Can I use NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in HP Z440 workstation ? Is it safe ?

[doomfan]

Hello. I have question like in tittle - Can I use NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in HP Z440 workstation ? Is it safe ? I know that recently I ask You about very similar thing if mean about using of NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060 8GB in HP Z440 Workstation but recently it became clear for me that RTX 4060 8GB which I purchased recently some two weeks ago does not have enough VRAM memory for some PC games like Doom The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle so I ordered today NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB graohics card especially for these games but I'm worried will this graphics card work properly on my HP Z440 Workstation, because if this graphics card will not properly work on my HP Z440 Workstation I will have to cancel my order with this graphics card or if I will not get answer from You on this question to tommorow morning I will have to return this graphics card. I will not be hiding that I would like to get possibly quickly specific and concrete answer on this my question.

I know already that PSU of my HP Z440 Workstation has two PCIe 6-pin power plugs, and this graphics card requires one PCIe 8-pin power plug like RTX 4060, but RTX 4060 has about 115-120W of power consumption, and RTX 5060 Ti has about 180W of power consuption so I guess that I will have to use adapter with two 6-pin PCIe power plugs on input (female plugs) to one 8-pin PCIe power plug on output (male plug) if I want safely power this graphics card, yes ? Single 6-pin PCIe power plug can deliver to max 75W of power, and single 8-pin PCIe power plug can deliver to max 150W of power, yes ? So if RTX 5060 Ti has 180W of power consumption I will have to use adapter like I described earlier in this post because this graphics card will get 75W of power from PCIe slot, and remaining 105W of power for this graphics card I will have to deliver from PCIe power cables and plugs, and that single 6-pin PCIe power plug can deliver only to 75W of additional power I will have to use this adapter with two 6-pin PCIe power plugs on input (female plugs) and one 8-pin PCIe power plug on output (male plug) for enough power supply of this graphics card, yes ?

Mark.

[TheOutlawed · Accepted solution]

Hi @doomfan 

I can see you’ve done your homework on power delivery and compatibility, which is excellent. Let’s go through this carefully so you can make a confident decision before your return window closes.

1. Compatibility (Mainboard and BIOS)

The HP Z440 uses a workstation-class motherboard with PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, which is fully compatible electrically and mechanically with modern consumer GPUs like the RTX 5060 Ti.
However, because RTX 50-series cards are very new (Ada-Lovelace refresh), you’ll want to ensure:

• You’re on BIOS version 2.61 Rev.A or newer (last released 2020-09-21).

• Legacy Boot Mode is enabled, not pure UEFI, if you have display issues during POST (the Z440 doesn’t have modern GOP firmware like newer systems).

 With those two conditions met, the RTX 5060 Ti should initialize correctly.

2. Power Delivery

You’ve analyzed this perfectly — let’s confirm the math and best practices.

• PCIe slot: up to 75 W

• Each 6-pin PCIe connector: up to 75 W

• One 8-pin PCIe connector: up to 150 W

For an estimated 180 W GPU, you’ll need:

• 75 W (slot) + 150 W (8-pin) = 225 W total available — safe margin.

Yes, you can safely use a dual-6-pin to single-8-pin adapter as long as:

• Both 6-pin connectors come directly from the power supply unit (PSU), not split from the same cable.

• Your Z440 PSU is the 700 W model (which all GPU-capable configurations shipped with).

If your Z440 has the 525 W PSU, that would be marginal for a 180 W GPU + CPU load — I wouldn’t recommend it.

3. Thermal and Mechanical Fit

The RTX 5060 Ti is expected to be physically similar to the RTX 4060 Ti, so:

• Ensure the card fits in the first PCIe x16 slot (watch the internal drive cage clearance if you use a 3-slot card).

• The Z440’s chassis airflow is excellent — the rear fan plus CPU duct will keep thermals under control. Still, make sure you clean the intake and exhaust filters to maintain airflow.

4. Driver and OS Support

• Use Windows 10 or 11 64-bit for best compatibility.

• Download the latest Game Ready or Studio Driver directly from NVIDIA (the HP driver catalog won’t include RTX 50-series drivers).

• If you experience “no display” after driver install, use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to clean out old RTX 4060 drivers before installing the 5060 Ti.

Conclusion

Yes — you can safely use the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB in your HP Z440 Workstation, provided that:

1. You have the 700 W PSU.

2. You use a dual 6-pin to single 8-pin adapter (with separate PSU leads).

3. You’re running the latest BIOS (2.61).

4. You’re on Windows 10 or 11, with NVIDIA’s latest driver.

If all of the above are met, it’s a safe and compatible upgrade path — and a smart move for memory-intensive games like Doom: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

[SDH]

To the OP and the HP Employee,

HP engineers to higher than ATX standards for its workstations. Look at the label on the Z440 power supply to see the higher amperage those two 6-wire PCIe supplemental power cables actually are designed for. You also need to get proper engineered HP adapters to add to the 6-pin plug end, of course and they are easy to find. Beware of cheap knockoffs... melting and fire hazards. I'm shocked (pun intended) that posters with valuable workstations and new expensive video cards don't want to buy a properly HP-engineered adapter... who knows what is necessary better?

12VDC x 18A = how many watts?

And here is a good post to start with. Lots more on this in the forum too. Look HERE .

[doomfan]

Big Thanks for Your help Man ! Because then when I asked You about this thing on this forum I didn't get enough quickly answer on this question from You finally I risked purchasing of this NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB on my own risk if something will go wrong and WOW - It looks that all it's OK ! My HP Z440 workstation started without any problems after installing by me of this NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB. When Windows started completely I uninstalled old NVIDIA drivers for my previous graphics card wchich was NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4060 8 GB and later I installed new NVIDIA drivers for my current NVIDIA Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB graphics card. Of course like I wrote earlier in my first post on this thread I used adapter with two 6-pin PCIe power plugs on input (female plugs) to one 8-pin PCIe power plug on output (male plug) for power of this graphics card - it's EVGA brand adapter so I guess that it should be OK because it's well-known and reputable brand I guess ? I didn't purchase any HP brand adapter because in my country wchich is Poland I couldn't find any HP brand adapters like You recommended - of course I found some offers with these HP brand adapters but stores wchich had these offers with these HP brand adapters didn't have already this thing in stocks so I had to find other adapter than this from HP and I found this adapter from EVGA brand. I heard a lot of on net that EVGA when they were producing their graphics cards for NVIDIA up to Gefroce RTX 3xxx series they making the best models of NVIDIA graphics cards if mean about their really small failure rate and big reliability - apparently now the best graphics cards if mean about their small failure rate and big reliability are models of graphics cards from MSI brand. I don't know of course how much is in these opinions true but I heard something like this so I purchased MSI Geforce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Shadow 2x model - I hope only that I will not regret of this purchase in some future, because it would be very sad if this graphics card would damage suddenly from any unknown reason, and I paid for it about over 500 US dollars, and these are not small money for me so I hope that You undestand my worries. 😞 

PS: My BIOS/UEFI version is M60 v02.62 01/04/2024 - is it the newest BIOS/UEFI version for my HP Z440 workstation ?

[SDH]

Happy to help. I'm me, not "You" 🙂 Welcome to our friend from Poland! This is a forum that generally is made up only of HP product users, not HP management. Luckily at times a HP employee will help out, and sometimes some of us HP product users know a bit more than the employee does. That is OK, no one can know everything, and they are always welcome here (because you can be sure they are HP product users too).

My point was how much a single 6-wire PCIe supplemental power cable can provide from your Z440's 700W power supply. There is a lower capacity power supply for the Z440 too.  All of the modern HP workstations run 18A over their PCIe supplemental power cable(s) if present. Because of that you need to be careful when powering a high wattage video card via a single cable and a non-HP adapter. A good number of us need a second video card and thereby drive 4 monitors by use of both of the 18A PCIe supplemental power cables. 

What you did is safe and fine... you're using both of those cables to power a single video card, providing way more than enough wattage capacity. That won't hurt anything because the card won't draw more power than it needs.

Regarding your current BIOS. You may have noticed that the HP Z440 drivers download site is now providing 02.61 BIOS. There is no need to change to that by downgrading from 02.62. HP changed what it offers because the installer of the BIOS had a little security issue. The 02.62 BIOS itself is fine... it was the installer that HP did not want to leave out there. So, stick with 2.62 (I am too) and those who are using 02.61 are also fine. Windows Update might offer 02.61 but I don't take it.

[doomfan]

@SDH Hahaha, when I was writing in my previous posts in this thread and maybe in other threads on this forum "You" word I mean "You" in plural number (in sense english grammar) as HP community, for example engineers, users, etc. , and not "You" in singular number (again in sense english grammer) in sense as, for example to You pesonally as SDH user on this forum, do you understand Man now what I have mean when I was writing "You" word in my previous posts ? Simply in english language "You" word means the same in second person of singular number and in second person of plural number, not like for example in my national language wchich is polish where "You" english word in second person of singular number is "Ty", and "You" english word in second person of plural number is "Was". If you're curious too why I write always "You" word from capital letter, in sense "Y", and not simply from "y" letter, and so lowercase letter - I show respect in this way to this our HP community, and so too for You among others about what I wrote on beginning of this my post. I hope that now it's all clear for You (now "You" word I used in sense as second person of singular number, because I mean "You" as SDH user - one of many users on this forum).

If mean about my BIOS/UEFI version I understand that I dont't have to update it because all it's OK, yes ?

PS again: So if one single 6-pin PCIe power cable from HP Z440 workstation can delivier 18A of current at 12V voltage, and HP Z440 workstation in version with 700W power supply has two these single 6-pin PCIe power cables is it true that one this single 6-pin PCIe power cable can delivier additional 216W (watts of course) of power, because power (P) = voltage (U) * current (I) so after substituting into this formula we get 12V * 18A = 216W ? And, that like I wrote earlier in this post HP Z440 workstation in version with 700W power supply has two these 6-pin PCIe power cables we get potentially even to 432W of additional power, because 216W * 2 these cables = 432W ? So potentially if this 700W power supply of this HP Z440 workstation would have enough power for power not only GPU (graphics card), but too for CPU (main processor), RAM, optical drives, SSDs, HDDs, chipset, mainboard, fans, etc. we could mount in this HP Z440 workstation graphics card (GPU) with TGP even to 507W (watts) of power, because then we would get 216W of additional power from each of these two 6-pin PCIe power cables so we have already 432W of additional power from two these 6-pin PCIe power cables, and additionally of course we have too 75W of power from PCIe 3.0 x16 slot itlself, yes ? Of course I know that it isn't possible because then this 700W power supply wouldn't have enough power for other components - I analyzed this only in theory where only this potiential GPU about this power work in this HP Z440 workstation without any other components.

[SDH]

All good! You understand very well. It is rare that a video card ever draws its Maximum wattage. Just like at your home where your electrical system was not engineered to have a maximum wattage device plugged into each wall socket, each in use 24 hours a day. Time to stop thinking and start enjoying your upgraded system.

[doomfan]

I'm curious too how many 12V rails this 700W PSU has ? Does it have one powerful 12V rail shared between GPU, CPU, SSDs, HDDs, optical driver, etc. , and maybe it has a few weaker 12V rails where each of them is reserved for other component, for example where first 12V rail is reserved for power of GPU, second 12V rail is reserved for power of CPU, third 12V rail is reserved for power of SATA drives, fourth 12V rail is reserved for power of fans, etc. ? And maybe even for example first 12V rail is reserved for first 6-pin PCIe power cable, second 12V rail is reserved for second 6-pin PCIe power cable, third 12V rail is reserved for 12-pin EPS power cable (for CPU power), fourth 12V rail is reserved for first SATA cable, fifth 12V rail is reserved for second SATA cable, sixth 12V rail is reserved for third SATA cable, seventh 12V rail is reserved for fourth SATA cable, etc. ? And on the end itself the most important question for me if mean about 12V rails - can I connect/combine pararelly these different 12V rails without any problems and/or failures caused by for example short circuits wchich could be caused by slight differences in voltage values between different these 12V rails ? Is it safe ? I ask You about it because when I was reading about it on net different guys had very different statements/opinions in this matter. I can only add personally that before I powered on my HP Z440 workstation with this EVGA adapter with two 6-pin PCIe power plugs on input (female plugs) and one 8-pin PCIe power plug on output (male plug) connected I checked by multimeter on circuit continuity tester range are all yellow cables, and so +12V cables connected/shorted/bridged, in sense that resistance between each and each yellow +12V cable is practically zero - and so moooooore less than 1 ohm, because it's clear that it will not be never ideally/perfectly zero resistance, rather something like 0,02 ohms what I interpret as connecting/shorting/bridging these cables, maybe I'm wrong if I think in this way ? Really after ending by me of mesurement by multimeter on circuit continuity tester range of each of these yellow +12V cables became clear for me that all these yellow +12V cables are connected/shorted/bridged between themselves. Identically I did with all black cables, and so ground cables and I got the same results so I stated after it that it's safe to power on my HP Z440 workstation with this adapter connected.

[doomfan]

I'm curious too how many 12V rails this 700W PSU has ? Does it have one powerful 12V rail shared between GPU, CPU, SSDs, HDDs, optical driver, etc. , and maybe it has a few weaker 12V rails where each of them is reserved for other component, for example where first 12V rail is reserved for power of GPU, second 12V rail is reserved for power of CPU, third 12V rail is reserved for power of SATA drives, fourth 12V rail is reserved for power of fans, etc. ? And maybe even for example first 12V rail is reserved for first 6-pin PCIe power cable, second 12V rail is reserved for second 6-pin PCIe power cable, third 12V rail is reserved for 12-pin EPS power cable (for CPU power), fourth 12V rail is reserved for first SATA cable, fifth 12V rail is reserved for second SATA cable, sixth 12V rail is reserved for third SATA cable, seventh 12V rail is reserved for fourth SATA cable, etc. ? And on the end itself the most important question for me if mean about 12V rails - can I connect/combine pararelly these different 12V rails without any problems and/or failures caused by for example short circuits wchich could be caused by slight differences in voltage values between different these 12V rails ? Is it safe ? I ask You about it because when I was reading about it on net different guys had very different statements/opinions in this matter. I can only add personally that before I powered on my HP Z440 workstation with this EVGA adapter with two 6-pin PCIe power plugs on input (female plugs) and one 8-pin PCIe power plug on output (male plug) connected I checked by multimeter on circuit continuity tester range are all yellow cables, and so +12V cables connected/shorted/bridged, in sense that resistance between each and each yellow +12V cable is practically zero - and so moooooore less than 1 ohm, because it's clear that it will not be never ideally/perfectly zero resistance, and rather something like 0,02 ohms what I interpret as connecting/shorting/bridging these cables, maybe I'm wrong if I think in this way ? Really after ending by me of mesurement by multimeter on circuit continuity tester range of each of these yellow +12V cables became clear for me that all these yellow +12V cables are connected/shorted/bridged between themselves. Identically I did with all black cables, and so ground cables and I got the same results so I stated after it that it's safe to power on my HP Z440 workstation with this adapter connected.