[SOLVED] Dell Precision T7910 can't handle Nvidia RTX A5000.

[prakhars962]

My university gave me a Dell Precision T7910. I was awarded an RTX A5000 24 GB from Nvidia. I am having serious issues, the PC turns off instantly when running even light machine learning models, 3D glyphs in Paraview or when running benchmarking tools . As per Dell's manual, my PC can supply up to 675W (total 3 x 225W graphics cards in 3 slots) whereas, RTX A5000 can suck a max of 230W.

(base) hell@Dell-Precision-T7910:~$ nvidia-smi -q | grep 'Power Limit'
        Power Limit                       : 230.00 W
        Default Power Limit               : 230.00 W
        Enforced Power Limit              : 230.00 W
        Min Power Limit                   : 100.00 W
        Max Power Limit                   : 230.00 W

I have installed Nvidia driver 510.73.05 on Ubuntu LTS 20.04.

The interesting thing is that I thought I can cap the maximum power usage of the GPU to 225W to match my PC's capacity and things will be fine. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. I used this command ( nvidia-smi dmon ) to see the instantaneous power consumption of the GPU. The following video is taken from my Phone. Around 7 secs you can see as the power consumption goes 101W the PC turns off. Normally the power consumption is 26W.

Does anyone know why is it happening? Should I cap the maximum power usage to 100W only? Maybe the system won't boot up because there is no integrated display port in the PC.

 

[Aeacus]

Does anyone know why is it happening? Should I cap the maximum power usage to 100W only?

You are forgetting that GPUs will spike their power consumption, double or even triple of what they are rated for. And when that power spike happens, most PSUs are incapable of handling that, turning the PC off.

GamersNexus did a nice video about it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnRyyCsuHFQ


While Steve showcases only gaming GPUs, same can be applied to workstation GPUs as well.

--

Another aspect is the 3 rails your PSU has. Perhaps you've plugged your GPU into the same rail that feeds CPU as well? Since if so, the 225W rated rail will be shared between CPU and GPU.

Now, the PC specs *.pdf you linked, doesn't say what CPU you actually have, and if you have 1 or 2 CPUs in there. All it says, is that you can have 1 or 2 E5-2600 v4 CPUs, with up to 22 cores per CPU. For example, E5-2699 v4, 22 core CPU, is 145W chip.

So, if you have 145W CPU and GPU takes it's power from the same rail and even when your power limit of 100W works, combined, it still is more than single rail can provide, 245W vs 225W.

--

Here, i'd upgrade PSU. Based on Dell specs, it can have up to 1.3 kW PSU. While i wouldn't look towards nothing short of 850W unit.

 

[prakhars962]

You are forgetting that GPUs will spike their power consumption, double or even triple of what they are rated for. And when that power spike happens, most PSUs are incapable of handling that, turning the PC off.

GamersNexus did a nice video about it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnRyyCsuHFQ


While Steve showcases only gaming GPUs, same can be applied to workstation GPUs as well.

--

Another aspect is the 3 rails your PSU has. Perhaps you've plugged your GPU into the same rail that feeds CPU as well? Since if so, the 225W rated rail will be shared between CPU and GPU.

Now, the PC specs *.pdf you linked, doesn't say what CPU you actually have, and if you have 1 or 2 CPUs in there. All it says, is that you can have 1 or 2 E5-2600 v4 CPUs, with up to 22 cores per CPU. For example, E5-2699 v4, 22 core CPU, is 145W chip.

So, if you have 145W CPU and GPU takes it's power from the same rail and even when your power limit of 100W works, combined, it still is more than single rail can provide, 245W vs 225W.

--

Here, i'd upgrade PSU. Based on Dell specs, it can have up to 1.3 kW PSU. While i wouldn't look towards nothing short of 850W unit.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I don't know much about hardwares, just learned about rails in PSU. I have never looked at the PSU. I guess the PSU is on the back side (see the following image with a different GPU), i.e. I need to remove the motherboard first? I will definitely try to separate the rails for CPU and GPU.

Talking about the CPU, I have 1 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2640 v3 @ 2.60GHz with a TDP of 90W.

 

[Aeacus]

(see the following image with a different GPU)

You did not link an image.

i.e. I need to remove the motherboard first?

Most of the times, No.

Though, Dell prebuilts are notorious in making users life as hard as possible and you may need to remove several brackets, even perhaps disk drives, before you're able to get the PSU out.

Also, do note that your PC may not be compatible with standard ATX PSUs. Instead, you may only be able to use the Dell PSU that is designed for it.

PSU is the rectangular box, with black inlet socket, left side of the MoBo back I/O ports:

 

[prakhars962]

You did not link an image.



Most of the times, No.

Though, Dell prebuilts are notorious in making users life as hard as possible and you may need to remove several brackets, even perhaps disk drives, before you're able to get the PSU out.

Also, do note that your PC may not be compatible with standard ATX PSUs. Instead, you may only be able to use the Dell PSU that is designed for it.

PSU is the rectangular box, with black inlet socket, left side of the MoBo back I/O ports:

The image was at the bottom of my post. I managed to take out the PSU, it is externally removable. Here is the image of the PSU. It is specifically made for Dell PCs. Here is the image of the PC with RTX A5000. I have 3 power cables that I can connect to the GPU. 1 x 8 pin, and 2 x 6 pin. The GPU needs 8 pin so I was using the 8 pin cable, which was causing the problem (instant shutdown over 101W GPU power consumption). is it possible to leverage 2 pins from the 8 Pins cable and use the 6 pins cable? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

 

[Aeacus]

The image was at the bottom of my post.

This is how i see your previous reply,
image:

Here is the image of the PSU. It is specifically made for Dell PCs. Here is the image of the PC with RTX A5000.

The image hosting site you are using, is requiring me to log in, in order to view the images. And i'm not going to do that. Instead, i suggest that you host your images on free image hosting site, without the log-in and other BS. E.g https://postimages.org/ among plethora of others. I, personally, am using https://imgur.com/ since it doesn't require log-in either, while it has nice GUI.

And yes, it's common that Dell has made proprietary parts for their prebuilts. Good to keep customers in, but terrible if you want to expand and Dell doesn't offer the specific part or it is End Of Life (with no stock).

is it possible to leverage 2 pins from the 8 Pins cable and use the 6 pins cable? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Everything is possible, but doing what you think, is really bad idea. You can fry your GPU if you happen to mix up +12V and ground cables. Better get more powerful PSU than what you currently have.

 

[prakhars962]

This is how i see your previous reply,
image:

The image hosting site you are using, is requiring me to log in, in order to view the images. And i'm not going to do that. Instead, i suggest that you host your images on free image hosting site, without the log-in and other BS. E.g https://postimages.org/ among plethora of others. I, personally, am using https://imgur.com/ since it doesn't require log-in either, while it has nice GUI.

And yes, it's common that Dell has made proprietary parts for their prebuilts. Good to keep customers in, but terrible if you want to expand and Dell doesn't offer the specific part or it is End Of Life (with no stock).



Everything is possible, but doing what you think, is really bad idea. You can fry your GPU if you happen to mix up +12V and ground cables. Better get more powerful PSU than what you currently have.

I am really sorry. I have added the images to imgur.

PSU Image
PC Image

My PSU is already 1300W. Should I go for 1500W. Somebody suggested me to go for dual 6 pin to 8 pin, as I have 2 spare 6 pins connectors.

 

[Aeacus]

My PSU is already 1300W.

If you already have 1.3 kW unit, then from where that came from:

my PC can supply up to 675W (total 3 x 225W graphics cards in 3 slots)

Also, care to make a better pic of your PSU's label? Since it contains rail info (amperage/wattage).

Somebody suggested me to go for dual 6 pin to 8 pin, as I have 2 spare 6 pins connectors.

While i'm not fond with adapters when it comes to the PSUs, the two 6-pin +12V PCI-E -> one 8-pin +12V PCI-E can actually work and is valid idea.
With this adapter, you could easily combine two rails and make your PC work, with little cost and effort.

 

[prakhars962]

Finally I got the two 6pin to 8 pin connector. Now It is working as expected. I can run the GPU stress tools. Thanks @Aeacus