Advantages of Paperspace vs Rented GPU

Preface:

Alright the context of this is:
I don't recall I've ever paid into using paperspace, and correct me in the comments below but there are some ADHD Level disadvantages. (These aren't to say don't use paperspace, but there are some things that make me personally not want to get into it for my personal way of budgeting.)

I've got some screenshots to what i've tried to get my monkey brain around after being off my medication for 24+ hours....

(I ran out monday, it's now almost thursday, It was almost 24 hours or slightly more, don't ask, it's not an article I want to explain about why for an hour I was staring at a wall when i don't do drugs.)

PAPERSPACE:

This is the screen you see when you're OPENING a notebook to make an instance such as "LAST BEN DREAMBOOTH + A111" (Consider the fact that i have a saved version of this in my account and I DON'T BELEIVE I've got the correct edition..)

Pros: If you're JUST looking to do generation and some BASIC training/merging and you're able to budget + the monthly "PRO" cost (Because i'm sorry, there is no "FREE" gpu here lol.) - it's not terrible.

You LITERALLY can rent anything depending on your monthly plan, and the downside i think with that comes the following:

First con with this: You got only six hours before your "FREE" (on a plan) notebook shuts down. You can access an 8gb GPU for free which is about half the tech specs as a T4. While that still will beat colab in a rabbit race against time: You're limited to 8gb. I Don't care how free it is: you're limited to the hardware. To me my techy nerds!

Second one:

I live in New Zealand, these are costs PER HOUR IN USD: some of the free plans are considered "PRO" plan free, and that costs per month, and growth is considered closer to "SERIOUS BUT NOT ENTERPRISE".

TANGENT TIME:

This isn't OFF TOPIC, but let's say for example a PLAN COSTS 80 dollars a month USD (i don't even know the cost of the plans, i'm not REALLY interested personally in paperspace, there are ways of doing things on the same gpu with a different docker template, that's just me - i'm used to those)...

This is what it would cost me "ROUGHLY":

Keep in mind that doesn't account for whatever platform they use to pay for things with stripe or paypal. Paypal always has some random strange fees attached, and stripe tends to convert currency weird. Not only that but XE DOES NOT account for the currency exchange and BUY/SALES exchange rates your BANK uses. So that information above is a guide.

NOW if we're talking an A100 for training and say it takes 3 days to train an SDXL MODEL:

(Yes, i'm just throwing ROUGH EXAMPLE VARIABLES here, because i'm not mathing the 6 hrs shut down + actual training time, i'm just mathing server use time)

If i'm RIGHT in how i'm seeing this tangent: I would be paying for a PLAN to avoid the 6 hour shut down because i'm sorry i'm ADHD and I don't like being told what to do. xD

(Good god y'all I SPEND 15+ HOURS like 4x a month now maximum I knock it all out in one go so i can actually exist the other days of the week xD - I HAVE ADHD+AUTISM and other spicy stuff don't make me brain!)

OK NOW do you understand my "MATH" - and i'm aware in a disclaimer here:
I COULD BE ABSOLUTLEY wrong on costs here, Chief who's an NZ'er can probably comment on this and break down where I went wrong - fair beans. I get that i'm not Number 8 wired, just "AMERICAN WIRED" Lol.

but my math part here was to show: WHY I PERSONALLY DONT WANNA USE PAPERSPACE UNTIL SOMEONE CALLS ME AN IDIOT AND DRAGS ME ACROSS THE PLAYING FIELD BONKS ME WITH AN INFLATABLE BAT AND YELLS "BAAAKA" xD.

(No you're not getting a professional GPT article out of me at nearly 11pm, deal with my post concerta cool down mode, no I don't do actual drugs unless coffee + dealing with INSERT SWEAR WORDS HERE ABOUT MEAN PEOPLE IN ANOTHER SERVER I RUN causing crap and making me headachey all day)

ANYWAYS:

VAST AI & COST RUNDOWN

For this purpose i'm not going to show you runpod, I feel like y'all are adult enough to get the idea that VAST AND RUNPOD are similar. Runpod is set up different, it's cost is SIMILAR but sometimes less and sometimes more. Their community personally annoys me, because reasons but that's different.

(I didn't add storage or any extra costs to this one, be aware that EXTRA storage on top of things like ABOVE 100gb can cost extra?)

OK considering RIGHT NOW I Don't do FULL training of models because budgeting, let's knock that whole "300 bucks a month" thing out of the park. Once I figure out how to stop wasting all my money on making 400 merges in my brain I'll probably save money and "CLIMB THE LEADERBOARD(NOT LMAO)". I am showing you THIS as the UPPER ECHELON of what you can do with your money. Budgets aside, this is all depending on what your HARDWARE Requirements are - and also the RNG gods of GPUs.

Paperspace will give you a DEDICATED setup in terms of "There are no true slowdowns because we have Digital Ocean setup".

VastAI's only slowdowns are:

You picked the wrong norway server on the wrong day and that day is saturday, and that was March 9th and Dusk rented 3 different servers that day and had to play words on Stream all afternoon on stream because DUSK FORGOT SATURDAYS ARE A BAD DAY FOR SERVER RENTALS when you don't want to pay out the behind for it.

Translation: It depends on the server, the port numbers, and soemtimes you can get a server that just doesn't play ball with WHATEVER you're doing.

Here's what cheaper stuff looks like for generation & training:

See how i've also included ROUGHLY what docker template I use any the storage settings I pick? I only deposit about once a week: 5-10 USD depending on how long I feel like staying online.

These are the cheaper end 3090s, and work with SDXL just fine. IF you're generically only running a GPU about 4x a week, you can easily zip your images up. If you're techy: you could even skip all the template and just pick the easy python template & make your own installation of A111 or whatever UI/UX you use.

Also keep in mind: this is 22:54PM NZ standard time (er uhh NZ summer time still, we don't change clocks until almost Anzac day in april - so it's +13 GMT right now) - Prices WILL FLUCTUATE.

These are more average 4090 prices, they CAN go as low as 35 cents depending, but are on average 45-60 cents an hour.

If you're not doing SDXL training, or ANY training at all apart from loras - most of these should be fine. Don't quote me on loras: I flipping don't have a clue, I am unsubbing from colab, because from the last article which HOPEFULLY SOON I'll turn into a video: COLAB is dead even for DucHaiten who was the master of using colab.

Conclusion:

Don't Dusk and Drive. jk.

No, honestly it IS LITERALLY UP TO YOU which service you pick, and if i'm incorrect on anything i'll be the training cost in tangent. I Mean also i'm aware that i don't have a clue how paperspace's ACTUAL cost works, because I first migrated from using google colab for GENERATION + model making last year to vast/runpod around may-june?

Much props to Nocrypt for still trying to keep his notebook available to paid users, I was a paid user almost right away because I can't stand freebie limits.

No, you're right: I should'nt afford doing AI because i'm ADHD and i'm on a disability benefit: but i'm in the creator program and I can't let anyone down not baybeee XD. (*Also i've had small sponsorship windfalls off and on since last year, so it's not like i'm 100% broke... just. bad with money)