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Haha, wow. Air does indeed look like a bad idea (ignore my earlier comment). They looked more spread out in this pic:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132505
Then again, that pic is without the GPUs so my eyes were likely overestimating the space available.
I had to learn the hard way myself. My first quad build was with the stock air coolers, and I was dissapointed. The 3rd and 4th card really didn't add much.... As soon as temps rose to 80+ degrees, render times slowed to a crawl. I could not figure out what the problem was until I researched and discovered that GPUs automatically downclock when they hit their max temperature (in order to keep their internals cool). So as soon as temps hit ~80*, their clock can change as much as 75% or more, from say ~1300 Mhz down to ~500 and below. It wasn't until I decided to take the plunge and switch to water that I saw the difference. With water, my temps never rose above 50 or 60 degrees, so the cards are always operating at max overclock.... This means 100% performance on all 4 cards, rather than 50% or less.... which is huge...
Wow! I wonder if that happens with my cards when I leave them running over night.
Will GPUZ show you if your card slows down due to heat, e.g., will it show 80% of card being used instead of 100% or something like that?
An article testing multiple 1-4 GPUs for Octane rendering and system setup.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Octane-Render-GPU-Performance-Comparison-790/
I feel like I am hijacking this thread. Maybe I should start a new thread of my own.
Anyway, here are my answers to your questions,
Yes, GPU-Z will show you all the sensor data on your cards, including the core clock speed. I use a program called MSI Afterburner, which allows you to put all the info in your system tray. I have attached a screenshot of my system tray, which shows my GPU temps, my GPU loads, and my CPU temp. You can track more than this, but I only chose these three. (I used to also track my clock speeds as well. But I removed those from the tray because its not necessary anymore.)
The cards themselves must be watercooled. As for the CPU, mine is watercooled as well. But this is not as critical, since only your GPUs will be under load during render, not the CPU (The CPU should be unchecked in render settings, as well as OptiX). But if you are going to overclock your CPU---which I strongly recommend, at least 4 Ghz---then you will need a good cooling solution for your CPU regardless. You can buy an all-in-one CPU water cooler (like a Corsair H100 or H110) for about the same cost as a top-of-the-line air cooler (like the Noctua), so it makes sense to go with water for your CPU too, since water is always better than air.
edit: double post
All of the info about water cooling will also apply to dual gpus. If you add two more you will probably need to build a completely new computer as well.
Yes, you can add watercooling to however many cards you have. And then later, when you get two additional cards, you can add them to the loop.
Keep in mind though, the gains of watercooling will not be as noticable on two cards vs. four cards. Two cards do not strictly require to be watercooled, since they do not generate as much heat and can be distanced far apart on opposite PCI slots. But since you are eventually going with a quad setup, then it makes sense to iron out your watercooling loop first until you get the additional cards.