Mac and Windows Mixed Setup for GPU Rendering

[JabbaTheNut]

Hi,

I have a Windows desktop with two Titan V graphics cards. I am considering purchasing a MacBook Pro 2018 with a Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics card. I want to use Vray GPU rendering. I believe I cannot do GPU rendering on the Radeon Pro. However, can I create and test a rendered scene in Vray on the Mac (maybe using CPU) and somehow use the Windows desktop with the two Titan V cards to GPU render the scene? Please provide some guidance on how to use a Mac and Windows mixed environment to do GPU rendering.

Please note, I am aware that each machine would require a license.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

You will need one GUI license and 2 render node licenses in your account to do this.
But yeah Vray GPU can run on Mac OS Mojave with the C++/CPU option. You should be able to do your lighting and your look dev on the Macbook Pro just fine, then use Distributed rendering with bucket mode for finals.
Use Vray GPU with the C++ option, not Vray CPU.. because these 2 are different engines.
I have tried this a while back and it worked without issues on simple scenes.
Don't buy the i9 Macbook Pro though, it thermal throttles like crazy and performance is not that different compared to the i7 spec

[JabbaTheNut]

Hi Muhammad_Hamed,

That’s great. Thank you. I have heard there were issues with the i9 MB Pro. I will keep that in mind.

The licenses you mentioned above, would that be one GUI and one Render license for the MB Pro and one Render license for the Windows machine with two GPUs?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

The licenses you mentioned above, would that be one GUI and one Render license for the MB Pro and one Render license for the Windows machine with two GPUs?

Yes!
You get a free render node license with your GUI license, but you will need an extra render license to use the other machine as slave in DR.

I have heard there were issues with the i9 MB Pro. I will keep that in mind.

Every Macbook Pro, Imac, Imac Pro, Mac mini and Mac Pro have bad thermals now. This is been the case since 2015 unfortunately as Apple only cares about being thin more than anything else.
After few seconds of CPU load the CPU will get to 100 degrees C and frequency will go down to nearly base clock. This affects the life span of the CPU and Mobo , and usually using any of these machines for rendering they break after a year and half or so
I do love Mac OS, but Apple hardware is just bad
Needless to say they are not willing to release Nvidia drivers for Mojave yet, it is been 6 months so far since the first Beta of Mojave has been out.
We cannot use Nvidia cards via eGPU with Mojave, you will need to downgrade to High Sierra for this.

[JabbaTheNut]

I am also considering VRay for Houdini. Can I do the above with VRay for Houdini (i.e., distributed rendering with CPU on the Mac and CPU + GPU on the PC)?