Z820 GPU setup

[Ginz]

Hi guys,

I have a HP Z820 windows 10 workstation with 16 GB RAM.
I currently have a Quadro M4000 GPU installed.
As you probably guessed, I want to upgrade my GPU to take full advantage of Octane.
The question is do I buy another Quadro M4000 and use both or do I spend more money and get two GTX 1080?
If so, can I use all three of them for Octane or just the two GTX 1080?
Also, do I need to get a PSU for the GPU's? And do I need to purchase a cooling system as well?

I appreciate any response.
Thanks in advance!
D.

[FrankPooleFloating]

Quadro M4000 scores a paltry 55 in OctaneBench... a 980Ti gets 126, and presumably the 1080 is a little higher still (and team is still optimizing Pascals)... This shouldn't be any kind of quandary. How many slots (double PCI-E) do you have in that pup?

If you were using three 980Ti or 1080, for instance, you would probably want at least a 1000W PSU or greater, to be on the safe side. The newer higher-end nVidia GPUs seem to mostly be around 250W each at load.

I'd wait for 1080Ti, which has to be soon... has to be. 1080 has been out for months now. You'd be kicking yourself in the ass if you bought a couple 1080s and 1080Ti came out a couple weeks later... Anyone have any scuttlebutt on 1080Ti release?

[Ginz]

Thanks for the response!

These are the specs for the Z820:
3 PCIe x16 Gen3 Slots (3rd Slot available ONLY when 2nd CPU is installed)
1 PCIe x16 (x8) Gen3 (Available ONLY when 2nd CPU is installed), 1 PCIe x8(x4) Gen3, 1 PCIe x8(x4) Gen2, 1 PCI Slot

I think I'll wait for the 1080Ti. How many of them do you think I can use?

Thanks!

[FrankPooleFloating]

So Ginz, to be clear, M4000 is a single-slot GPU.. and 980Ti, 1080/1080Ti are double-slot GPUs. So when I asked about double-slot PCI-E, this was the reason.. If your PCI-E slots are all meant for singles, you are shit out of luck, and might only be able to do one double-slot GPU, but likely be able to keep your M4000 in first slot, for display.

And do you have both Xeons installed?

Welcome to Octane!

[whersmy]

cooling with the 980 and 1080 will be okay, if you see temps rise you might speeden up the fans with afterburner.

if both xeons are installed you could make use of all slots, so 1x m4000 for display, and the other two double slots for rendering. those cards are quite lengthy, but it should fit in that case.

Your psu needs to be upgraded as well, I think around 800 to 1000w to stay on the safe side should do it for 2x xeon + 3 gpus. Never skip on psu quality.

as well make sure the motherboard actually supports multi gpu gtx cards, some motherboard don`t. I think the z-series don`t really like gtx cards...

you don`t need sli for octane, so if your device manager in windows recognizes the cards, your good to go.

can anyone confirm this?

[Ginz]

Thanks you so much for your help on this guys!
Sorry I'm new to this and learning as I go...

I do have both Xeons installed.

I think I'll wait for the mew 1080Ti and get a new PSU to support the 2 new cards and probably use my M4000 for display like you suggested.

I'll post my OctaneBench score after installing

Thanks!

[Gizmopop]

The HP Z series doesn't support SLI with the GTX cards (it does with Quadro cards) but you can use multiple GTX cards for Octane, 2 with one CPU, more require 2 CPUs.