Working out what to upgrade/bottleknecking issues

Ketchup92

July 7, 2012 2:56:59 PM

Hi,

I'm considering an upgrade for my Dell XPS 630i as its starting to struggle to run the games I'd like to play (Shogun 2, Skyrim, The Witcher 2 etc.) above medium-ish settings. But basically I'm unsure what to upgrade, and was wondering whether there is a way to find out which part is bottlenecking performance, if indeed there is one particular part. Or whether someone could just advise me as to this point? My (limited on this issue) instincts point me to a video card upgrade. My budget is fairly limited and would probably only be interested in upgrading one part of the computer at this point. I've done a bit of researching and was thinking the Nvidia GTX 560 might not be a bad bet? Its just about within my budget...

Anyway, here are my specs atm:

CPU: Q9450 2.66GHz (4 cores)
Memory: 4GB
GPU: 9800 GT 1GB
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

EDIT: Here are the manufacturer specifications. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps630i/e...

I see there's a 750W power supply which I think is enough to manage a GTX 560. Is there anything untoward shown by those specs? The card will fit in the case physically, I checked. Am just wondering about power connectors as for example this card (http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-560-850mh...) mentions it requires "Two available 6-pin PCI-E power dongles". Will I have these? Can I check?

More about : working upgrade bottleknecking issues

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phyco126

July 8, 2012 8:09:02 AM

You can check to see if the power supply has the connections or not. My GPU came with adapters though, so if you don't have them it should not be a problem. If the GPU does not come with adapters, you can find them fairly cheaply on newegg.com .

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tsnor

July 8, 2012 6:01:47 PM

Hi, you should have no problem. Unplug and open case. Look that the power supply. there will be a number of unused connectors typically zip tied into a big ball. You just cut the zip tie and plug in what you need.

IF you don't have the right connect (or more likely, the power cord is too short to go where you want it) as phyco says there are a tons of $5 adapters and extentions avail at newegg or amazon

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cpatel1987

July 8, 2012 6:54:31 PM

Ketchup92 said:

Hi,

I'm considering an upgrade for my Dell XPS 630i as its starting to struggle to run the games I'd like to play (Shogun 2, Skyrim, The Witcher 2 etc.) above medium-ish settings. But basically I'm unsure what to upgrade, and was wondering whether there is a way to find out which part is bottlenecking performance, if indeed there is one particular part. Or whether someone could just advise me as to this point? My (limited on this issue) instincts point me to a video card upgrade. My budget is fairly limited and would probably only be interested in upgrading one part of the computer at this point. I've done a bit of researching and was thinking the Nvidia GTX 560 might not be a bad bet? Its just about within my budget...

Anyway, here are my specs atm:

CPU: Q9450 2.66GHz (4 cores)
Memory: 4GB
GPU: 9800 GT 1GB
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

EDIT: Here are the manufacturer specifications. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps630i/e...

I see there's a 750W power supply which I think is enough to manage a GTX 560. Is there anything untoward shown by those specs? The card will fit in the case physically, I checked. Am just wondering about power connectors as for example this card (http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-560-850mh...) mentions it requires "Two available 6-pin PCI-E power dongles". Will I have these? Can I check?

Graphics card, but also 2 more GB of RAM wouldn't hurt (or 4 more if you want) if your playing RAM heavy games like StarCraft 2 (I've seen RAM usage hit the 4.5 GB mark on my build during SCII, I currently have 8 GB)

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