Want to rent some NVidia GPUs from Google?

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

I just read this article:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/in_brief_ai/

Entire article reads as follows:

AI proto-boffins can now rent up to 16 GPUs, the largest amount on any single virtual machine currently available, via Google Cloud.

"We are excited to announce the general availability of A2 VMs based on the NVIDIA Ampere A100 Tensor Core GPUs in Compute Engine," the company said.

Devs can use the A2 VMs in various configurations, and scale across 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 GPUs.

With 16 GPUs, the cluster has an interconnect speed of 9.6TB/s using Nvidia's NVlink, and up to 3TB of local SSD memory. Having more GPUs on a single machine will benefit those training particularly large AI models.

These instances are available to customers in the us-central1, asia-southeast1, and europe-west4 zones at the moment, and cost from $0.87 per hour per GPU on Google Cloud's preemptible service, depending on local demand.

You can see the full pricing list here: https://cloud.google.com/compute/vm-ins ... hine-types

So, about $15 per hour gives you 16 Ampere A100 GPUs...I wonder how many Collatz tasks you can do with that?

regards
Tim

[Woodles]

For slightly less impressive GPUs but closer to home, DavidBAM over at TSBT rents out GPUs, CPUs or combined:

#1 machines for hire
Post by davidBAM » Fri Dec 25, 2020 11:52 pm

I am happy to announce that we have made a formal offer to purchase the bookshop premises below the flat after the bookshop moves to new premises in 4 or 5 weeks. This gives me more space to get more machines and particularly more GPU. Even if the purchase doesn't go ahead, I'll use my garage instead

By putting my time and resources into hardware provision, I am hoping to expand the 'rental' side so that any team member can use the hardware to chase personal and TSBT team goals. I am looking to get a bit more professional about this so a big 'Thank You' to the guinea-pigs who have rented thus far. You can see from this thread https://tsbt.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=25169 that different folks have different reasons for liking rentals - I've listed some below ...

In the New Year, rentals will be for ...
electricity at cost to friendly teams. Unused capacity may be offered elsewhere at higher prices. Electricity may well be more expensive in Scotland than where you live BUT you only pay it once i.e. no need to run AC to cool the place back down. Most of Scotland's electricity comes from renewable sources - wind, hydro-electric and even tidal
whole machines ... I will put an individual meter on each machine offered to measure the electricity used when fully deployed on Collatz + ODLK1 (both nice short WU). If you don't keep it fully deployed, that is your problem
current electricity price for me is £0.16262 /KwH + 5% tax
machines will aim to have minimum 1Gb RAM per thread so enough to run pretty much any reasonable project combination i.e. don't run Amicable 2-up or all threads on WCG Africa Rainfall
most machines will tend to be GPU-oriented, i.e. lower thread counts so that the GPU is mainly what you are hiring
most will have single GPU as the management of multiple GPU on some projects is a whole lot harder e.g. srbase
Linux machines will have multi-instance, including some instances with 64 GPU hack. All instances capable of bunkering 4000 WU each
Longer deals, 3 months or more, will get a dedicated krunchie instance to view and control machines. I can also manage them on your behalf if you prefer
minimum periods / costs apply
Reasons to rent
want to contribute more to the team but lack room to get more hardware
spousal pressure
live in hotter climate for running GPU
meet personal targets quickly
don't boinc at all but just want to do my bit

And:

Almost finished upgrading gtx1660ti to rtx2080ti so LOTS of gpu power available now. PM me if you'd like specifics

So you probably get 2080Ti's

Electricity is slightly more than I pay so you'll have to check your own costs but no hassle in buying kit, setting it up or keeping an eye on it (Krunchie is his own, self written version of BoincTasks that allows remote monitoring and control over the internet)
2080ti is ~280W so a days use would cost slightly over £1 assuming you keep it fully utilised and don't run anything heavy on the CPU.

Never used the service personally but it seemed like a good idea to me. Be aware, you'll probably get bumped off during sprints if TSBT need the capacity so only really useful for the FB marathon or personal goals.

Note he states "... electricity at cost to friendly teams." so it's not exclusive to TSBT but they'll probably get better deals/availability.

[UBT - Timbo]

HI Mark

So, for $0.87 for an hours worth of Ampere GPU and maybe some CPUs (and which includes leccy and you get 100% control)
compared to
£0.1626 + 5% VAT = £0.17 per kWh so you could run 2x 2080i GPUs plus a few CPUs for around 1 kWh consumption - but downsides are questionable control and maybe get kicked off for Sprints.

Interesting...though, in both cases, it's a question of which works out best for the individual, esp in terms of comparison to hardware costs (if one buys one's own).

Still, food for thought !

regards
Tim

[chriscambridge]

I would be interested in renting some David_BAM GPUs to run on GPUGrid, but the forum is locked for me. Perhaps you could provide David with a login and ask him to come to the forum?

[Woodles]

I would be interested in renting some David_BAM GPUs to run on GPUGrid, but the forum is locked for me. Perhaps you could provide David with a login and ask him to come to the forum?

Hi Chris,

He's already got an account here - memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1861

Do you want me to ask him to pop in on the TSBT forum?

[chriscambridge]

Yeah that would be useful; that is if he still has some GPUs to rent.

[davidBAM]

GPU inventory is presently all on-rent 6 rtx2080ti Gaming X Trio and 14 rtx 2070 super Gaming X Trio. Planning to add to that but prices being asked (and paid) for decent cards are totally nuts at the moment - probably bitcoin miners digging for gold.

Electricity is at-cost so I won't negotiate on that. 90% of Scotland's electricity is from renewables though, if that makes you feel better. No fracking up here. In passing - Project Natick happened a dozen or so miles from my birthplace

Best way to keep in touch with me is to please register an account on (my own) https://chat.gentlydoes.it

you get 100% control

Unless Colab has changed recently and significantly, I have to differ on that point. I found that Colab needed vast amounts of baby-sitting and frequent disconnects meant work in progress was frequently lost - very annoying on 24hr PrimeGrid WU & the chances of qualifying for OpenGL WU on Moo are negligable

All I need to run your project is a project weak key (and some cash ) - I will happily arrange to bunker for you if you wish to speculate on an upcoming Sprint. I understand (all?) the tricks to maximise points-per-day. A krunchie URL can be arranged if you want to control (or even inspect) work-in-progress although I ordinarily only do that for long-term, whole-machine rentals.

If you are struggling to see my Business Model, there really isn't one. This is purely to benefit Boinc projects by using hardware which I can't afford to run 24 / 7 / 365

[chriscambridge]

Hey David,

Thanks for the update. Perhaps if you have any GPUs available, even if only for a short period, you could just post back into this thread?

If and when any become available then I'll register on your chat system so we could work out payments etc.

It terms of usage I would just be using them for normal GPUGrid/Einstein so having the projects setup with the weak key would be fine with me.

[davidBAM]

Okay - will do, thanks. You don't need any remote control software with krunchie, btw. I'll just give you a URL you can use to see what is happening.

I don't have BitCoin but you could always buy something for me? I know overclockers accept it

And on Einstein ... it will run on nVidia but AMD GPUs do it far better / cheaper - I think it is the floating point performance. Needless to say, I don't have any AMD as I am 100% Linux

[chriscambridge]

Lol you must have seen my first reply

A URL to see what is happening would be fine.

Yeah quite a few tech places now accept bitcoin including Scan and Overclockers etc. That would work for me buying you stuff.

I would run GPUGrid on 0 priority, and then just use Einstein as a back up project.

[davidBAM]

Excellent - it is a bit steep me asking you for a new RTX3080 Gaming X Trio before I run you a few trial WU - LOLOL

Suppose I give you a credit line to start with? I could maybe run you 48hrs on each of Einstein and GPUgrid so that you can see if you like the increase in RAC.

I'll know better tomorrow once the Sprint has been announced but I might have a RTX2070 Super or two free if sprint is a CPU project

[chriscambridge]

Let me have a think, I'll come back to you early tomorrow.

[chriscambridge]

The problem at the moment is that GPUGrid doesn't actually have any tasks, and thats the GPU project I care most about (at this time).

But if you wanted to run a RTX270 Super or two on Einstein for a couple of days to give me some feedback on what these GPUs are capable of on this project then that would be useful. Just let me know what the daily cost is so I can make payment before or afterwards.

I had a look at Stockerinformer but there still doesn't seem to be any normal priced GPUs available atm.

https://www.stockinformer.co.uk/checker ... -3070-3090

[davidBAM]

Yeah, I am much more likely to be selling GPUs than buying them in the present climate. However, if I can run some work for you to put something in the 'bank' towards a future purchase, I'll be a happy man.

It is a cpu sprint so I'll see if I can get some Einstein running in a wee test for you over the weekend

[davidBAM]

Do you see this thread? https://tsbt.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=12226

9mins for a 2070 Super as against 6mins for an ancient rx580 - note the extra cpu effort too. Einstein on nVidia is not money well spent IMHO

nVidia excel on pretty much everything except Milky Way and Einstein (and Asteroids?)

[chriscambridge]

Yeah I agree with you; unfortunately its only medical and astronomy projects that I want to crunch at this time, and I sold all my RX580s way back.

[davidBAM]

no problem - GPUgrid will be back on the go before long, I'd say

[chriscambridge]

Also the GPU version of WCG OpenPandemics should launch soon so that is high on my list.

I just signed up for an account on your rocketchat; I'll send you over my weak key for Einstein.