GPUbox users Tweet

[misi]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever used the GPUbox?

It seems to be very interesting. I t would be nice to hear your experiences!

I am also willing to share my resources if it comes to that.

Misi

[eyelovemotion]

i just looked it up and it seems very interesting. Usage of Octane as a 3D Rendering is also named besides v-ray... but who needs vray..

http://www.renegatt.com/products.php

i will test it!

[misi]

I installed it and tried it. It is very easy to use.

What I am about to try, only for test purposes is to use the amazon EC2 services. You can rent 18gpu with 1500 cuda core/card for about 2-3 $/hour. Even though GPU ox free version has 4gpu limitations, it is yet to be worth trying to use one gpu home and the rest(3) from amazon. I am very curios about the speed. The good thing is the first year at EC2 amazon is free up to 750 hours, if I understood correctly.

However 600/year is something that probably not everyone could afford. It is great for small studios, but probably not for individuals, or semi professionals and hobbyist.

They should do some in-between package/deal as between unlimited and and free there are plenty of opportunities, like 6,8,16 etc.

I am also wondering about a shared account and collab. it opens up a lot of possibilities. a system like that reduces rendering time so much that scheduling work between 1-2 or even 3 people is something that sounds very reasonable. At least for me.

[glimpse]

the service renegat provide, or I should call software solution, is really cool..but..by EULA You agree with when buying/using OctaneRender.. You can not use it with virtualised GPUs..at least You could not step over limmits..

anyway..renting GPU power from Amazon is cheap, especially if You go for somethign like spot instances. But it brings another question, how much of render power do You get? those GPUs as far as I know give somethign like 40 in terms of OctaneBench (if that's the same what OTOY used for powering ORC - OctaneRenderClound) - in the end not so much.

something like 780 6GB cost 320EU new - that's ~80 in terms of OctaneBench - for lifetime..ok those are hard to find, then 980Ti will give You 120-130 for around 700EU (still it can't beat the value of older 780 6GB, but close..) - Yeah You still need rig & probably on cheap motherboar You can not fit more than 4 but..depends what You do..

if You need a lot of power very fast without making long term investments then renting a cloud service is the best deal..if You put Your time into it You can think of some sort of solution, but then add Your time..add other things in equatation.

Personally I'm waiting for ORC to emerge & OTOY seems working hard towards that goal. From what I've tried so far it was insanelly simple to use & once they integrate this solution into plugin host apps..that will be even more simple.

we've done some calculations earlier with friends. Building something on Your own (if You have long term workload to spread nicelly, that Your rig would not dust without work) is actually more reasonable, but if You need a lot power here & now..then yeah..You do not have too much choise..at least do that in propper way because of mentioned reasons.

workaround is..rent a server with multiple GPUs (with 8x gm200 based GPUs equiped server would be ~1000 in terms of OctaneBench) & install Your own copy of Octane - that would not violate EULA. But this solution is expensive, at least from my impressions of what I managed to find so far.

Last solutions (sort of in line of what was mentioned before)) is to put some money in the pile with Your friends..buy few parts with expansion in mind, hook this thing online & share it to render Your projects - less complicated, giving better value, etc. but You need to put some time into this & could not avoid some investment.

[eyelovemotion]

glimpse, thank your for your reply

i was thinking of buying a real cheap board, even with cpu onboard, that can handle 1 GPU

see this one:

https://www.alternate.de/ASRock/Q1900M-inkl-Intel(R)-Celeron(R)-J1900-Mainboard/html/product/1137549?event=search

it`s fpr 70 Euros. Then put 8 Gigs of Ram and a cheap 2,5" HDD or even USB-Stick for Mounting the OS on it, 350W-400W PSU and
the network node would be ready.. PC parts would kost me approx. 200 Euro + GTX 980 ti approx 900 Euro.

or would it even be cheaper to buy a mobo with a least 4x PCIe x16 slots and a i7 and run these cards "outside" in a DIY Case with tunnel Airflow?

[joshstudebaker]

Hey Guys.

So i'm planning on trying GPUBOX with the Amazon ec2 instances for extra GPU power when rendering. My only question is, what's the process for preparing the instances to work with gpubox? I saw on GPUBOX website that they have a web-service app that auto installs the needed software to all images, but how does this work if your not using the web-service app? Is there another way to automate the installation of the GPUBOX software to the instances?

I'm just going to go ahead and try it, as i can't see to find much info online about it. But if you guys have any info, or other GPU render farm recommendations i would love to hear it. I'm looking at 6k renders for animation so i need the extra power.

THANKS!