ACM SIGGRAPH has a paper online from Alex Herrera, Senior Analyst for Jon Peddie Research, talking about how GPU acceleration in render engines is radically transforming traditional computer graphics pipelines.

Visual results are virtually never perfect the first time. Digital artists must, therefore, render often to check their work and determine precisely how it will look in the final render. The production process invariably leads to many iterations, in which artists adjust cameras, lighting, materials, and myriad other elements to realize the director’s creative vision. Each modify-render-review cycle consumes valuable time; the more complex the project or change, the more time is lost to the process, bogging down the workflow in a time-wasting bottleneck.

The paper focuses heavily on the advantages of the MachStudio Pro GPU acceleration, but the principles easily apply to the wealth of new GPU-renderers coming online.

via Ending the Tradeoff of Time vs. Quality when Creating 3D Computer Graphics Content – Stepping Up the Production Workflow with Real-Time Rendering Software — siggraph.org.