proxmox-lenovo-p8-threadripper

Proxmox Host: Lenovo P8 (Threadripper PRO 9965WX)

Identifier: AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9965WX on Lenovo ThinkStation P8 Form factor: workstation tower running Proxmox with GPU passthrough Status: active

A Lenovo ThinkStation P8 workstation repurposed as a Proxmox host with GPU passthrough to a Windows 11 VM. Confirmed by user notes on the test results (“Lenovo P8 Proxmox VM”). This is the only rig in the collection running a Threadripper PRO and the only one tested with the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q.

Build & Cost

Component	Spec	Cost
System	Lenovo ThinkStation P8 (30HHCTO1WW), Win 11 Pro, 1400W PSU, 512 GB NVMe	$5,045.72 (2025-10-20)
CPU	AMD Threadripper PRO 9965WX (Zen 5, 24c/48t, 4.20–5.40 GHz)	included
RAM (base)	16 GB DDR5-6400 ECC RDIMM (1×16) — Lenovo factory config	included
RAM upgrade	NEMIX 256 GB (4×64 GB) DDR5-4800 ECC RDIMM (PC5-38400)	$1,636.99 (2025, ~Aug)
GPU (config A)	NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q 96 GB	$9,145.00 (2025)
GPU (config B)	NVIDIA RTX 3090 24 GB	$1,132.45 (2025)
GPU (config C)	NVIDIA RTX 5090 32 GB	$1,999.00 (2025)
System base + RAM upgrade		$6,682.71

Beyond Geekbench: vLLM + FP8 Throughput

Geekbench AI numbers reflect single-request throughput. The real ceiling for this rig comes from running vLLM with FP8 quantization on the Blackwell tensor cores — see Alex Ziskind’s benchmark on the same RTX PRO 6000 class: ~5,800–6,000 tokens/sec sustained across 256 concurrent users with Quen 3 Coder 30B FP8. The Max-Q variant in this rig will be slightly lower (lower power envelope) but in the same order of magnitude. This is the practical answer to “why pay $9,145 for the PRO 6000.”

Geekbench AI Runs

All runs are GPU passthrough into a Windows 11 Pro VM (16 GB allocated to guest).

Config A — RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell

Date	Single	Half	Quant	Result
2026-03-27+	44,500	67,341	32,427	470442

Config B — RTX 5090

The same Lenovo P8 host was also tested with an RTX 5090 in passthrough — confirmed by the CPU ID reporting as Threadripper PRO 9965WX in this run (the Ultra 7 host runs the rest of the 5090 tests).

Date	Single	Half	Quant	Result
2026-03-27+	44,345	65,437	32,958	470447

Config C — RTX 3090

Date	Single	Half	Quant	Result
2026-01-25	26,521	41,573	15,689	470438
earlier	24,943	37,641	15,099	428699

AI Capability

Configuration	Best Single	Best Half	Best Quant	ACI	Tier	GPU cost	GPU $/ACI
+ RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell	44,500	67,341	32,427	978.8	S	$9,145	$9.34
+ RTX 5090	44,345	65,437	32,958	970.5	S	$1,999	$2.06
+ RTX 3090	26,521	41,573	15,689	580.2	A	$1,132	$1.95 ⭐

The RTX 3090 is the best $/ACI of any compute card in the entire collection (1.95) — but the RTX 5090 on the same host gets within 1% of the PRO 6000’s score for 22% of the GPU cost. The PRO 6000 Blackwell only justifies its premium when a workload needs the 96 GB VRAM. For anything that fits in 32 GB, the 5090 is dramatically more efficient per dollar; for anything that fits in 24 GB, the 3090 is the value champion.

Total invested for the P8 with all three cards + RAM upgrade: $5,045.72+$1,636.99 + $9,145+$1,999 + $1,132.45=\ast \ast$18,959.16**

Notes: the NEMIX RAM kit is technically marketed for the ASUS Pro WS WRX90E SAGE SE (also a Threadripper PRO board) but the same DDR5-4800 ECC RDIMM modules work in any compatible Threadripper PRO platform — the P8’s official spec sheet supports DDR5 ECC RDIMM up to 8 channels. Confirmed installed via the P8’s actual host OS, not from Geekbench (which only sees the VM’s allocated 16 GB).

Notes

• Workstation board identification needed — confirm Lenovo P8 motherboard model and host RAM via dmidecode on the Proxmox host.
• Threadripper PRO 9965WX is a 24-core Zen 5 part — capable as a CPU compute fallback, though no CPU-only Geekbench AI run was captured for this host.
• Test variance is much smaller here than on the Ultra 7 host — the Threadripper platform plus stable workstation cooling may be why.

See Also

• Benchmark Methodology
• Proxmox: Ultra 7 265K — sibling Proxmox host, different physical hardware
• Gemma 4 VRAM Requirements