I need to increase my GPU rendering capacity - can we talk about eGPUs and BRAY GPU?

[JD3D_CGI]

I don't have the stomach or space for a whole new PC build... and I like the idea of an eGPU.

How well do these work with VRAY? I guess unlike some other use cases, I don't need to drive the main display from one of these. I just need it to render.

Any thoughts from Chaos group?

[glorybound]

There has been talk about that here for a while. I, too, have looked into it, and the talk never really goes anywhere. I'll follow along to see if anything has changed.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Using eGPU is supported with V-Ray GPU, you will be getting near 90% of the performance on high-end GPUs
Find a box that supports Thunderbolt 3 at least, then plug and play. Your motherboard or laptop needs a Thunderbolt 3 connector as well
Don't connect monitors to the external card
We have a similar setup at the office, we will be able to provide you support for this setup

Best,
Muhammed

[JD3D_CGI]

When you say performance is 90% - where does that manifest?

Even if I use the eGPU as a second card for rendering, and not updating the screen?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

90% is comparing running the GPU through Thunderbolt, to using the GPU natively at PCIe
with eGPU you shouldn't connect the external card to monitors, this will lead to issues

[AlexP]

There is another thread with more detail, but Ive been using a 3090 in an external dock with my Razer laptop for 6+ months with no issues whatsoever.
I dont really monitor performance, but Im rendering many many interiors.