X4 or X8 card for a server system

G

ghat

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Feb 8, 2012
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hi

What is a good PCIe-X4 or PCIe-X8 card for Xeon-E3 based server system (which does not have PCIe-X16 slots), and which can help with video encoding. (decoding is not of much use tome on the server system)

I would prefer a NVIDIA, but AMD/ATI is also fine.

G
 
Aren't those slots open-ended? If so, you should be able to install a x16 card.
 
yea if I buy a X9SAE then there is a x8 in x16 mechanical slot, and I can use a x16 card, the bad part is that the X9SAE already has support for a grapics, but if I have to opt for a X9SCM-F (for its IPMI support) then there are only X8 (mechanical) slots so a x16 wont fit.

I currently have 2 options X9SAE-V with no card, but wont get IPMI on it, or if I want IPMI, then X9SCM-F with no inbult graphics so I have to install a graphics card, which is why this question.

G
 
I know it is late but better than never I guess. For the x9scm-f I just cut a x16 card down to 4x. You could do x8 if you want the extra bandwidth.
 
IPMI, or more specifically the KVM-over-IP solution, only really works with the (Aspeed or Nuvotron or whatever) onboard graphics controller of the boards. Thus, it makes no real sense to buy an IPMI board and install a discrete graphics card on them. While you can run a discrete controller as a secondary output, under Windows those work only (even as a encoding accelerator) if they have a connected display. If you want to run Windows, using the IGPU of a Intel CPU with Quicksync is currently the best acceleration you can get.

Well, back to topic, modern graphics cards only exist in x16 and x1 variants as far as I know. An option is to cut that little plastic at the end of the x8 slot open and use a x16 card. However, A graphics card may pull 75W from the slot, while any other card has to stay below 25W. So you may exceed the boards specifications. That may also be the reason for the absence of more powerful GPUs as x8 variants. And there is no guarantee that this works.
 
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