Brian1965,
Solidworks Visualize reads as a great addition of flexibility to rendering. The ability to use all the available processors is the future and solves to some degree the conflicts of CPU / GPU- CUDA rendering. The additional degree is in my view, an ability to easily select between GPU's without problems. There are many users that could benefit from having a Quadro and a GTX as this has been tried by many users. If a workstation needed to do: 3D modeling, scientific (Quadro /Tesla), and video editing/ processing, animation, F/X (GTX), it would be wonderful to click on a button and select the GPU.
However, many have tried this and these experiments inevitably end in disappointment. I keep thinking that the problem must be one of driver conflict as the Quadro and GTX drivers must have files with the same name given that a Quadro can run a GTX driver, but not vice versa. So, perhaps, it's possible to set up a Quadro /Tesla system and run a GTX VM. If BIOS can be changed in Windows as you mentioned, the primary GPU can be selected through Windows when the VM is initiated.
I like the idea of a Quadro /Tesla Maximus that can be running ECC memory, but compare the 3D power of a Quadro M6000 to a new GTX 1080. This, in Passmark terms, is comparing 11701 to 12713 and correspondingly, $5000 to $670. On the proletarian level, the K4200 at only $800 is still more than enough for the GTX1080 that is faster than an M6000.
Returning to the subject of the K4200 /M2090, it's very good news that it's possible to run the system without interruption. The results are the power consumption does not seem to me likely to be the trouble. Power supplies are actually at their most efficient when the draw is 80% of the capacity. If the K4200 /M2090/ 2X E5-2670= 583W and a motherboard is another 25W, plus drives at 12W each, plus another spoonfull for the pot, that seems like about 650W at the most- that's running everything at 100% which would be very rare. At 80% of 800W = 640W but workstations PSUs are robust and designed for stress over long periods in the manner of servers. Here's a wild guess: That the Quadro is not specified as the primary graphics card in BIOS. Another m but less likely possibility is if the system is set for power saving rather than high performance in power options and there is slow response to the sudden power up when the M2090 initiates. This is less likely as the power draw on the PSU is gradual. Watching a power analyzer when a system starts up, it builds quite gradually.
The specification shows up to 225W in the primary graphics card slot. You're correct that the PSU rails will have different speicifications ( and I can't find those either), but specifying for 225W in the primary slot would not affect using those same auxiliary 6 and or 8-pin connectors being connected to the secondary card the M2090.
Heat could well be an issue with a 225W card, what are the temperatures of the M2090 reading?
I've also had cases of HQ4kS : Hot Quadro 4000 Syndrome. Once, while rendering I looked in and saw the Quadro 4000 at 102C- the maximum. I shut it down immediately and there were no ill effects. It was odd as there was no signs of overheating, but I'd read of toubles with them running hot- they should have been double-height cards. There was a Gelid aftermarket cooling block for the 4000, but never bought one- $120. The 4000 is in the T5500 when I moved the Quadro K2000 to the z620.
It's impressive and encouraging that the K4200 /M2090 is working at K6000 level - Well done! I've often thought of using a depreciated Tesla in a system. In the US M2090's sell for as little as $100- and were $2,700 new.
Drive Cloning: I've shared drive images between quite different systems. The Precision T5500 is running off a clone of the HP z420 (E5- 1660v2) I had to load drivers for the PERC H310 RAID controller in the T5500- which was a bit fussy- but as Windows has so many drivers included, the system image worked well. I did have to activate the licenses on the T5500 but the software allows it to be on a second system as long as it's not used simultaneously or by another person. In the EaseUS ToDo Backup Workstation software I use, there is simply a button called: "Restore to dissimilar hardware" and if the source system image was done on a mech'l drive, one also presses "Optimize for SSD" which start the data in he correct sector. I tested the limits of this four years ago. I still have my 2004 Dell 8400 with a Pentium 4 630 (single-core 3.0GHz)- one of the first hyperthreading , 64-bit CPU's and a Quadro FX3800. At the time (2012), I used the Precision T5400 (2X Xeon X5460/ 16GB/ Quadro FX4800/ WD RE4) which ran on Windows 7 Ultimate. For fun, I restored for very dissimilar hardware and he Dell 8400 ran far better than I thought possible. So many programs are single-threaded, the AutoCad 2011, Adobe CS4, Wordperfect X4, and Sketchup 8 all did quite well. I tried to give that system away but no one would have it. The disk was very slow, but a surprise nonetheless. I tried to give that system away but no one would have it. GPT Drives: Thanks for the information GPT file structured drives, which I thought was a speciality of servers. I'm going to also process carefully. Fortunately I have a pair of unused Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB drives and I thought to format and set them up as GPT and then clone form the MBR drives leaving them untouched. I've never had a serious data loss, but also never relaxed for a minute as an obsessive about backups- three copies and one on an external drive that runs only when backing up.
This week I'll move along with the z620 drive and will be very interested to follow your Quadro /Tesla configuration.
Cheers,
BambiBoom