Filament comparison — which material to choose for what

What this is for: you have one model and two materials to choose between. Below you will find ten head-to-head material comparisons, each built around the single question that actually settles the choice, plus two tables of the manufacturer's official data for twelve Porima filament families.

Material comparisons usually bog down in lists of properties that still leave you no closer to a decision. In practice the choice almost always comes down to a single constraint: whether you have an enclosed chamber, what temperature the finished part works at, whether your nozzle is hardened, and whether you are willing to dry the filament before every print. That is why for each pair we give that one question first, and leave the detail to the comparison page.

Ten head-to-head material comparisons

  • PLA vs PETG — settled by the temperature the finished part works at, and by whether you have a heated bed. PLA prints at 200–230 °C on a 0–60 °C bed, PETG at 240–260 °C on a 60–80 °C bed, and the labelled temperature resistance is 60 °C and 85 °C respectively.
  • PLA vs ABS — settled by the printer enclosure. ABS needs an enclosed chamber at around 50 °C and an 80–110 °C bed, and it has a high tendency to warp; PLA you can print on an open frame with no special measures.
  • PETG vs ASA — settled by whether you have an enclosed chamber. ASA gives 110 °C of labelled resistance, but it needs a chamber at around 50 °C and a 90–120 °C bed; PETG (85 °C) prints on an open machine and does not warp.
  • ABS vs ASA — both need an enclosed chamber at around 50 °C, so what settles it is warping and finish: ABS has a high tendency to warp and a surface that responds to acetone smoothing, ASA — a medium tendency, a matte finish and 110 °C instead of 100 °C.
  • PETG vs ABS — the same question about the chamber, just from the other side: without an enclosure ABS is out, while PETG gives very good layer bonding with zero tendency to warp. The price is PETG's high tendency to string.
  • PLA vs Tough PLA (PLA+) — settled by layer-bond strength. Tough PLA has very good layer bonding and prints at 210–240 °C, and the manufacturer notes that the fan is required, not optional.
  • PETG vs HT PETG — settled by working temperature: HT PETG is 125 °C instead of 85 °C, but at the cost of a 270–300 °C nozzle, a 100–120 °C bed, cooling turned almost completely off (0–10 %) and 6–12 h of drying at 50–60 °C.
  • PA (nylon) vs PETG — settled by your readiness to dry the filament every time. PA needs 8–12 h at 65–80 °C before every print, plus an enclosed and heated chamber; PETG needs neither one nor the other.
  • PLA/CF vs plain PLA — settled by the nozzle. PLA/CF is very highly abrasive and needs a hardened nozzle of 0.4 mm or larger, but in return it gives a matte finish and very low flexibility, which means a stiffer finished part.
  • TPU 98A vs TPU 95A — settled by Shore hardness and extruder type — the softer the material, the more you need direct drive. Porima's official FDM parameter table covers TPU Flex 98A: 230–260 °C, 40–60 °C bed, 40–70 % cooling.

Main table — twelve material families

All values come straight from the manufacturer's official FDM parameter table. The temp. resistance column is the manufacturer's own label, not the result of a test to any standard — Porima publishes neither HDT nor Vicat. Treat it as a guide for ranking the materials against each other, not as a design parameter.

Material Nozzle Bed Chamber Print difficulty Temp. resistance (label) Drying
PLA 200–230 °C 0–60 °C open very easy 60 °C 2–4 h / 30–40 °C
Tough PLA 210–240 °C 0–60 °C open very easy 60 °C 2–4 h / 30–40 °C
PLA / CF 220–250 °C 50–70 °C open medium 70 °C 4 h / 55 °C
PETG 240–260 °C 60–80 °C open easy 85 °C 2–4 h / 30–40 °C
HT PETG 270–300 °C 100–120 °C enclosed or open (adhesive recommended) medium 125 °C 6–12 h / 50–60 °C
ABS 250–280 °C 80–110 °C enclosed, chamber 50 °C difficult 100 °C 6–12 h / 40–60 °C
ABS / CF 260–280 °C 80–110 °C enclosed, chamber 50 °C difficult 110 °C 6–12 h / 40–60 °C
ASA 250–280 °C 90–120 °C enclosed, chamber 50 °C medium 110 °C 6–12 h / 40–60 °C
PC/ABS 260–290 °C 100–120 °C enclosed, chamber 50 °C very difficult 120 °C 6–12 h / 40–60 °C
PA (nylon) 260–290 °C 90–120 °C enclosed and heated very difficult 150 °C 8–12 h / 65–80 °C — mandatory
HIPS 230–270 °C 80–110 °C open easy 85 °C not required — non-hygroscopic material
TPU Flex 98A 230–260 °C 40–60 °C open difficult 70 °C 2–4 h / 40–60 °C

Source: the official FDM parameter table from the manufacturer, Porima. Full table for twenty-five materials: 3D printing parameters and print temperature table.

Risk profile — what to expect while printing

This table says more about day-to-day work than temperature alone. Warping decides whether you need a chamber; stringing — how much time you will spend tuning retraction; abrasiveness — whether you have to buy a hardened nozzle before you even start.

Material Warping Stringing Layer bonding Nozzle abrasiveness
PLA none low good none
Tough PLA none low very good none
PLA / CF low low good very high
PETG none high very good none
HT PETG medium medium good none
ABS high medium good none
ABS / CF high medium medium very high
ASA medium medium good none
PC/ABS high low good none
PA (nylon) medium low very good moderate
HIPS low low good none
TPU Flex 98A none high very good none

Source: the official FDM parameter table from the manufacturer, Porima, the fields covering warping, stringing, layer bonding and abrasiveness. Symptoms and fixes: warping, stringing, layer separation.

How to read these comparisons

  1. Start from your hardware constraints, not from material properties. No enclosed chamber rules out ABS, ASA, PC/ABS and ABS/CF before you start comparing anything else.
  2. Check whether your nozzle is hardened. PLA/CF and ABS/CF are very highly abrasive, PA moderately so.
  3. Check whether you have a dryer. For PA, drying is marked in the manufacturer's FDM parameter table as mandatory, not recommended.
  4. Only now compare temperature resistance and finish — by this point you are usually down to two materials.
  5. After changing material, print the same test you printed before. Change one parameter at a time.

Related pages

Choosing a material only gets easy once you have the complete data for both sides of the comparison. Porima filaments are produced to a ±0.03 mm diameter tolerance, and we publish the manufacturer's full official print data — you don't have to guess it. Our warehouse is near Poznań, in Swarzędz.

See Porima filaments · Print parameters · 3D printing problems