performance and rendering updates
Some of the under-the-hood changes to Blender 5.0 will introduce support for HDR and wide colour gamut for both video and images. Along with this expanded colour support, there are new options to manage and convert the colour spaces in the compositor nodes.
Both the EEVEE and Cycles render engines have received updates as well, with backface culling now properly supported in Blender 5.0. The Cycles render engine now more accurately renders subsurface scattering, and the Principled BSDF and Metallic BSDF shaders also now support iridescent effects from dielectric materials.
Rendering smoke and fire simulations should also use less memory with a move to NanoVDB, and rendering volume rendering should result in fewer artefacts. OptiX denoising should also produce higher quality images in Blender 5.0.
Unfortunately, some of these changes mean that Blender will now only support Nvidia GPUs newer than the GeForce 900 series, AMD GPUs starting with GCN 4 (Polaris), and Intel Kaby Lake iGPUs.
The node workflow has also received a lot of attention, with several nodes receiving new features, like effect rotation, new output and calculation modes, and new nodes altogether. See the nodes changelog for more detailed information, but ultimately, nodes in Blender have become more powerful and flexible.
The UV editor and the modelling features in Blender have also received a number of updates, with six new modifiers — array, scatter on surface, instance on elements, randomise instances, curve to tube, and geometry input. The boolean modifier, one of the most commonly used modifiers in the Blender modelling workflow, has also been updated with clearer options. Modifiers and modelling workflows should also have better performance when undoing, thanks to under-the-hood changes to how Blender manages modifier data.
Ultimately, Blender 5.0 seems to be a step in the right direction for making the free, open-source 3D modelling, animation, and rendering program even more competitive with its paid counterparts.
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