What is the maximum PCIe card length that can be fitted to a Z820 workstation?

[andyt222]

Will a MSI Geforce RTX3080 Suprim-x GPU with 12 GB of memory fit into a Z820 workstation and are there likely to be any issues with BIOS and/or UEFI support?

The PCIe bus specs state that a full-length PCIe card measures 312mm long but this particular card (and many other similar 3080 Ampere-based cards from other vendors with 12GB instead of the more usual 10GB of GPU memory) is a triple-width card that measures 336mm long and won't fit into many servers, PCs or workstations.

[Brian1965]

Hi Andy,

Looking at the MSI website there doesn't appear to be a Suprim X card with 12GB of ram;

Are you referring to the Suprim 12G or Suprim XE 12GB cards?

Having had at quick look at the specifications of all of those 3080 Suprim variants, (assuming the card could physically fit in a Z820), I think the power requirements for these cards are too high. NOTE: HP stipulates in the Z820 quickspecs that the Z820 supports either 3x 225W GPU cards, or 2x 300W GPU cards. The 3 GPU variants at the top of the image (L to R) above require 390W, 350W and 370W respectively.

[andyt222]

Thanks for the quick response. I have the GPU carton in front of me and it's a Suprim X 12G which was bought in August last year. I think that particular GPU model is no longer on the MSI website and has been superseded by the Suprim 12G LHR. The recommended PSU rating for this GPU is 850watts minimum but I think it's possible to upgrade the Z820 PSU to something like 1100 or 1200watts.

I don't actually have a Z820 to try this out but am thinking of buying a used one for GPU computing work. I have a faulty Z800 but I don't think it will be suitable since its BIOS only supports legacy BIOS and not UEFI, so it's not worth fixing it for this project.   

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

the z820 has no issues with this card length wise, however a 3080 card in a z820 is bit pointless as the fastest cpu for it is still unable to feed the card data at a rate that allows the gpu to run at it's full speed so it will be slightly bottlenecked

next, if you still want to do this you will require the optional 1120 watt supply which has 3 6pin gpu leads the stock 850 watt supply will not work reliably and only has two 6 pin gpu leads

last, is there a problem with you taking a tape measure yourself and checking the available length from front to back for the pci-e slot(s) ?

How long is MSI Suprim X?  answer: 13.23" x 5.51"

[andyt222]

I'm getting the feeling at least a Z840 might be needed to make the best use of this GPU card - plus a PSU upgrade - and in the end it would be cheaper for me to put together a gaming-style PC from parts to put it into. This GPU card was bought in error by one of our end-users to be added to a Tyan rackmount GPU server but was too long to fit into it. I've since bought a GPU card that does fit into the Tyan server but it would be a shame not to make use of the long card.

I'm not really able to measure the PCIe slot length at the moment as although we have a few Z820 & Z840 systems here, they're all in use so I can't really go & open them up.  But thanks for confirming the card will fit.

[DGroves]

a quick FYI,...........................the z800/820/840 systems are not consumer based systems they are actually closer by far to servers

NVidia's recommendations on power supply wattage is based on a generic CONSUMER pc,....

not a custom designed workstation/server system

most consumer systems today use single rail power supplies, these "Z" workstations do not, they use "multirail" power supplies

a multirail supply has separate power subsections and each section has a hard limit (such as the GPU aux power rail)

so on a consumer "single rail" system, any power connecter can deliver all remaining power up to the supplies stated limit

not so a multirail supply, you are limited to each rails stated output and the z820 stock 850 watt supply is unable to power the 3080 when it's overclocked and is actually over the limit slightly for a stock 3080

https://thinkcomputers.org/settling-the-debate-multi-rail-vs-single-rail-power-supplies/