NVIDIA's highly popular H100 AI GPUs might now be usable in any "conventional" motherboard as a new SXM-to-PCIe board surfaces online.
Creative Chinese Minds Have Formulated a New SXM-To-PCIe Adapter Board, Allowing NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs To Be Used On Standard PCIe Slots On Motherboards
The AI markets are at their pinnacle right now, with demand exploding out of the roof and every other individual or firm desiring to get their hands on the latest AI GPUs. We all know how NVIDIA's H100 has dominated the firm's positions in the AI industry, with more than 1.5 million units getting sold in just FY23.
With high demand comes the need for a "creative" approach, and apparently, a Chinese modder has been inspired by this and has developed a unique SXM-to-PCIe platform dedicated to NVIDIA's H100 AI GPUs.
New SXM-to-PCIe H100 mod 😂😂 from Xianyu apps https://t.co/iSQCN1vqxG pic.twitter.com/uVkH63REtJ
— I_Leak_VN (@I_Leak_VN) March 19, 2024
Previously, we have seen consumer-tier GPUs being reverse-engineered into 2-slot designs for the AI market but this new model is something entirely brand new.
The mod is listed on Goofish, a Chinese marketplace with some "weird" tech stuff. We also got to see prototypes of the RTX 4090 (Ti) graphics card here. Based on what the listing tells us, the mod , which is an adapter board, converts an SXM5 connection to a PCIe Gen 4 one, which means that each consumer having a standard Gen4 motherboard could mount the NVIDIA H100 AI GPU easily.
Looking at the board itself, it is quite huge with various voltage measuring points and headers. The SXM 5 "Mezzazine" connectors can be seen in the middle and there are mounting holes to fit a GPU cooler on top of it. The H100 SXM can support TDPs north of 500W so you'll have to run these GPUs under some hefty cooling (active preferably). There are several power connectors including two 8-pin and two 6-pin which equal 450 Watts of power and 525W with the PCIe interface (75W). There are four fan headers too.
The mod will suit perfectly in instances where NVIDIA's H100 is required for research rather than extracting hardcore AI performance from it since its " sustainability " is questionable. H100 SXM boards are usually equipped in huge racks in configurations of up to 8 GPUs per rack. They are a very unconventional setup and cost 100s of thousands of dollars. So having a SXM-to-PCIe mod can be useful for those who want to put say 1 or 2 of these cards within their workstations or desktop servers.
In terms of pricing, the SXM-to-PCIe H100 mod is retailing for 114 yuan or around $16, which is pretty decent because even modern-day PCIe converters go for a much larger price. We can't be sure about the practicality of the mod since it hasn't been tested yet; hence, it raises the curiosity of how the mod would work out.
News Source: @I_Leak_VN
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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