Best hardware for network processing ?

[cyrilp]

Hi,

What would be the best performance/cost hardware for network processing ?

let's say i have around $50k to invest in a network processing setup.

What would be the best configuration for each network computer ? (min ram / min cpu / min graphic card)

on my computer i need the 24 mb of the 3090 to be able to work on my projects.

For network computing what is the minimum video ram i need for each computer ?

is it better to have some very powerfull computers or many more less powerfull ones ? (i know it would need more metashape licences)

As Apple M1 will soon be supported, would using M1 macs instead of pc be better for performance ?
(can i use macs for nodes if the main computer is using windows ?)

Is there a way to use cloud based computers instead ?
 

[Bzuco]

It would be useful for us to know what kind of tasks you are planning to process... if one big project or hundreds of smaller. Then it would be easier to advise you some HW.

[cyrilp]

Hi,

my current projects have between 2000 and 7000 60 megapixels pictures.

[Bzuco]

Your output will be just dense cloud, or are you planning to create also mesh with textures?
What will be the final quality of depth maps/dense cloud...ultra high/high/or just medium?
If your project/s is some aerial photos it is easier to process and less time consuming(less depth maps count needs to be filtered together).
If your project is archeology / interior-exterior of building,..where parts of object were taken from tens of different angles...it will be more time consuming(more depth maps needs to be filtered together).
If you can answer these questions then it will be more clear if you need more invest on GPU(s) or on CPU part. Alignment phase is good handled by GPU, so easy decision. Rest of the processing is ~50:50 spreaded between CPU/GPU...depends on what will be the output.

2000-7000 is plenty of photos(especialy 60Mpix), but it still can be done on one computer...if there is no time pressure to finish the project.
I would build one computer and see how it can handle the project in terms of time. I don't have enough knowledge about metashape network processing, what data are shared, which phase is most effective/speeded up,...

I would go for one PC with AMD 16/24/32 core CPU and one or two GPUs(if 24GB VRAM not needed, 3080TI better option). Amount of RAM depends on quality of the output.
My guess is that whole $50k does not need to be spent on HW + licenses, at the size of the projects you mentioned.
We'll see what others suggest.