Supermicro motherboards and gpu compatibility

[josh3light]

I was planning to experiment with GPU passthrough and virtualization. I purchased a retail/OEM Xeon e5-2683 v3 and Supermicro X10SRL-F-O, and the motherboard seems to be incompatible with my quadro 4000 (which works flawlessly with other motherboards I've been using). It doesn't recognize the card at all, and the pci-e slot even shows as empty in HWINFO64 (in a bare metal windows installation). Meanwhile, I tried an older quadro fx 3700 in the same pci-e slot and it works and displays as expected, from the initial boot screen onwards. So, it seems that the PCI-E slot is working correctly. I'd like to know if there are some special bios settings I need to change, or are the quadro 4000 and this motherboard just not compatible?

I sent the below email to supermicro support, not sure if I'll hear back from them, so I wanted to post here to see if anyone knew of anything else I could try.

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Hello Supermicro Support,

I purchased the Supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F hoping to install my Quadro 4000. It isn't recognized at all. I have tried to document the situation and circumstances very clearly, as well as swapping hardware between different computers to narrow down the problem. Please see below for a comprehensive report.

SUMMARY:
Nvidia Quadro 4000 Gpu is not recognized in PCI-E slot # 6 on Supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F.

However, Quadro FX 3700 works in the same PCI-E slot # 6 in the same motherboard, Supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F..

That Quadro 4000 works flawlessly in other computers, such as my Asus Z9PE-D8 WS.
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DETAILS:
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(In both of these situations, there is no VGA monitor plugged in to the onboard slot. A DVI monitor is plugged to the offboard quadro PCI-E gpu. PCI-E power is plugged in to the quadro gpu. Bios settings are at optimized default, except that VGA is set to offboard priority. )

SUCCESSFUL WORKING SITUATION: When Quadro FX 3700 is installed in PCI-E slot # 6, dvi cable plugged in, the motherboard functions as expected, and the boot info shows up on the external dvi monitor. The onboard VGA and remote console display in ipmi are non functional, which I understand is the expected result for this motherboard when displaying with offboard graphics. In Windows, HWInfo64 shows the pci-e slot as "in use".

UNSUCCESSFUL NON-WORKING SITUATION: However, when Quadro 4000 is replaced in the same PCI-E slot #6, dvi cable plugged in, with no other change in the bios or computer hardware state, the ipmi remote display is functional. The Quadro 4000 does not output a signal to dvi monitor. In Windows, HWInfo64 shows the pci-e slot #6 as "empty". It is as if the quadro 4000 card does not exist. PCI-E slot #4 was tested also with the same empty result. I also tried shutting down, setting the motherboard jumper JPG1 (VGA Enable) to Pins 2-3 (Disabled), but the Quadro 4000 still was not recognized; the DVI monitor had no signal.

QUADRO 4000 FUNCTIONALITY TEST: Quadro 4000 was reseated twice to ensure proper connectivity in supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F. It was never detected in this motherboard. However, when the same Quadro 4000 is installed in another computer with Asus Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard, it displays the boot screen through the dvi monitor, boots and operates as expected.

CONCLUSION:
The quadro 4000 gpu is functioning correctly but it is not recognized in supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F.
This scenario was first tested with bios version 2.0.
The bios was updated to the latest 2.0a, yet the situation is identical.

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What can I do?

 

[William]

Are you trying to get video out of the Quadro ?

I don't think that will work. The PCIe slots are for compute only setups, network cards etc.

If you want to get video out of the Quardo or any type of video GPU you should look at SM's workstation class motherboards.

 

[josh3light]

Eventually I was hoping to passthrough the gpu to a virtual machine. I was going to first test to make sure the hardware works before attempting any virtualization or passthrough. However in the bios startup screen, and os in a bare metal installation, the motherboard completely did not recognize that the quadro 4000 card was plugged in at all, and running HWInfo64 diagnostics showed that the pci-e slot was empty. But, the quadro fx 3700 really output video correctly and was detected as a pci-e addon card.

Are you trying to get video out of the Quadro ?

I don't think that will work. The PCIe slots are for compute only setups, network cards etc.

If you want to get video out of the Quardo or any type of video GPU you should look at SM's workstation class motherboards.

 

[William]

You might have gotten lucky with the FX 3700, I don't know.

I do know that server boards usually will not run graphics cards for video output, unless they say in the spec's for the motherboard the odd's are very high that GPU's will not output video.

 

[J--]

I was able to virtualize a FirePro W2100 on a X10DRi-F, I'm not sure what led you to believe all video cards are banned @William.

This is even in the BIOS:

 

[josh3light]

Supermicro suggested trying the "above 4g decoding" option in the bios, which I tried with no luck, same result. They said they had successfully tested quadro 5000 and 6000, so hopefully this was just a random quirk with that particular card.

I've since ordered an ati radeon RX 460 to try... The 460 is more ideal for me anyway as it has lower power consumption

 

[nk215]

Let me ask a very obvious question. Did you plug in the pcie power in the back of the Quadro 4000?

I am pretty sure my x9 motherboard has no issue output graphic from pcie gpu.

 

[josh3light]

Thanks, very good question, yes I am sure I did. I tried swapping out the card a few times, and plugged in the pci-e power, which the quadro fx 3700 also required. There was a solid green led that lit up on the quadro 4000, so it was indeed receiving power.

I've owned computers for years now and never encountered this, where a pci-e card is totally fine on one computer and completely non-existent on another computer when plugged in. So I'm quite interested to know the reason why.

Let me ask a very obvious question. Did you plug in the pcie power in the back of the Quadro 4000?

I am pretty sure my x9 motherboard has no issue output graphic from pcie gpu.

 

[William]

I am asking SM about this now.

Forget my last post, it appears the PCIe slots support graphics cards.
I made this post first thing in ten morning while having my first cup of coffee