T320 video card upgrade

Skypilott2,

There currently is no support for using a PCIe card to replace the embedded video in the T320. The T320 does support 3rd party video cards such as the nVidia Q4000 and Q6000, but they are not used for graphic uses, but for GPU purposes.

That being said, that doesn't mean that there isn't a 3rd party card that would work in the server, but it isn't tried or tested by us. So we wouldn't have any suggestions on possible working ones. 

Also, if you do find a card that works, the Drac will no longer be accessible. As the Drac uses the embedded video. 

Let me know if this helps.

Chris... 

And how I can turn on the embedded video after I've disabled it? 

@umgeher

Without a graphics card installed in PCIe slot-3 of your T320, the BIOS does not allow you to access the "embedded video controller" options within the "integrated devices" page your BIOS. When you install a graphics card into a PE server, you should find you can now access the "embedded video controller" and thus set it to "disable".

Since the default setting for the "embedded video controller" is "enabled", should you have issues with your PCIe graphics card (and get no video output thus needing to get back to using the embedded video controller) you can simply clean the NVRAM which returns all BIOS settings to their defaults.

To reset BIOS, simply set NVRAM_CLR jumper to pins 3-5 which will get you back to basics on next system boot :)

Now if you use a GPU compute card having graphics output (like a TELSA C2075), do note that NVIDIA changed the driver behavior to default the card into GPU mode instead of Graphics mode. Should you want to use such a TELSA card in graphics mode, you may need to enter a command. FYI, the NVIDIA release notes for driver version 311.15 stated the following:

C2075 TCC mode

Prior to version 275.89 of the graphics driver, the C2075 companion processor booted into standard (WDDM) graphics mode on 64 bit windows 7 systems. Starting with version 275.89, on 64 bit windows 7 systems the C2075 boots by default into TCC mode, not WDDM graphics mode. In TCC mode the C2075 behaves strictly as a computing GPU and does not drive or render to a graphics display.

It is possible to toggle between TCC and WDDM modes using the Nvidia smi utility:

nvidia-smi -g (GPU ID) -dm (0 for WDDM, 1 for TCC)

Finally, in mixed Nvidia Quadro + Tesla C2075 configurations, if a display is connected to it, the Nvidia Quadro boots into standard graphics mode and drives the display while the Tesla C2075 defaults to TCC mode.

Tesla Systems: nView not installed

This is expected behavior. For windows 7 and windows vista, nView installs only on Nvidia Quadro and Nvidia NVS systems, not Tesla systems.

So, if you want to use a Tesla card for graphics output, you need to use Quadro driver version lower than 275.89, or if using the latest drivers you need to set the Tesla boot mode to WDDM using the Nvidia smi utility as indicated above.

And as a final note, the Q4000 is a workstation class graphics card, not a GPU compute card like the C2075 and as the HP Hardware Owners Manual states the T320 can supports Q4000 and Q6000 graphics cards, i would also expected HP should do the same !!

Hi Brandon,

Will nVidia NVS315 works on T320? we are deadly need some help here.

Thanks in advance.

BIn Fang (Tom)

The nVidia NVS315 has not been validated by our PreSales division, but this does not mean that it won't work.  Please understand that all 3rd party products are customer-installed and customer-supported.  All technical support will have to be provided through the manufacturer, not Dell's technical support.

I know that I have had success with the following graphics cards in the T320:

Visiontek 6350

nVidia NVS300

Visiontek 4350 X1

I used this to achieve a little better resolution and multi monitor support only.

Thanks for the info Brandon, we have ordered the card and will try it today.

One more question, part from disable the onboard VGA, is there any other settings we need to make in the BIOS?

Tom

@ Geivaz, not stating the obvious but after inserting the V6350 into slot 3 and then powering up your system so as to disable the embedded video function within BIOS, did you power down your system and then reattach your monitor to your new V6350 graphics card or leave the monitor attached to the embedded video VGA port?

Remember, since you have disabled embedded video function, video will now be sent to your monitor via the connector on the V6350 and not via the VGA connector on the mobo! No other BIOS changes should be needed :emotion-1:

If you did move the monitor cable to the V6350, then either the V6350 is faulty (you can test that the card works by installing it in another PC/workstation) or the x16 PCIe slot is faulty (test the slot by installing another known working and supported HBA or other supported card).

If your V6350 card and slot 3 are know and verified to be work, then it may have something to do with the power feed to your card. But slot 3 can support x16 GPU card and thus should be able to provide 75W to the card via the PCIe slot itself. As such teh V6350 should work OK (as your it looks like the V6350 will not need more than 75W of juice).

Do note the T320 HOM indicates a 750W redundant PSU is a requirement when GPUs are used AND the GPU power connector must be installed in connector CN11 on the power distribution board. This requirement is likely related to the supported GPU needing much more than 75W of juice and as such needs a 2x4 and 2x4 auxilary GPU power feed.... But it could possibly be that there is some 'smart' logic happening that check a GPU auxilary connector is actually installed before it allows a GPU card to work (though i doubt this would be the case... just something to consider if you still have issues).

Cheers...

hello to all -

please advise and check the following if can work to T320 or R420 server -

The following Card are -

VisionTek Radeon HD 6350 graphics card - Radeon HD 6350 - 1 GB

VisionTek Radeon HD 6350 SFF graphics card - Radeon HD 6350 - 1 GB

Really need to make this work- 

we do have poweredge R420 

according to the Dell reps - Tech support 

they are the same hardware

Thanks 

Lem

"Regular" video cards are not supported (or needed 99% of the time) in servers, so adding a video card is a game of trial and error. If the 6350 doesn't work, there likely isn't a way to force it. I would recommend getting a workstation instead. Why do you "need" to get it to work?

the reason being is more on maximizing and control-

anyhow - I saw on the thread that VisionTek 6350 would work-

i check online and found that particular model -

VisionTek Radeon HD 6350 graphics card - Radeon HD 6350 - 1 GB

VisionTek Radeon HD 6350 SFF graphics card - Radeon HD 6350 - 1 GB

just want to ask the group if these cards or model is the same or have anybody tested and work

at most asking if that model again is the same as what Brandon is saying that was tested

thanks

lem

Everyone, I have wanted to get a quality video card on t320 and finally was able to make one work without any mods out of the box.  Based on everyone's comments before, I also bought the Visiontek 6350 (see my previous post) and could not make it work.  Based on everyone's other mention, I purchased the nVidia NVS300 and it worked like a charm.   Just plugged the new video card into the PCIe x16 (port no. 3, I believe) and then went into the BIOS and deactivated the integrated video.  The new card came alive and works like a charm. I hope that this helps someone. George Eivaz

Thank you very much for your comments! 

Followed George's suggestion and comments, I successfully plugged a NVS 300 card into T330, amazing, it works great now. 

Hope this helps someone want to add a graphic card on T330.

Zhiwei Zhou

Hello, I know that this is a very old thread, but I have something to aport.

Today I bought this server to use as a workstation (I work a lot with Virtualization and Docker/Kubernetes) and to do some ocational gaming.

I inserted a Nvidia GTX 1050ti and it was detected on the OS, but it won't output video from the video card, just from the onboard connector, even when the onboard was disabled in bios (it resulted in the need to reset NVRAM to default settings, because the onboard stopped working, and the video card did not output video).

I updated the server bios from 1.5.1 that was installed to 2.6.0, and the video card worked like a charm, even with the onboard video disabled from bios.

Best regards, and again, sorry for replying on an old thread.