HP Z620 Workstation with 3 Graphic Cards for 11 Monitors - Possible?

[smvs]

Hello everyone.

I am about to purchase/close a deal to a HP Z620 Workstation with the following configuration:

• 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2660v2 10Cores / 20Threads
• 64Gb DDR3 ECC
• 2x SSD 500Gb SATA3

I bought it without graphics cards precisely because I still do not know what solution I should get for what I want.

I need to connect 11 monitors to this workstation, each of them running an independent vmware virtual machine, and from what I've searching for, there are two graphics cards compatible with this workstation that allow me to connect 4 monitors each (by displayport), being them NVIDIA NVS 510 and AMD FirePro V7900, my choice falling for the latter, it have greater and faster memory, and much more processing power.

The problem is that I know that this workstation handle 2 of these cards pretty well, because it has 2 PCI Express Gen3 x16, and I've seen the same configuration working for 8 monitors. So the question is... can I put a third card in the Gen3 x8 PCI Express slot, since I really need the 11 monitors, and since they will not be processing 3D or anything heavy, it is just passing the image of the virtual machine with one open browser passing graphics in real time, all 2D, PCI8x would not do bottleneck.

I would appreciate if someone with similar experience would help me out before I finish the deal, so I don't get stuck with only 8 monitors, i really need the 11 (or even the full 12 if necessary).

Thank you in advance, regards.

Sérgio Silva

[Brian1965 · Accepted solution]

Hi smvs,

Please see the extract below from the HP Z620 quickspecs;

Basically the HP Z620 will support up to 4 graphics cards.

Additonal information can be found here;

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04111527

Hope this helps.

[smvs]

Thanks a lot!

That can be it! 

The AMD FirePro V7900 draw approx. 150w each one, so 3 of them would draw 450w total and need 3 6pin connectors (the Z620 only come with 2 I think).

But... the NVIDIA NVS 510 only draw 40w each one and don't even need an external power connector, the 75w provided by the PCI Express slot it's enough, so 3 of them should be handled nicely by the Z620.

I will investigate the motherboard layout, to see if physically/mechanically it can handle the 3 of them (because the NVS510 is pci16x full length).

Thanks for the fast answer!

[Brian1965]

The short answer is you need 2x NVS 510 cards in PCIe slots 2 and 5, and 2x NVS 310 cards in PCIe slots 3 and 4.  The NVS 510 cards support 4 monitors each, and the NVS 310 cards support 2 monitors each. This is the 'officially' approved HP configuration.

[BambiBoomZ]

smvs,

The key to running multiple GPU's with simultaneous output may be to use dissimilar GPU's and load the drivers in a particular sequence that avoids driver conflict.  Conventionally, BIOS will select a primary GPU based on the PCIe position. However, see the post on this subject by Forum member Brian1965 in which dissimilar GPU's can produce simulataneous output:

SOLVED – Quadro P2000 + GTX 1080TI, CAD AND GAMING on a HP Z620

For the simplest 12 monitor configuration, consider this pair of GPU's:

GPU 1:     NVIDIA NVS810

The NVS810 is configured with 8X mini-Diplayport connections and is rated to run eight UHD 4K monitors at 60Hz.

For an NVS series Quadro, the NVS810 can have a reasonable 3D performance, having a Passmark G3D of 930 to 1375. That will not be fantastic for 3D modeling of projects of any size,  but will very nicely produce 3D analytical graphing.

That's a start!   Plus>

GPU 2:  Quadro P1000 or Quadro P2000.

And the 3D capability of these GPU's is in the upper tier. The P1000 will support 4X 4K monitors at 60Hz and the P2000 can run 4X 5K monitors at 60Hz.

There you are- 12 monitors:  8X 2D-oriented  monitors + 4X quite highly 3D-capable monitors.

GPU Option 3:  If the 2nd GPU is a Quadro P4000, that could add a VR-capability. However, I'm not sure it would also run the other monitors connected simultaneously. that is, it may mean 8 monitors + VR.

I would mention that I am having excellent results with the Quadro P2000 in a z620:

HP z620_2 (2017) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.1GHz)  / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB + Intel 730 480GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit  > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H  (2560 X 1440)  (CPU is overclocked)
 
[Passmark Rating = 6166 / CPU rating = 16934 / 2D = 820 / 3D= 8849 / Mem = 2991 / Disk = 13794] 4.24.17   Single Thread Mark = 2252

And the P2000 performs even better in a z420:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 5) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 4.0 / 4.2GHz)  / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM  / Quadro P2000 (5GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX  1TB> > 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H  (2560 X 1440)

[ Passmark Rating = 5920 > CPU= 15129 / 2D= 855 / 3D= 8945 / Mem= 2906 / Disk= 8576]  [6.12.16]  Single-Thread Mark = 2322 [4.20.17] (CPU is overclocked)

Those 3D ratings place the Quadro P2000 at a performance level above the Quadro M5000 and K6000 as well as GTX 1060 6GB, GTX 780 Ti, and GTX Titan Black.

Again,  this is somewhat speculative and I suggest reading Brian1965's post and researching these options carefully, including consulting NVIDIA directly.

Cheers,

BambiBoomZ