GPU (Graphics Card) in R440?

Question

Has anyone ever put a GPU in the PCIe slot of a R440?  I don't know why else it would have a full height x16 PCIe 3.0 port if you couldn't put a GPU in it.  I don't know if the Perc 8 series cards are actually x16 or just x8, but a single slot compute type GPU would seem logical. I'm looking to make this a trasncoding beast of a Plex Media Server by adding a Dell Nvidia Quadro P2000 from the Precision Upgrade kit.  The card is Bus powered - no additional power plugs needed, and its a single slot card. Thank you in advance to all the Dell people who will say this is unsupported configuration - I know this.  Has anyone done this and/or have any experience with this working or not working? Thanks

MarkyB283 · Answer

Hi,

Im not sure what the official Dell view on it is, But i have been successful with a NVS 300 in a few different Dell machines (R710, R720 and R510).

At the end of the day its just a pcie slot so it should take any card that it can power.

Just beware of fans, i know some machines need extra fans if they are in a 1 CPU config if there is a high power draw card in the pcie slot.

Hope this helps!

Marcus.

ScottyHTS · Answer

Thanks MarkyB283.

I found a screaming deal on the R440 at the Outlet, and Dell's P2000 kit is like $100 under market value for the card, so I couldn't resist. I pulled the trigger, and will post back how it goes.

You're right - it's a PCIe x16 slot - it should accept whatever you can fit in there. I'm just worried dell Did something stupid like disable it in bios and just doesn't tell you that in ANY literature.

Crossing my fingers!

MarkyB283 · Answer

Good luck man, from my experience they are usually pretty relaxed on what you can put in, that said i work on the older 11 / 12th gen stuff. I know there's some specific setup stuff to do with the risers and IDRAC depending on what your CPU setup is, I think Riser 2 only works with CPU 1 and Riser 1 only works with CPU 2. And the IDRAC enterprise card is attached to Riser 1. Well it was like that for the R420, not 100% sure if its the same now. If you find you're missing anything, these guys are pretty good at having nearly anything enterprise related - http://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/

jaberwockysnicksnack · Answer

I never saw a follow-up to this and am guessing you were not able to get this to work. Can you confirm? Older R series servers had limits of 25 watts on PCIE cards and I'm guessing R440 has the same limitation.

I really want to pick up an R440 to upgrade my home lab box to something modern but want to play with GPU pass through and have my eye on a P400 Quadro board that pulls 30 watts maximum from the PCI bus and I'm concerned it will not work.

Don't want to spend the money on a new server that will not work with a modest GPU.

Please let us know if you got this to work or it failed.

Thanks

jeremy_pcs · Answer

I had a P2000 working in an R340.  I had to bend one internal support so the card's fan would clear.  It functioned though.

atafm2 · Answer

@jaberwockysnicksnack wrote:

Older R series servers had limits of 25 watts on PCIE cards and I'm guessing R440 has the same limitation.

the 25 watt limitation is mostly for 11th gen and older. 12th gen and newer full height x16 slots are typically 75w and half height ones are typically 25w max. (most cases, not all)

For example the R730xd has 3 full height slots rated 75w each, and 3 half height slots, rated 25w each

Also to consider is the power supplies. I believe the T440 would only let you use GPU with the 1100w psu.

PowerEdge Hardware General

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