Help with choosing vid card for older tower

fchopin

Honorable
Jul 2, 2014
4
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10,510
I have a Dell Preceision T7400 that (because it's a work machine) can't completely replace; so I'd like to do what I can to make it a bit faster, better. I intend on rebuilding it (keeping Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit) and replacing the aging SATA drive with Samsung 840 EVO-Series 250GB, and would like to replace the video card. I don't mind if it it's PCIe 3.0 since I'm hoping at some point to upgrade the whole system and could then take full advantage of the card (same with the SATA III on the SSD) but I'm not sure what exactly will work with this desktop (and if I'll need to replace the power supply) I'd like to get something in the 3GB range (looking to spend between $350 and $500). Like I said, don't mind if it's DDR5 or anything that can't currently be used as long as it's backward compatible as I may use these in the future when I upgrade the mobo and everything else. Any recommendation would be appreciated..I just don't want to get some hot EVGA card and get it and realize that it isn't going to work in this desktop. Thanks!!



 
Solution
Since you have the budget for it, grab a GTX 780 so you can benefit from the higher number of CUDA cores. There's this EVGA GTX 780 3GB Dual FTW ACX on sale at Newegg for $500. It's one of the faster GTX 780's on the market right now and it comes with EVGA's ACX cooler to give you better performance without compromising your ears. LOL

The GPU itself measures 26.67 centimeters in length and it should fit inside your case. But just to be on the safe side, measure your case for the clearance space.

Most probably you'll need to invest in a bigger and better power supply to power your system with the new GPU. The EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W is an awesome 80+ GOLD modular power supply that you can get for as little as $100.

fchopin

Honorable
Jul 2, 2014
4
0
10,510


I do indeed have dual Xeons..but this machine is used for high level graphics designing (amongst other things) and sometimes used with very large files...I have no doubt that the current bottleneck is the hdd, hopefully 2 ssd's will fix that up; but I was hoping to upgrade the aging vid card as well...I was looking at the GTX 770 already, will check out the others as you recommended..thanks
 

Andrew Buck

Honorable


If you use CUDA, the the 770 or 780 are good.
 

The Builder

Reputable
Jul 1, 2014
282
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4,960
Since you have the budget for it, grab a GTX 780 so you can benefit from the higher number of CUDA cores. There's this EVGA GTX 780 3GB Dual FTW ACX on sale at Newegg for $500. It's one of the faster GTX 780's on the market right now and it comes with EVGA's ACX cooler to give you better performance without compromising your ears. LOL

The GPU itself measures 26.67 centimeters in length and it should fit inside your case. But just to be on the safe side, measure your case for the clearance space.

Most probably you'll need to invest in a bigger and better power supply to power your system with the new GPU. The EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W is an awesome 80+ GOLD modular power supply that you can get for as little as $100.
 
Solution