Is a graphics card needed on a rendering server? (Rack Mounted)

[Anonymous]

My company is looking into getting a rack mounted rendering server. My question is, is a video card needed in the server?

We are using V-Ray 4.02.05.00001 and MAX 2019

Admittedly, I'm still very new to V-Ray. I've tried using the CPU + GPU ability, and loved it but found that in that mode not all maps are supported for some reason. I still need to look into it more. Anyway, for now we are still on GPU only rendering.

TIA,

Dean

[hagen.deloss · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous

Great to hear from you on the forums! I would think that you would want GPU capable machines for a render farm, just for flexibility, but I'm not sure if they are necessarily "required" if you are strictly rendering with the CPU of the renderfarm machines.

You could try posting to Chaosgroups' forums to get a more custom rendering machine recommendations. 

Here is a Machine setup for a professional renderfarm service, maybe cross referencing this could help. 

And lastly, I found this thread on setting up render farms that could be helpful.

I hope these links help answer your question!

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

[hagen.deloss · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

After chatting with a few folks... no, you don't need a GPU for a render farm when rendering with a strictly CPU render engine. There are some caveats to this, but in general, it should work!

2018 and 2019 versions of Max should render fine without a GPU, older versions may have an issue with a machine without a GPU.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the effort you put in to this question. I appreciate it.

[chitraxfurbish7]

An graphics card isn't required for a server to give a decent Remote Desktop experience. Most servers don't have GPUs introduced in light of the fact that they are not regularly required for that reason. There are a few situations where a GPU might be useful, however as a general rule, it isn't required.