Inference doesn't actually need gobs of PCIe bandwidth, the model gets split in half at the layer level and you just pass the output of one card to the input of the next. I have 2x7800XTs going and one is on (chipset) PCIe4x4 and it works fine. External via eGPU can also be done.
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Yes, if you use layer parallelism. When using tensor parallelism PCIe bandwith is a very important factor.
True, but not hugely relevant to models fitting in 32GB as I understand it, more for improving latencies in larger models (120B+) or batch processing. Nonetheless layer will work for OPs use case.
I use a lot of PCIe extenders to abuse my consumer motherboard with too many GPUs. You should be fine as long as your processor and chipset have enough lanes and power. Cheap extenders can be had for like $10.