Octane X vs Axiom Solver
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Octane X
This powerful GPU rendering application brings professional-grade 3D rendering capabilities to iPad Pro. It offers a full suite of features for visual effects, motion graphics, gaming, and design, with an interface optimized for touch and Apple Pencil, while also supporting advanced external peripherals.
- Unbiased, spectrally-correct GPU rendering
- Optimized touch and Apple Pencil interface
- Support for external keyboards, trackpads, and monitors
- Node-based material, shader, and scene graph editor
- AI Denoiser for production-ready results
- ACES, OCIO, and deep pixel EXR rendering
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Octane X, the world’s first and fastest unbiased, spectrally-correct GPU production renderer, is now available for the first time on iPad Pro (M series models only) - empowering artist workflows across visual effects, motion graphics, gaming, design, concept art and architectural visualization Octane X for iPad Pro supports all features of Octane X macOS standalone desktop application through a new interface designed from the ground up for easy scene navigation and editing using touch and Apple Pencil on iPad Pro. Power users can enable an advanced UX with support for keyboards, trackpads, external monitors, bluetooth mice and stage manager to get full parity with the Octane X standalone desktop application on macOS. Octane X accelerates modern creative workflows with ACES, OCIO and deep pixel EXR rendering, a powerful node-based material, shader and scene graph editor, and the industry’s most advanced production ready AI Denoiser. The Octane X standalone features and user guide is available here: https://docs.otoy.com/StandaloneH_STA/StandaloneManual.htm Octane X for iPad Pro only supports iPad Pro devices with the M series chipset, running iPadOS 26 and later.
Axiom Solver
Create realistic fire, smoke, explosions, and magical effects using GPU-accelerated 3D fluid simulation. This tool is designed for professional artists and studios, but is also accessible for learning and experimentation on iPad.
- GPU-accelerated fluid simulation
- Create fire, smoke, and explosions
- Visual effects for movies and games
- Export scenes for Houdini integration
- Sketch ideas and learn VFX
- Fun for creative experimentation
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Axiom is a GPU accelerated 3D fluid solver that lets you create fire, smoke, explosions, magic, and more! Axiom is used by professional artists and studios to create visual effects for movies & games and now you can use it on iPad! Use it to sketch ideas, learn more about visual effects, or just have fun! If you want to push your effect even further you can export your scenes and import them into SideFX's Houdini using Axiom for Houdini.
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Octane X at 51% against Axiom Solver's 0%. Octane X also leads on ratings volume (31 vs 5). Axiom Solver's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 3.7) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Axiom Solver holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Octane X has 31 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 51% of Octane X's written reviews are positive against 0% of Axiom Solver's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
| Parameter | Octane X | Axiom Solver |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (31 ratings) | 4.6 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 51.2% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 31 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad, Mac — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.1 GB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | OTOY inc. | Theory Accelerated LLC |
Customer experience
Octane X
Axiom Solver
Bugs and requests
Octane X
Reported bugs
8 issues- 🐛 Gray screen on iPadOS 27
- 🐛 Incompatible with iPadOS 17
- 🐛 No Render GPU error on M1 Macs with Sonoma
- 🐛 Grey screen and doesn't load
- 🐛 Not working since iPadOS 17
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- 🐛 Stuck at rendering after iPadOS 17 update
- 🐛 Rendering not working since iPad OS 17
- 🐛 Crashes when viewing all items under nodes
Requested features
6 requests- Tutorials for specific materials (hair, glass, water)
- Support for Nomad Sculpt OBJ/GLB import
- UI improvements for Apple Pencil users
- Polygon-based modeling and animation tools
- Add Maya and Houdini support
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- Add support for importing obj/glb from Nomad Sculpt
Axiom Solver
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Octane X
No in-app purchases
Axiom Solver
No in-app purchases








