XW8400 and Nvidia 6000 on win 8.1

[bolejj]

This is not a question. I just wanted to post this for those that may need to upgrade their graphics card for this old workstation. Nvidia 6000 has 6gig of GPU memory. There is a new piece of software by Topaz (AI pixel) that requires a minimum of 4Gig GPU. That's why I upgraded.

These cards can be had on Ebay for around $130, used. 

Be sure you by the HP version and not the M6000 which is a different card.

Installation:

1) make a windows restore point.

2) shutdown and unplug

3) put the new card in.

4) boot and install the drivers.

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/130175/en-us  for win 8.1 64 bit
https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/130177/en-us for win 10 64 bit
For future reference, you need to go to the link  https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

[DGroves]

actually the card name is "QUADRO" 6000, and yes hp did sell this card model under the HP label, but you can use any quadro 6000 card not just the hp one the card is PCI-e 2.0 based,  and works in a legacy based bios system it should work in all HP workstation models like the xw8600, and the z800 and up systems

https://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-6000-us.htm

Last, the quadro m6000 is the newer version of this card using a diffrent gpu chip, has 12GB ram instead of 6gb uses the pci-e 3.0 bus and as the "OP" noted will not work in desktop systems that are not UEFI capable

[bolejj]

I'd like to add that installing some graphics cards (no particular vendor) can cause your sound card to be deactiveated as was the case with the quadro 6000. I installed with the 'cusom' option, but did not uncheck the audio driver during the install. My default (came with the PC) realtek audio was deactived and could not be found in the Windows Control Panel under 'Sound' after the quadro driver installation. Consequently, I went to the realtek site and downloaded 0009-64bit_Win7_Win8_Win81_Win10_R282.exe. After installing the new driver the realtek devices still were not available under Control Panel 'Sound'. 

After reading this link http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1840104/sound-graphics-card-installation.html 

I rebooted and went into the system BIOS to 'activate/enable' the onboard sound (aka NOT quadro sound). 

I was then able to use Control Panel 'Sound' to access the Realtek devices.

You might just be able to uncheck the audio driver during the quadro install, but I"m not sure that would work, becuase if you install the card, THEN do the new driver install for the card, THEN BEFORE you get a chance to do the new driver install (it looked to me anyway) that the PC/quadro were already installing default drivers it got from somewhere.  I had to reinstall the quadro drivers (the ones that magically appeared), because they were the newest which I downloaded, and this time I used the quadro 'clean' install option which removes any old drivers.

So with the BIOS change and the clear install of the quadro the sould is working fine.

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

yes, you can just uncheck the audio driver during setup to prevent the card's audio from being enabled as the default audio device during the video driver install (this should be mentioned during setup but for some reasion is not)

what is/does the cards audio driver doing? well the card has onboard  HDMI digital audio capability which allows the card to combine the video and the audio into one cable, but you need a device at the other end that knows how to use this HDMI combined signal

nvidia HDMI Audio works the same as a digital  or optical output does. It sends the actual data, and that's it. So you have to rely on the receiving end to do all the processing. most mid to Hi end audio receivers have multiple audio input jacks

and newer ons should support HDMI and optical audio in,  newer mid to Hi end TV's also support audio over HDMI