HP Z420 AutoCAD Workstation - Graphic card upgrade

[Hooly]

Hello everyone.

I have an HP Z420 AutoCAD Workstation that is giving me problems with the Graphics Card, after about 30 min. working, the screen turns black and I get 6 beeps. In my research for the solution to this problem, everything indicates that it is the Graphics card. I currently have an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 and would like to know if I can upgrade to an NVIDIA Quadro 5000 2.5GB Graphics Card or even an NVIDIA Quadro 6000 6GB Graphics Card.
But I am not sure about the compatibility, especially in the Power and Cooling and Driver Support.
Any suggestions?

[NonSequitur777]

@Hooly,

Welcome to our HP community forum!

Please verify that your HP Z840 Workstation is fitted with a 1125-watt power supply, with p/n: 758470-001 or 792340-001 or 860477-001 -please verify!

Both your Nvidia Quadro 4000 (142-watt TDP) and the Nvidia Quadro 5000 (152-watt TDP) are powered by a single 6-pin PCIe power cable, whereas the Nvidia Quadro 6000 (204-watt TDP) requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power cables.

Yes, the Quadro 5000 and the Quadro 6000 are compatible with your HP Z840 Workstation.

I am pretty sure that your HP Z840 power supply is equipped with three 6-pin PCIe power cables (please verify!), each 6-pin PCIe power cable can provide 12V x 18A = 216 watt of power, so you can use a 6-pin (female) to 8-pin (male) PCIe power cable adapter (such as this eBay purchase example: 8 pin PCIE male to 6 pin PCIE female 14cm power cable adapter | eBay) to plug in/power a Quadro 6000.

Given the options you mentioned, I would go with the Quadro 6000, and I wouldn't worry too much about heat.  Please note that even a Quadro 6000 is at the bottom of the barrel in terms of graphics power: HP Z840 Workstation Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

With this in mind, please take a minute to see the various graphics cards HP Z840 Workstation Users have fitted in their rigs: UserBenchmark: HP Z840 Workstation Compatible Components: from the mighty RTX A6000, to more mid-range cards such as the Quadro P6000, the Quadro P5000, the Quadro M6000, the Quadro M5000 (I wouldn't go below this GPU in my opinion), etc.

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Caulodrenforce]

I think the original poster asked about the z420 workstation, which is the one I have, but you replied incorrectly about the z840 workstation. Is the z420 workstation ok to use the Nvidia p5000 (180w) or the Nvidia p6000 (250w) as it only has 600w power supply?

[Caulodrenforce]

I found the answer here, he explains it very well. Power through the g1 connector, get 6 pin to 8 pin converter which provides 216w additional power on top of the pci express 75w power:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Radeon-RX-5700-xt-... 

[NonSequitur777]

@Caulodrenforce, @Hooly,

My bad: when I first responded to the OP's question, the topic line read as follows:

And then I went off on the HP 840 tangent -sorry about that.

Anyway, an HP Z420 Workstation is fitted with an ATX 600-watt power supply (p/n: 632911-001).

And yes, a 600-watt power supply should be able to power a Nvidia Quadro P6000: NVIDIA Quadro P6000 Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database, which requires one 8-pin PCIe power cable:

The 600-watt power supply is equipped with two 6-pin PCIe power cables:

As I understand it, both 6-pin PCIe power cables are wired 12V x 18A = 216-watt each:

Meaning, you could either use a 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe power adapter cable, or a dual 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe power adapter cable if you got one of them laying around.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Hooly]

Thank you very much. Your answer has helped me a lot, it has been a great help.

[NonSequitur777]

@Hooly,

You are welcome -glad to be of service.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777