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Best GPU to get for my tower?

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  • Dell Inspiron
  • GPUs
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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July 18, 2014 4:20:13 PM

This is a continuation of a thread I made a few days ago. Had time to open up the tower and investigate a little more.

I have a dell inspiron 660; 17 1/4 inches horizontal and 14 1/4 inches vertical. I took four pictures of the contents, if it helps. The area around the extra slots for gpu's looks like it would accommodate a card that's up to 8 inches long, and I suppose however thick as it looked like there'd be room for like up to 3 inches.

I confirmed the PSU to be 300 watts, as I wanted to be sure cause I've seen people post about this dell model having 220 watts a lot. I didn't make note of the psu's model number unfortunately and didn't realize that the photo I took wasn't clear enough for text clarity. If you'd need exact model/serial or w.e please let me know and I'll get it asap.

I'm looking for a card that'll play skyrim on med-high settings and more or less max out swtor while not needing a psu upgrade. The closer I can get to that the better. Thanks in advance for suggestions!

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More about : gpu tower

July 18, 2014 6:04:52 PM

Yeah, it would help to get a clear pic of the PSU nameplate. But having dealt with other Dells, I can vouch for the fact that it is probably a good qulaity 300W PSU. If you want the fastest card that does not need a 6 pin PCIe connection and will fuction safely on a 300W PSU, this is it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I have used it in a budget build, and it will game nicely at 1080p resolutions. If your monitor is less, it will be even better.
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July 18, 2014 6:51:53 PM

I was reading some of the reviews for that card, and it seems like they're all saying relatively the same thing. Though one of them said that with a 400 watt or better psu you'd be able to power the card through the pci express slot, and said something about because he has a 600 watt he didn't need to plug into the card or something. I'm still learning about all this stuff, so I'm curious if this applies to my tower? Will I still be okay with just the 300 watt psu?
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July 18, 2014 7:08:46 PM

"maximum continuous total dc output will not exceed 300w"

"+12v rails ( +12va and +12vb) total continue power will not exceed 216w"

+12va /17a max

+12vb /9a max

Can't get a clear picture, so copied
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July 18, 2014 7:17:10 PM

Hmmm... that is a bit lighter than I thought it would be. If both +12V rails were rated at 18A or so, no problem. But that is a bit close. It will probably work OK, but it will be pushing it. The card is designed to run at a max of 60W. That relates to 5A on the +12V rail. If it were me, I'd go for it.

Dell must not be putting as good PSUs in as they used to. What CPU do you have? Any other stuff in the system that isn't stock from the factory?
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July 18, 2014 7:25:58 PM

It's an i5-3330

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So it'd definitely be a close call, but more than enough faith to give it a shot anyway?
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July 18, 2014 7:36:17 PM

If it was my PC, I'd do it in a heart beat. But I don't like recommending stuff like that here unless I'm 100% sure. As it is, I'm only about 80% sure. Normally, if the PSU can't keep up with the voltage demand, it will simply shut down the PC or cause a re-boot. On very rare occurrences, the PSU may die a catastrophic death and take something else out with it.
Do you have the budget for a new PSU to go along with the card?
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July 18, 2014 7:48:12 PM

I'm not entirely sure tbh. I've already been looking for ways to reduce the cost of the card, albeit it's already really cheap per performance I'd imagine. My budget is very tight at the moment

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I found this one through wal-mart, where I actually work. I can apply my employee discount and have it shipped to my store for free. Assuming it's the same as the card you linked. I've seen 1gb versions of this card too, but I'm not that cheap. If I absolutely needed to upgrade my psu as well, what do you think my cheapest while being effective option is?
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July 18, 2014 8:48:43 PM

Thanks for all the info!

Semi unrelated question though. In 1080p are all 1gb vram cards inferior, or would a 1gb 650 ti work well? Assuming I upgraded my psu of course
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July 19, 2014 10:23:01 AM

1 GB cards are not "inferior", they just don't have enough VRAM to handle today's top-end games at the highest anti-aliasing and textures settings sufficiently. In most other games at 1080p, you won't know the difference. A 650 Ti 1GB will work fine, but be a bit slower than the 750 Ti. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1129?vs=1130

And it will suffer some loss of settings depth that the 2GB card wouldn't.
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July 20, 2014 12:23:01 PM

Another random question, sorry. Would a 750ti not superclocked consume less power than one that is sc? If so would that possibly make or break the idea of upgrading the psu?
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July 20, 2014 12:55:57 PM

Yes, if the cards are otherwise identical, the faster clocked one will draw more current at load. But not all cards are created equal. If Nvidia states that a GTX 750 Ti shall require a 300W PSU, it is up to the manufacturer to be sure his card at his 'new' stock speed still falls in that category. If the manufacturer cannot keep the specs of his factory OC'd version at the Nvidia specs, he should state it. That's why you see some higher-end 750 Ti cards with an aux 6 pin connection. And of course, after the owner gets the card and OCs it even more, all bets are off.
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