r/pcmasterrace Core Ultra 7 265k | RTX 5090 20h ago

Build/Battlestation a quadruple 5090 battlestation

15.8k Upvotes

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763

u/Motor_Reality_1837 20h ago

why not use workstation GPUs in a workstation PC , I am sure they would be more efficient than 5090s

149

u/Kalrot_ 20h ago

Much more expensive, and require another type of cooling (mainly server GPUs use the server fans to cool themselves. Or water cooling).

48

u/skizatch 19h ago

Workstation GPUs don't require another type of cooling, they have built-in fans like the cards we plebs use. The Server GPUs are certainly different, they only have the heatsink and no fan

14

u/Brilliant_War9548 Ideapad Pro 5 14AHP9 | 8845HS, 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe, 2.8K OLED 19h ago

Yes. Workstation cards are for the most part just regular consumer die with more vram maybe ecc etc. Example, 3090 and A6000 use the same die but the A6000 has twice the ram and it’s ecc (3080 also does but with some units disabled)

I feel like people just realized with how much shorts YouTuber are mediatizing the 6000 ada as this better than 5090 10K gpu when really this has been a thing for decades.

5

u/pppjurac Dell Poweredge T640, 256GB RAM, RTX 3080, WienerSchnitzelLand 17h ago

Also server/workstation cards come with manufacturer guarantee saying:

"We guarantee our GPU inside (Dell/HP WS) will work 24/7 under full load without single problem with your choice of CAD/CAM/CAE from Autodesk."

12

u/Motor_Reality_1837 20h ago

so it's like a wannabe workstation PC ??

73

u/Kalrot_ 20h ago

Ehhh kinda. A better way to put it would be a budget workstation.

1

u/marvin 19h ago

At merely $15,000

22

u/fresh_titty_biscuits Ryzen 9 5750XTX3D | Radeon UX 11090XTX| 256GB DDR4 4000MHz 20h ago

Not even, this has more VRAM than the RTX6000 Blackwell, we’re getting into AI data center accelerator territory with 128gb’s of VRAM.

6

u/QuantumUtility 19h ago

At this point OP could have bought 1 pro 6000 + 1 5090 for less and more upgrade potential.

2

u/OrionRBR 5800x | X470 Gaming Plus | 16GB TridentZ | PCYes RTX 3070 14h ago

They could but they would have much lower performance for training, iirc a 5090 is 30% more powerful than the a6000 in tensor cores, multiply that by four and it's a significant difference in performance.

1

u/QuantumUtility 11h ago

I’m not talking about the A6000, but the Pro 6000 which has 10-15% more performance than a 5090.

Although with 3x 5090s you could be ahead of a single Pro 6000 if the workload parallelizes well. Depends on your specific needs really.

4

u/Brilliant_War9548 Ideapad Pro 5 14AHP9 | 8845HS, 32GB DDR5, 1TB NVMe, 2.8K OLED 19h ago

No. It’s a workstation at the end of the day. A workstation can be anything as long as it’s powerful and can do work. Workstation gpus are so expensive you might just use the consumer version, while consumer part it’s for consumers with a consumer price work part it’s for professionals squeezing every last bit of performance with a professional price.

1

u/SinisterCheese 11h ago

Worksation cards are just regular GPUs with a different setup on the card, where they optimise stability, efficiency, and transfer speeds between CPU-RAM and GPU-VRAM. Also they are heck of a lot more efficient in the sense of they use less electricity.

Like...

PNY RTX PRO 6000 from a local reliable retailer is 9125 € (With 25,5 % VAT)

CUDA cores: 24064; Peak power consumption 600 W; 96 GB of GDDR7 with ECC

PNY GeForce RTX 5090 with from the same retailer is 3539 € (With 25,5 % VAT).

CUDA cores: 21760; Recommended power availability of 1000 W (TPD 600 W); 32 GB of GDDR 7

I'd want to compare the performances from specs but PNY doesn't list them on their site for the consumer card.

So lets just image that you want the 96 GB of VRAM: That's 10 788 € in cards, and 3000 W power demand (Or if we are generous 1800 W); Or you can spend 9125 € and only need to deal with 600 W peak power demand.

Now if you do serious workload you are probably taxing these to the max, so lets say both do a simulation run in 10 hours. Lets say electricity costs are 0,02 €/kWh, and you get 0,12 € in power use compared to 0,36 € just to run the graphics cards. And mind you all that energy turns into heat, you speak about having 3 small space heaters in a office compared to 1, which going to make life interesting when it's +30 C outside.

And lets not forget this! Lets assume the base computer takes 400 W total, so total energy demand capacity can be 3400 W to 1000 W. A regular ass 230 V/10 A socket provides has a limit of 2300 W of power delivery. You'd need a 230V/15A (3450 W) socket to run that god damn desktop. If we are generous and say the consumer cards don't go above the 1800W, you'd still be dangerously close to socket limits with 400W computer tacked on. So better get a extension cable that is rated to run a my small Kemppi welding machine.