PC Graphics

[Pata22]

Hi guys, I've installed a sapphire rx6400 card on my hp prodesk 600 g5 and since then there is no image in my monitor until windows boots. If I want to access the bios I have to plug the monitor to one of the video outputs from the mobo.

Previously the pc had a Nvidia gt1030 and this wasn't a problem.

[FunkZ]

Check the BIOS options there may be a setting to specify which graphics to boot from, PCIE or Integrated.

[Pata22]

Hi, thanks for your replacement! Unfortunately that was my first thought but there is no such an option in the hp bios. Was reading through the bios manual and that option is only available for desktop apparently (and it seems that a SFF pc is not a desktop)... I will look around if there is a way to make this option to show in the bios..

 

[FunkZ]

What BIOS version does your system have?

Appears 2.16 from Feb 2023 is the latest available?

https://support.hp.com/hr-en/drivers/hp-prodesk-600-g5-small-form-factor-pc/27090292

[Pata22]

There were more bios available for install (updated all of them from 2.10 through 2.20) I don't know why they are no longer available for download.

I believe that when the Nvidia card (gt1030) was installed it was recognized by the bios and those options (integrated video and vga boot device) appeared in the bios menu. Fortunately I still hace that card. I will install it over the weekend and see if the BIOS recognize that card and shows more options.

Could it be that the BIOS doesn't recognize the rx6400? It is strange cause windows/linux does. If the monitor is in standby/idle when I power the pc, it wakes up, but shortly after shows a message that says no signal until windows starts to boot.

[FunkZ]

I suspect it's that the BIOS is not treating the card as the primary display device. Typically there is an option in the BIOS to set which display (Integrated or PCIe) is the primary, and gets the boot output. Once Windows loads the AMD driver the RX 6400 gets output.

Aside from the display output issue, and you may already be aware, your HP system only supports PCIe 3.0 so even though the RX 6400 is a PCIe 4.0 card it is restricted to PCIe 3.0 speed. Even worse, it is only an x4 lane card, and PCIe 3.0 x4 has a max bandwidth of less than 4GB/s, so performance is being impacted. Given that your options are limited due to the SFF needing a half-height card, and the RX 6400 would still outperform a GT 1030, but probably getting only half of the performance the card should be.

[Pata22]

Yep, I was aware of that before i boughtit, nevertheless was a huge uptade over the 1030 and so far it covers all my needs..

I think I'll have to live with this. Is not a huge problem anyways..

Thanks a lot for your time.

[Pata22]

Well I have swapped the cards just to confirm.  Effectively, the 1030 is recognized by the hp bios and I can see the bios through the card video output (and I can disable the igpu), but the rx6400 is not. I'll have to live with that for a while..