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HP Recommended
Z8 G4
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Can we use RTX series graphic card to replace Quadro GPUs in HP Z8 G4 Workstations?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

I would say yes as long as these conditions are met

 

find out the fastest quadro HP offers for this system and note the wattage draw, also note if said card requires a upgraded power supply like the previous z820/840 system did.

 

as long as your replacement card draws the same or is within 10 watts there should be no issues

 

i don't know if the z8/z4 series use a multirail or single rail power supply. this is important because with a singlerail supply the only thing that matters is the total wattage drawn

 

in a multirail supply, each section is seperate IE- the cpu 12v section is seperate from the GPU 12v, this design has some benefits, but at the cost that it's possible to overload the GPU 12v rail while still being under the supply's total wattage

 

one last thing to keep in mind, HP specs the TOTAL SYSTEM, IE-Power requirements using only parts that they have certified for use. while you can change those parts you should try to balance the wattage of each non HP card  against the HP parts

 

a example would be if HP says two quadro cards each drawing 200 watts are approved but you are only going to run one, in that case your replacement single card can be a higher wattage as long as it does not exceed 400 watts

 

read the HP service manual or quickspecs (search withi google for them) which will list the HP approved parts

then google each part to see it's power draw

 

last, why do you want to change to the RTX series? there is no software that has been approved for use yet by the major software venders/ISV's although that's comming very soon, you should check with whoever makes the software package you run to see if they support the RTX line

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8
HP Recommended

I would say yes as long as these conditions are met

 

find out the fastest quadro HP offers for this system and note the wattage draw, also note if said card requires a upgraded power supply like the previous z820/840 system did.

 

as long as your replacement card draws the same or is within 10 watts there should be no issues

 

i don't know if the z8/z4 series use a multirail or single rail power supply. this is important because with a singlerail supply the only thing that matters is the total wattage drawn

 

in a multirail supply, each section is seperate IE- the cpu 12v section is seperate from the GPU 12v, this design has some benefits, but at the cost that it's possible to overload the GPU 12v rail while still being under the supply's total wattage

 

one last thing to keep in mind, HP specs the TOTAL SYSTEM, IE-Power requirements using only parts that they have certified for use. while you can change those parts you should try to balance the wattage of each non HP card  against the HP parts

 

a example would be if HP says two quadro cards each drawing 200 watts are approved but you are only going to run one, in that case your replacement single card can be a higher wattage as long as it does not exceed 400 watts

 

read the HP service manual or quickspecs (search withi google for them) which will list the HP approved parts

then google each part to see it's power draw

 

last, why do you want to change to the RTX series? there is no software that has been approved for use yet by the major software venders/ISV's although that's comming very soon, you should check with whoever makes the software package you run to see if they support the RTX line

HP Recommended

The Quadro RTX 4000 will be available shortly. Compatibility issues are currently unknown but Nvidia is highly motivated to make this compatible with several generations of HP and Dell workstations. 

 

Personally I'm hoping it will make the P4000 more affordable so I can upgrade from the K1200 to the P4000 in my Xeon Z440. 

  

-Bill 

HP Recommended

TwoMetreBill,

 

The upcoming Quadro RTX will actually be useful in visualization applications much more effectively than games. A lot of buyers of GeForce RTX will find that very few games make much if any use of ray-tracing effects as that has been difficult in real-time until RTX.

 

The Quadro RTX 4000 is expected to cost about $900 and I expect prices for P4000's will drop some- they're very high at the moment, but it may be worth waiting for  whatever the "Quadro RTX 2000" turns out to be. If it is the $550 -650 category, that is about what Quadros on Ebahh are running at the moment. If backwards compatible to zX40, the RTX 2000 may be worthwhile as each Quadro series generally the new GPU runs a bit above the step above in the previous series.   A GTX 970 is faster than a GTX 780 for example.

 

Dependingon the application it may be worth stretching the budget a bit and anyway, if Quadro RTX turns out to be an important improvement, the Pascals will also sold more reasonably.  The P4000 is awfully good if the projects are larger scale, but the P2000 - referred to as "even the lowly P2000" in the video listed below,  is very competent on moderate scale work.

 

I should expect Quadro RTX to be backwards compatible to the zX40 series but I hope beyond as well to zX20 and zX00. Be aware: Out of 70,000+ HP systems tested on Passmark, there is still not a single HP system listed as using an RTX of any kind. I find that absolutely semi-impossible.

 

You might appreciate this comparison of workstations GPU's:

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3399-best-workstation-gpus-2018-for-adobe-premiere-autocad-vray-a...

 

Gaming and workstation hardware is merging quickly and check the relative performance of the types in your applications. Quadros has a very clear advantage in fewer programs, for example in Solidworks, CATIA, and Siemens NX, but not in 2D CAD, animation, and rendering.

 

BambiBoomZ

 

PS: Are you a ham operator or 6'6"? 

HP Recommended

Is it possible to use more than 3 NVIDIA RTX 2080ti GPUs for hp z8 G4..? 

If yes how I can plug-in and install in Z8 G4 workstation ...? 

And which is the best NVIDIA Gpu solution for Designinh and architect ...?

Nvidia RTX 2080ti ...? Or Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000..?  

HP Recommended

if you had bothered to look on the nvidia site first you will have seen that the 2080 based cards only support TWO CARDS in SLI,

 

as such three or more 2080 cards are not supported in any way as the cards lack lack dual/tripple SLI connectors

 

this fact has also meen noted in most of the numerous reviews of the 2080/2070 card models (the 2070 has no SLI support)

 

the link below should answer most users questions on SLI with the new nvidia cards

 

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NVLink-on-NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2080-2080-Ti-in-Windows-10-1...

HP Recommended

Kefdesignn,

 

When considering GPU solutions, the first principal is to understand the characteristics of the most demaning application.  If any applications are using viewports, or need 10-bit color,  there may be serous performance deficits in a gaming/consumer GPU. Check the applications site for recommended hardware, for example for AutoDesk:

 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/certified-graphics-hardware?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype...

 

Revit is quite prominent in US architectural oofices and checking the Autodesk certified hardware, every GPU is either a Quadro or Firepro.

 

Solidworks famously will run quite bit faster on a Quadro P2000 than a GTX 1080Ti. There are also applications- Adobe, which do not recognize multiple GPU's whereas some rendering applications will run on multiple, dissimilar GPU's.  However, the perofrmance order varies application to application. For example, in this comparison of GPU's for workstation use:

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3399-best-workstation-gpus-2018-for-adobe-premiere-autocad-vray-a...

 

> the RTX 2080 Ti is the top in 3Ds Max while the Quadro P2000 is No. 10 out of 13. If Solidworks is present, the GPU has to be a Quadro. The situation appears to be similar for Autodesk Maya. However, in Siemens NX, the P2000 is No. 7 and the RTX 2080 Ti is no.13.  AutoCAD, RTX 2080Ti= 1 / P2000= 7. There are also a few crossover cards that try to do everything well and if you find that your apllications need good performance on every side, then the Titan Xp (12GB) is a good choice and if the rendering applications can use multiple cards, have two Xp's.  I don't know enough about the performance characteristics in viewport , but a single Titan RTX (24GB) is seen in Xeon systems and might be the best all-round solution and about the same cost as two RTX 2080 Ti's.

 

However, a super GPU wil not relaize it maximum performance unless the CPU single thread perofrmance is very strong.  This is a function of the Turbo clock speed and typically, the Turbo clock speed is related to the number of cores, fewer cores will see higher clock speeds.  I run a Xeon E5-1680 v2 (z620) on all 8-cores at 4.3GHz, having a Passmark Single Thread Mark of 2364, whereas the E5-1650 v2 running all 6-cores at 4.3GHz has a STM of 2570.  For comparison the highest average STM for a current Xeon is 2570 for the Xeon E-2186G 6-core@3.8 / 4.7GHz and the highest LGA2066 is the Xeon W-2134 4-core@3.5/4.5GHz at 2570.  Find the STM for your CPU in this chart:

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

 

The Single thread peformance can dramatically improve 3D.  See this chart for the Single thread rating of your CPU:

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

 

The office z420 with a Xeon E5-1620 v2 (4C@ 3.7 / 3.9GHz) had an STM of 2088 and the GTX 1060 3GB a  Passmark 3D of 9768.  Changing to the E5-1650 v2 ($90), adding the z420 liquid cooler ($61), and overclocking to 4.3GHz changed the STM to 2385 and the 3D became 10652. The 3D modeling is substantially improved.

 

Workstation performance is much more difficult an equation than gaming which is entirely concerned with frame rates. The fact that different applications have such different requirements makes performance desicsions much more difficult.

 

If I were to suggest the safest all-round high performance workstation card, that do everything well without being fantastically expensive and/or wasting cost on underutilized hardware, my recommendaton would be to buy a single Quadro RTX 4000  (probably my next GPU) and see if the perofrmance was satisfactory and adding a 2nd if the z8 supports the RTX4000 in SLI, or an Titan RTX. 

 

Run the Passmark Performance Test on the current system to identify the wek link; a deficit may be the CPU clock speed- and resultant single thread performance, rather than the GPU.

 

BTW, the only system I know that can support three- four actually- double height GPU's- and 4TB of RAM!, is this DIY dual LGA 3647 platform :

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/7049/SYS-7049GP-TRT.cfm

 

BambiBoomZ

HP Recommended

My system spec: HP Z8 G4 intel Xeon silver4114  dule processor 128 GB Ram  . Is it possible to add 3 GPU card on this system and which is the nest one for rendering purpose ..?

Note:- I am using autodesk , revit, twinmotion, lumion , Vray, 3ds max, corona , autoCAD

HP Recommended

Kefdesignn,

 

The two CPU's provide sufificent PCIe lanes (48 lanes each) for three GPU's and there are four x16 PCIe slots: Slots 2,3,4,6. As these cards are likely to be dual height, the three cards should be in Slots: 2,4,6. Be aware that the three GPU's, if double height, will cover all the other PCIe slots excdept Slot 1, making additional add-in cards limited.

 

1. Be aware of the total power draw, although the Xeon Silver 4114, having low clock speeds, is rated at only 85W each.

 

2. Be aware that the GPU in Slot 6 if dual height, will have greatly reduced cooling air flow as the fan(s), facing down, will be so near the bottom of the case.  Check that the GPU chosen does not exceed 2X slot height as some cards are 2.4x or 2.5X height. To avoid thermal throttling for the bottom card under heavy rendering load,  monitor temperatures under full load and consider advancing the fan curve in BIOS.

 

3. Consider the choice of GPU carefully if this system is also used for 3D modeling, viewport, and 10-bit color depth support.  However, the Passmark single thread mark for the Xeon Silver 4114 (10C@2.2/3.0GHz is 1617), so I assume this is almost entirely for rendering. 

 

BambiBoomZ

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