I really want a GPU renderer to take advantage of my 3080, but they're a bit spendy for something I'd only use occasionally and non-professionally. Can never decide between Octane and V-Ray either, despite having tried demos for both.
Haven’t tried V-ray myself but the reason I use octane is that it’s so quick to get decent results. I know Octane do a monthly subscription which is about £15 per month, you can jump in and out so could just could get the license for when you need to use it.
I use Octane renderer. My Octanebench for the build is 1350 if anyone was interested :-)