Use Separate PC for rendering?

[mike_warning]

Hello folks,

New user here... I'm running Sketchup and V-ray on an iMac Pro, and I'm wondering if it is a) possible and b) worthwhile to offload rendering to a PC -- an Intel i9-9900k, 64GB memory and an Nvidia RTX 2080 video card.

Thanks for any advice!

[Martinch]

I have a similar setup (Mac Pro 2015 128GB RAM, and an Intel i9, 32GB RAM, RTX 2070 Super). The Windows machine’s rendering time smokes my Mac.
Because paths are different, you’ll need to remap them between machines (assuming you are working from a central location like a Dropbox or over your LAN). The repath and archive function is the fastest way to do this. I end up saving a duplicate file for Windows with these different paths, then if I go back into the Mac version I don’t have to relink all the files again. But if you make changes in one, you need to adjust the other since they are different files. It’s definitely doubling up some work, but if it’s a big file and you want to do a bunch of renders it may save time, and saves hogging your primary system.
I also found that networked rendering takes forever—one extra machine doesn’t save time because it can take a long time to find and load the assets, and the machine may not contribute much at all because of the paths.
It’s always case-by-case for me.

Maybe others have better insights or methods. It would be great to find a really smooth way to share across OSes.

[mike_warning]

I have a similar setup (Mac Pro 2015 128GB RAM, and an Intel i9, 32GB RAM, RTX 2070 Super). The Windows machine’s rendering time smokes my Mac.
Because paths are different, you’ll need to remap them between machines (assuming you are working from a central location like a Dropbox or over your LAN). The repath and archive function is the fastest way to do this. I end up saving a duplicate file for Windows with these different paths, then if I go back into the Mac version I don’t have to relink all the files again. But if you make changes in one, you need to adjust the other since they are different files. It’s definitely doubling up some work, but if it’s a big file and you want to do a bunch of renders it may save time, and saves hogging your primary system.
I also found that networked rendering takes forever—one extra machine doesn’t save time because it can take a long time to find and load the assets, and the machine may not contribute much at all because of the paths.
It’s always case-by-case for me.

Maybe others have better insights or methods. It would be great to find a really smooth way to share across OSes.

Thanks for the advice! Do you have a totally separate PC workstation setup? I'd love to be able to run my PC headless as I don't currently have space for a second monitor in my office and I don't believe it's possible to use the iMac as a display for the PC.

[Martinch]

My PC is a gaming laptop which I have set up as a workstation, so I have discreet systems; however, the monitor I have has multiple display ports so I could hook up two computers to it and toggle between inputs.
Have you looked into Target Display Mode on the Mac? You may be able to use it for the headless PC.
There are some really small monitors out there, too, like 15.6” that might not take up too much space.