Crypto server for Iray-Server? (render farming)

Mouser

There are a number of (weird) looking Crypto GPU server out there and are wondering on their suitability for renderfarming?

I'm intending on using Iray-Server so NVIDIA based GPUs.

Has anyone here had any experiance with these?

DrunkMonkeyProductions

I'd suggest against it, and against using iray server.

In regards to the mining rigs, as long as you avoid those mining motherboards, it's perfectly viable to run a multi-gpu rig like that.

I've been running externally mounted gpus for years, using the same pci-e risers, power cables and breakout boards for server power supplies you see on these minig rigs.

The caveat here, it may not be worth building/buying such a system.

To put this in perspective, my four tesla m40's use 1KW/h, and give me roughly 3090 performance.

At current pricing, on ebay, those 4 gpus will run about $160 usd, and the additional hardware to attach them to a system, about $50 usd(4 risers, 2x 750w psus, 2 break out boards, 12 power cables, 4  dual 6 pin to 8 pin adapters, and fans to cool them). $210 all in.

With my usage and electric rates, i hit parity with the 3090, at $2000 usd and 350w tdp,  in 14 months.

MOve up to the 24GB M40, at $80 per gpu($370 total) parity in less than 12 months.

The P40s are just stuck on stupid right now, at $300 a pop, and don't perform much better than the m40's in benchmarking.

Other gpus are just all over the place for pricing, and many are insane these days.

 

If, however, your plan is to mount 8+ RTX 3090s with nvlink enbled, I'd suggest calling puget systems for a quote on a render server.

(i'm being facitious here).

 

In regards to iray server, i recently did some benchmarking, and the additional overhead required isn't worth it, imho.

It was using about 3-4GB of system ram, and upwards of an additional GB of vram than just rendering in studio.

It also took longer, compared to just rendering in studio. anywhere from 30 seconds to over 3 minutes, depending on scene composition, and if I was rendering on my workstation gpu or my networked system(1Gb/s link).

The other issue i had with iray server, the preview isn't full size. This is a major deal breaker, as i like to check my renders as i go, for errors, or to just stop it if it's 'good enough' for me before it hits one of the stop states.

Additionally, the various problems with rendering in studio, such as the 'memory leak' are exacerbated with server.

And do not run a test render in studio, than try to render in server on the same system, or vice versa. The unreleased vram stacks.

 

Hope this helps, and i'll be lurking as usual if you have any other questions.

 

Mouser

Just to expand on my origional question, I am planning on animation.

Currently I have a single 3060 12gb which is quite funcional but painfully slow.

With minimal quality settings & only one character it takes around 6-7 hours to render about10 seconds of animation.

I am trying to figure out the best bang for buck (money, space, power, heat etc) renderfarming wise and have also examined comercial renderfarm services as well as setting up a colud based renderfarm.

I thought I would examine the possibilities as I saw so many rigs on sale.

I hope this makes sense.