Hell Everyone
I am new to this forum and I hope that someone can help me. I have a number of Dell Precision 490 and 690 workstations that I have used to do CAD work over many years. These seem to be incredibly reliable and still fulfil their role quite well for 2D work. However, there shortcomings are become more evident now that we are doing more and more 3D work on applications such as Trimble SketchUp. I am keen to get a couple more years out of these trusty workhorses and it seems to me that their most obvious limitation is the graphics card. They all currently have either Nvidia Quadro FX3500 or Quadro FX4600 cards which are very old and an obvious bottleneck when doing 3D renderings. The computers are otherwise still quite functional as each has dual Xeon 5160 processors and 16 Gb RAM.
The reason for my post is to seek advice and suggestions from other forum members with similar computers who have successfully upgraded their graphics cards to something more modern and powerful. I have done a fair bit of research and reading online and there seems to be enormously conflicting information regarding which graphics cards will and will not work in these computers. From my reading, it seems that the most significant issue is compatibility with the old PCIe x16 (either version 1.0 or 1.1 – I cant definitively determine which) expansion slot that was included with these computers. Power supply does not seem to be an issue as the 490 come with 750w and the 690 has 1000w available. Hence my request for assistance and advice from members who have actually upgraded the graphics cards in these computers. I am not looking towards a Nvidia Quadro solution and would be quite happy to use a more mainstream graphics card either from Nvidia or AMD. As noted above, I am only looking to get a couple more years of service from these computers and would like to limit the cost of the replacement graphics cards to $100 to $150 each. Ideally, I would like to get a graphics card that is in the class of the Nvidia GTX 750 or Radeon R9 270 etc but something a bit slower would be okay, however, must be a significant step up from a Quadro 4600 so as to make the upgrade worthwhile. I am quite happy to consider graphics cards that are no longer available. It is usually pretty easy to pick any particular card second hand either here in Australia or from the USA.
Thank you everyone who takes the time to read this post and I hope that some of you could assist me.
I have listed below the information suggested for seeking advice on a replacement GPU.
System – Dell Precision 490 and Precision 690
Approximate purchase date – immediate
Budget range - US$100 to US$150
Usage – Trimble SketchUp Pro 2014 (but will be upgrading to 2015) mainly for 3D modelling, Autodesk AutoCAD 2014 mainly 2D CAD work, Adobe CS 5 for a bit of very light Photoshop and InDesign but nothing serious, other normal office functions such as word processing, email and web browsing etc. No gaming requirements.
Current GPU and power supply – Nvidia Quadro FX3500 and Quadro FX4600. Standard Dell power supplies 750w (490) and 1000w (690).
Relevant System Specs – dual Xeon 5160 CPUs, 16Mb PC2-533 FB ECC ram, Intel 5000x chipsets, motherboard Dell 0G0083 (490) and 0F9394 (690), I can not reliably determine if these motherboards support PCIe x16 verion 1.0 or version 1.1.
Country of origin – Australia but am happy to purchase from USA store or on eBay etc.
Operating System – Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
Parts preference – I am more accustomed to Nvidia but would happily use an AMD GPU if this best suits.
Overclocking – not interested (reliability is more important). Will be running a single graphics card in each computer.
Monitor resolution. We use 30” monitors. Resolution varies but mostly 1920 x 1200.
I am new to this forum and I hope that someone can help me. I have a number of Dell Precision 490 and 690 workstations that I have used to do CAD work over many years. These seem to be incredibly reliable and still fulfil their role quite well for 2D work. However, there shortcomings are become more evident now that we are doing more and more 3D work on applications such as Trimble SketchUp. I am keen to get a couple more years out of these trusty workhorses and it seems to me that their most obvious limitation is the graphics card. They all currently have either Nvidia Quadro FX3500 or Quadro FX4600 cards which are very old and an obvious bottleneck when doing 3D renderings. The computers are otherwise still quite functional as each has dual Xeon 5160 processors and 16 Gb RAM.
The reason for my post is to seek advice and suggestions from other forum members with similar computers who have successfully upgraded their graphics cards to something more modern and powerful. I have done a fair bit of research and reading online and there seems to be enormously conflicting information regarding which graphics cards will and will not work in these computers. From my reading, it seems that the most significant issue is compatibility with the old PCIe x16 (either version 1.0 or 1.1 – I cant definitively determine which) expansion slot that was included with these computers. Power supply does not seem to be an issue as the 490 come with 750w and the 690 has 1000w available. Hence my request for assistance and advice from members who have actually upgraded the graphics cards in these computers. I am not looking towards a Nvidia Quadro solution and would be quite happy to use a more mainstream graphics card either from Nvidia or AMD. As noted above, I am only looking to get a couple more years of service from these computers and would like to limit the cost of the replacement graphics cards to $100 to $150 each. Ideally, I would like to get a graphics card that is in the class of the Nvidia GTX 750 or Radeon R9 270 etc but something a bit slower would be okay, however, must be a significant step up from a Quadro 4600 so as to make the upgrade worthwhile. I am quite happy to consider graphics cards that are no longer available. It is usually pretty easy to pick any particular card second hand either here in Australia or from the USA.
Thank you everyone who takes the time to read this post and I hope that some of you could assist me.
I have listed below the information suggested for seeking advice on a replacement GPU.
System – Dell Precision 490 and Precision 690
Approximate purchase date – immediate
Budget range - US$100 to US$150
Usage – Trimble SketchUp Pro 2014 (but will be upgrading to 2015) mainly for 3D modelling, Autodesk AutoCAD 2014 mainly 2D CAD work, Adobe CS 5 for a bit of very light Photoshop and InDesign but nothing serious, other normal office functions such as word processing, email and web browsing etc. No gaming requirements.
Current GPU and power supply – Nvidia Quadro FX3500 and Quadro FX4600. Standard Dell power supplies 750w (490) and 1000w (690).
Relevant System Specs – dual Xeon 5160 CPUs, 16Mb PC2-533 FB ECC ram, Intel 5000x chipsets, motherboard Dell 0G0083 (490) and 0F9394 (690), I can not reliably determine if these motherboards support PCIe x16 verion 1.0 or version 1.1.
Country of origin – Australia but am happy to purchase from USA store or on eBay etc.
Operating System – Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
Parts preference – I am more accustomed to Nvidia but would happily use an AMD GPU if this best suits.
Overclocking – not interested (reliability is more important). Will be running a single graphics card in each computer.
Monitor resolution. We use 30” monitors. Resolution varies but mostly 1920 x 1200.