R620 GPU Possible?

Good morning,

The R620 wasn't intended to be used with video cards, so you may run into some issues. The first problem would be getting the extra power carried to the card with the 8 pin connectors, but the other issue is that the card may lead to stability issues. You can get messages such as "Bus Fatal Error at X:X:X," which would keep the server from POSTing. That having been said, some people in the forum have done similar things and reported it working once loaded into the OS. I wouldn't recommend it, if what you have in mind is buying a card specifically for this server, as opposed to testing something you already have. 

@Dell-DylanJ

Thank you for replying! According to the R620 technical guide, the board supports a 75W graphics card. This however, is obviously only valid for cards pulling power exclusively from the pci-e slot.

I have a single 8-pin connector right above the power supplies that is current unused (see image). The GPU I am looking at only requires a single 8-pin cable.

Do you happen to know what the wattage rating for the connector mentioned above is?

Thanks!

You're correct, it looks like I may have been looking at some dated information. As for that connector, I'm not sure off hand. I'll need to dig into it and check. I'd be inclined to think that it would be capable of providing the power needed, but I'll need to get back to you on that.

The connector in question is for a backplane power cable. The necessary watts are probably there, however, I can't find if this is an EPS connector, or an 8 pin PCI connector. They're keyed differently, so they would not connect with one another (bottom right pins are shaped differently). Considering the location, I would expect it is a 8 pin PCI connector, but I would still recommend proceeding with caution because the 2 ports look so similar, even if they're meant for different things. The important callout being that some of the voltage rails are reversed, so if an inappropriate cable were plugged into the connector, it could short circuit. I can't find any definitive information about that connector, since it's meant for a different purpose. Pinout details for the connector aren't available. I'd look at one physically, but don't have one available right now. 

Speaking generally, most servers we have that support GPUs include a GPU enablement kit. Part if that kit are the connectors to power a GPU. Despite what we see in that guide you linked to, I don't see that we ever sold any GPUs for the server, nor a GPU enablement kit, an dour slot priority matrix doesn't list a GPU classification, either. If you decide to continue, just be careful to confirm that connector is PCI.

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@Dell-DylanJ wrote:

The connector in question is for a backplane power cable. The necessary watts are probably there, however, I can't find if this is an EPS connector, or an 8 pin PCI connector. They're keyed differently, so they would not connect with one another (bottom right pins are shaped differently). Considering the location, I would expect it is a 8 pin PCI connector, but I would still recommend proceeding with caution because the 2 ports look so similar, even if they're meant for different things. The important callout being that some of the voltage rails are reversed, so if an inappropriate cable were plugged into the connector, it could short circuit. I can't find any definitive information about that connector, since it's meant for a different purpose. Pinout details for the connector aren't available. I'd look at one physically, but don't have one available right now. 

Speaking generally, most servers we have that support GPUs include a GPU enablement kit. Part if that kit are the connectors to power a GPU. Despite what we see in that guide you linked to, I don't see that we ever sold any GPUs for the server, nor a GPU enablement kit, an dour slot priority matrix doesn't list a GPU classification, either. If you decide to continue, just be careful to confirm that connector is PCI.

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Unfortunately, it does look like the connector is not actually pci... How does one of these GPU enablement kits work for let's say an R720 or R820 because as far as I'm aware, these servers also don't have a pci power connector. Does the power cable supplied with the kit plug into that backplane power connector? The R720 board is extremely similar to the R620 board and I can spot the same connector on there as well.

EDIT: **bleep**, the R720 and R820 actually have a pci power connector right on the riser cards. The R620 does not have this.

It looks like my reply didn't save properly. You are correct, the enablement kits tie into the risers. 

I tried posting this yesterday afternoon and it looked like it had saved.

the 1080 needs 150 to 180watts all by its self, NVIDIA spec, (wiki it)

so you need power to the NVIDIA AUX power jack, with 15amps of extra 12vdc power, just here.

how to do that , would be hard in ANY server, why use  server for gaming?

buy  Dell 7050 and build off that,  I can tell  you how, I have 1030 running any GTX  made up to GTX660

using custom PSU, but that was easy , not your server.

I will not comment fully on ebay BITCOINMining  pci-e extension cable(s)  cables,. that  hack is over the top.

1u is not the only problem there are those Screaming fans not heard once you load this box up. I think.

hi there did you manage to install GPU card finally ? if so, which card is it ?

It may be possible to install a thunderbolt card and connect a external GPU to that.  This way everything is powered externally.

@wrcarterjr007​ did you find out if this is possible ?

To install a ThunderBolt card and use an eGPU like a RazorCore device ?

Hi! would it be possible to install a nvidia tesla T4 card in the R620? The T4 is single-slot, low-profile, half-height + half-length, and with 70W power consumption. The card can be installed in a x8 PCIe bus. 

https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/Data-Center/tesla-product-literature/T4%20Product%20Brief.pdf

Anyone has experience with this card? Suggestions? Alerts? Thanks in advance! 

@fernanaguero​ Yep, you can use T4s in the R620; I have a couple in some of my servers:

$ sudo dmidecode | grep "Product Name: P"
        Product Name: PowerEdge R620
$ nvidia-smi
Fri Oct 11 17:32:12 2024
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.67                 Driver Version: 550.67         CUDA Version: 12.4     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  Tesla T4                       On  |   00000000:04:00.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   48C    P0             28W /   70W |   14327MiB /  15360MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
|   1  Tesla T4                       On  |   00000000:42:00.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   47C    P0             28W /   70W |   14265MiB /  15360MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                              GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A   2607540    C+G   --------------------------------------      14323MiB |
|    1   N/A  N/A   2607540      C  ---------------------------------------      14262MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

@doug.g​ I am sourcing a p4 on ebay and from what I can tell in the Dell R620 Documents is that it should be compatible based off size and Power consumption and CPU config, but the portion that explains:

"Note: With an internal GPU or a ¾ length PCIe card, the R620 cannot support a 10Gb Dell Select Network Adapter (NDC) or any mini-type PERC. An adapter-type PERC is required with an internal GPU configuration."

is confusing me,  my 620 has the Broadcom 57800S Base-T1 with 2x1g and 2x10g,  and a PERC H710P,  Im not sure if this will inhibit my options for using an internal GPU.  

Many thanks to anyone who can help with this issue. 

Hi,

If you can, please provide us both the Broadcom NIC card and PERC H710P DPN#, we'll check if it's a NDC or mPERC.