HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem (In-House) AI Infrastructure
- diyasjournal
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
When building on-prem AI with HPE ProLiant GPU servers, there are clear limits. The supported NVIDIA GPUs and the HPE QuickSpecs usually decide what is possible and what is not.
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI
✔ Up to 5-Year Warranty • Pay Only After Testing
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI: For Enterprises
Why enterprises are using HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI
Data control & sovereignty (regulated data, IP, PII remain in-house)
Predictable latency for inference close to business applications
Cost control at scale for steady workloads vs. cloud GPU premiums
Data gravity (moving PB-scale datasets to cloud is slow and costly)
What’s limiting using HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI
Power and cooling, not rack units, are the primary constraint
GPU availability varies significantly by model and region
Software licensing matters: several NVIDIA data-center GPUs are often required or bundled with NVIDIA AI Enterprise for production inference and fine-tuning, depending on SKU, contract, and region
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI: Key Limits
Power and cooling of HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI
GPU TDP tiers matter: 40–75W, 250–350W, 400W, 600W+
GPU-dense platforms use dedicated GPU power domains with separate PSU allocation
Liquid cooling (DLC) or high-performance air cooling kits are increasingly required for dense >300W GPU configurations
In many Gen12 designs, CPUs and GPUs are cooled independently, and GPU PSUs may be electrically isolated for fault containment, redundancy, and serviceability.
The HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 platform supports up to 8 PSUs total, with 6 commonly allocated to GPU power domains in maximum-density configurations. Achieving top-end GPU counts is not possible without full PSU population and GPU enablement kits.
PCIe generation and bandwidth of HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI
Many inference/graphics GPUs are PCIe Gen4
Training-class accelerators and newer high-end inference GPUs are PCIe Gen5
Gen12 ProLiant servers are PCIe Gen5 end-to-end
Some Gen11 servers may down-train Gen5 GPUs to Gen4, reducing effective bandwidth by ~20–30% for bandwidth-sensitive workloads
Physical GPU constraints of HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI
SW (single-wide): single slot
DW (double-wide): two slots, often full-length
HHHL (half-height, half-length): lowest power, easiest to place
DW FHFL (double-wide, full-height, full-length): typical for H100/H200-class GPUs
Multi-GPU topology of HPE ProLiant GPU servers for on-prem AI matters
Dense systems may support NVLink bridging (example: 4-way NVLink for H200 NVL in GPU-optimized platforms)
Mixing GPU types is usually not allowed within the same riser or power domain
Accelerator placement often determines PCIe root complex and NUMA locality, which can materially affect performance—especially in multi-socket systems.
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI: Supported NVIDIA GPUs
The table below lists NVIDIA GPUs supported by HPE ProLiant servers.
NVIDIA GPU | Form factor / Interface | VRAM / Power |
NVIDIA RTX A1000 | Single-slot · PCIe Gen4 x8 | 8 GB GDDR6 · 50 W |
NVIDIA A2 | Low-profile · PCIe Gen4 x8 | 16 GB GDDR6 · 40–60 W |
NVIDIA L4 | HHHL single-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 24 GB GDDR6 · 72 W |
NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada | Single-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 20 GB GDDR6 · 130 W |
NVIDIA A16 | Dual-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 64 GB GDDR6 · 250 W |
NVIDIA L40 | Dual-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 48 GB GDDR6 · 300 W |
NVIDIA L40S | Dual-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 48 GB GDDR6 · 350 W |
NVIDIA L20 | Dual-slot · PCIe Gen4 x16 | 48 GB GDDR6 · 350 W |
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | Dual-slot FHFL · PCIe Gen5 x16 | 96 GB GDDR7 · ≤600 W |
NVIDIA H100 NVL | Dual-slot FHFL · PCIe Gen5 | 94 GB HBM3 · 400 W |
NVIDIA H200 NVL | Dual-slot FHFL · PCIe Gen5 | 141 GB HBM3e · 600 W |
Typical NVIDIA GPU workloads: HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI
NVIDIA RTX A1000: Light AI inference, edge vision, basic image processing, very low power use
NVIDIA A2: Video encoding and decoding, lightweight inference, media processing, scale-out deployments
NVIDIA L4: High inference performance per watt, always-on AI services, efficient scale-out inference
NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada: Visual AI, computer vision, CAD, rendering, professional graphics
NVIDIA A16: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), application virtualization, high user density
NVIDIA L40: AI inference with higher memory needs, graphics, rendering, digital twins
NVIDIA L40S: Heavy AI inference, limited training and fine-tuning, compute-intensive workloads
NVIDIA L20: AI inference where export regulations allow, scale-out inference, high-density deployments
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition: High-end AI inference, visual computing, simulation, large models
NVIDIA H100 NVL: AI training, large-scale inference, memory-bandwidth-intensive workloads
NVIDIA H200 NVL: Large-scale AI training, very large models, advanced fine-tuning and multi-GPU workloads
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for AI: Compatibility Matrix
HPE ProLiant Gen12 Server Compatibility with NVIDIA GPUs
HPE ProLiant server | NVIDIA GPUs Officially Supported |
HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 |
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HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen12 |
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HPE ProLiant DL340 Gen12 |
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Notes
The HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 is HPE’s primary air-cooled dense GPU platform, supporting up to ten double-wide GPUs in fully optimized CTO configurations.
NVLink configurations are supported on HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12
Lower-power GPUs (NVIDIA RTX A1000, A2) are supported but not the focus
Gen12 platforms are designed for modern, high-power AI acceleration.
HPE ProLiant Gen11 Server Compatibility with NVIDIA GPUs
HPE ProLiant server | NVIDIA GPUs Officially Supported |
HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen11 (AMD EPYC) |
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HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen11 |
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HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 |
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HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen11 |
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* availability depends on QuickSpecs revision, riser, PSU, and cooling configuration.
HPE ProLiant Gen10 Server Compatibility with NVIDIA GPUs
HPE ProLiant server | NVIDIA GPUs Officially Supported |
HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus |
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HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus |
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HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus |
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HPE ProLiant DL320 Gen10 |
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Explicitly NOT supported on HPE ProLiant Gen10
NVIDIA H100 NVL
NVIDIA H200 NVL
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition
NVIDIA L40S / NVIDIA L20
HPE ProLiant Gen10 platforms are suitable for inference and graphics, not modern high-end AI training.
High-TDP NVIDIA GPUs require dedicated GPU power cables (often 16-pin), high-wattage power supplies (typically 1600W or higher), appropriate GPU risers and enablement kits, and high-performance air or liquid cooling:
NVIDIA L40S
NVIDIA L20
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition
NVIDIA H100 NVL,
NVIDIA H200 NVL
Always validate the exact configuration using the latest HPE QuickSpecs and the HPE One Config Advanced (OCA) tool; GPU qualifications are based on HPE’s NVIDIA Accelerators for HPE documentation (c04123180), are accurate as of 2026, and may change with BIOS or firmware updates.
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for On-Prem AI
✔ Up to 5-Year Warranty • Pay Only After Testing
HPE ProLiant GPU Servers for AI: Sources and references
HPE – NVIDIA Accelerators for HPE QuickSpecs (c04123180): https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/c04123180
HPE – ProLiant DL380a Gen12 QuickSpecs: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00047453enw
HPE – ProLiant DL380 Gen12 QuickSpecs: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00073551enw
HPE – ProLiant DL380 Gen11 QuickSpecs: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a50002446enw
NVIDIA – H200 NVL product overview:
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