HP Z6 G5

A 20-core Xeon beast with a mid-tier GPU that holds it back. Buy it for the CPU, then plan to upgrade the graphics card.

The CPU is the star. 20 cores at 3.2GHz with DDR5 ECC RAM means this machine laughs at workloads that would make a gaming rig cry. Our benchmarks put the processor well above average, and the port selection is a standout too. But the GPU lands at 64th percentile, which is just okay. For a workstation marketed at machine learning and advanced VFX, you'd expect more than 8GB of VRAM. The 1TB NVMe SSD is solid but not exceptional, and the whole package weighs 24.3kg, so don't plan on moving it around much.

Against the Apple Mac Studio M4 Max, the HP wins on CPU core count and expandability but loses badly on GPU performance and power efficiency. The Mac Studio is also way smaller and quieter. The Dell Tower ECT1250 is a more direct competitor, similar workstation DNA but often with better GPU options at similar prices. If you need NVIDIA CUDA cores for your workflow, the HP makes sense, but you'll probably want to swap that A1000 for something beefier immediately.

Pricing is all over the place. US listings range from USD 6,254 to USD 8,687, which is a massive spread for the same machine. If you're buying in the US, shop around hard because the cheaper listing is the only one that makes sense. At the high end of that range, you're paying way too much for a GPU that's already a bottleneck. The CAD listing at CAD 8,756 is a single option, so you don't have much leverage there.

The HP Z6 G5 is a serious workstation for people who need raw CPU muscle and room to grow. The Xeon w5-3525 is a 20-core monster that sits in the 86th percentile of our database, and that's the headline here. This thing is built to chew through renders, simulations, and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat. But the RTX A1000 with 8GB of VRAM feels like a weird pairing, it's a solid pro card but not the GPU powerhouse this CPU deserves.

If you're looking for a compact, quiet, or GPU-focused machine, this isn't it. Go get a Mac Studio M4 Max if you want power in a small package, or a gaming desktop with an RTX 4080 if you need graphics horsepower without the workstation tax.

The HP Z6 G5 is a fantastic CPU platform wrapped in a config that doesn't quite live up to its potential. If you're doing CPU-bound work like code compilation, CPU rendering, or heavy data analysis, this is a great buy at the lower US price. But if your work leans on GPU acceleration, budget for a graphics card upgrade right away, or look elsewhere.