Thoughts on Hypergate by Leap Computing for Blending

For reference: https://www.leapcomputing.com/

It is essentially a rented remote PC service. You access your PC in the cloud with their remote desktop-like program. For $30 a month you get a Titan X and 8 core cpu with 16gb of ram (half price at the moment on preorder). It is different from cloud based computing in that your hardware is your hardware only (like leasing the computer effectively with them maintaining it). Everytime a new top end component succeeds the last (like the next Titan), your rig gets automatically upgraded. The stream is 1080p with minimum download requirements of 2mbit/s- the performance seems very good compared to traditional RDP latency (I suppose not really a dealbreaker for rendering anyway).

I emailed them and asked some questions. 3D rendering is supported, you can install blender and render 24/7 if you wanted to. Has anyone else seen this and thinking to register? I was going to be saving this year to upgrade my rig to improve my workflow. But I am wondering what the community thinks of this with relation to costs, render farms, PC upgrade cycles, etc. Thanks.

The idea is very interesting. But I have my doubts. Does it work outside of US? What platform I should have? Perhaps Windows. Gaming is similar to watching movie, so streaming is ok, but working with graphics might be too demanding, needs more precision. But still I would be interested to try it out.

What if I need more ram? I’ve got 32GB now and sometimes that’s barely enough :(. Proprietary software, what about installing the Adobe Suite?

It is claimed that FPS gaming is doable. The stramingware is proprietary much faster than RDP.
I am based in UK and when I asked they said my pc would be housed in the UK. It is windows platform.

there is a 32gb option for +$20pm

[Duplicate]

If you go to the “preorder” tab you can apparently choose different “levels” of subscription that consists of different/more/better components. The max amount of RAM I see is 32GB though.

What I am wondering though is if you are bound to a contract if you buy a subscription. For example, do I set myself up to have to pay monthly for a whole year even if I only plan to use it for a few months and what about if I only need to use it every other or every third month. Do I still have to pay for the months I am not using it then?

There is no contract, you pay month by month. If you signup during the preorder period you get 50% off for life including upgrades, but if you cancel and then re-signup at a later date, you pay full price.

I see, thanks for the explanation OBV. I am interested to test this out though I have no idea if I will need it in a few months from now.

I’ll probably pre-order and test it out for a month and see for myself. $30 is not much for a month of computing power.

I agree, please come back to this thread after your assessment period because I would be interested to hear an experienced blender users experience.

It seems cool, but id honestly want to see proper independent tests before having any particular opinion on the service. Seems good in theory, but there doesn’t seem to be such a streaming service that has even decent latency, particularly for gaming.

Hmm you will need a computer anyway (to get that remote desktop), so is that pricing still comparative as compared to subscribing to some renderfarm where you only rent and use the power when you need to do your final render ?, during edit one can do with a lower grade pc

For me, that price especially, is Extremely competitive! You can get a BEAST of a workstation for as low as 360$ Per year! ( if you preorder) That you can use Whenever and Wherever you want, even on your smartphone!

In RenderStreet you pay ~4$ Per hour rendering, on a much more powerful server i know, but let’s not forget that This service is offering you a Titan X, and no matter how much time you let it render( a whole month for example!) , it will always cost you the same 30/60 $ per month, while on a service like RenderStreet, could cost hundreds of dollars!

You could also basically build your own renderfarm for a few hundreds dollars per month, without having to worry about maintenance, energy cost, heat, and initial investment.

My cousins own a little graphics company, we’ll take a look at this for rendering for sure!

Thanzex, at the beginning of this year we launched our fixed-fee program, RenderStreet One. It’s a complementary service to our on-demand plans, and it can be used in parallel with them, with the same account and same interface. If this is the kind of setup you’re interested in, take a look, maybe it’s a match for your workload.