Advise About GT 1030 GPU In Dell Optiplex 380?

[rh.hamilton27]

I bought a Dell Optiplex 380 PC with a dual-core E7500 @ 2.93GHz CPU, 4GB of ram and an Nvidia "GS 8400" GPU.

I got this PC mainly to play my older games I got from GOG.com and wanted to play games ranging from the 90's to about the 2006 era with all settings cranked up on a 1600x1200 LCD monitor.

Probably a silly question but I was wondering... if I got a new "GT 1030" would it run virtually every games from 2006 on high settings at 1600x1200 @ 75hz?

And are there any PCI compatibility issues(such PCIEx16 motherboard with PCIE 3.0 GPU) I have to know about?

Because it seems to run the original Oddworld: Strangers Wrath (a game from 2005) on high settings at around only 15fps at 1280x1024.

Thanks for any advise!

 

[dontlistentome]

The 1030 will run the less demanding esports games, like CSGO, at 1080p, so 1600x1200 should be fine. One thing to know, it has digital output only, no VGA. So if your monitor only has a VGA input then you will need an active adapter(DVI-D to VGA). If you have the small form factor model you'll need a low profile card, just look at your GS 8400 to see what size you can use.

The CPU does have an impact on framerate. I'm not familiar with that Oddworld game so I can't say why the framerate is so low at 1280x1024. If that computer has a CPU to slow for that game it could be the problem.

 

[Tim9800]

Check this guy out. Pretty similar system and specs to yours. You'll probably get bottlenecked by your CPU with modern titles, but with 2006 games, its should be fine.

 

[william p]

http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Dell-OptiPlex-380/1942
Here are some Opti 380 builds. I notice there are no Q9650 running. I think the 380 can only run the early C0 stepping Q9550. Lots of LGA771 Xeon swaps though.
The Opti 360 preffers C0 stepping CPUs it looks like the 380 might have the same issue.
http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/3/#dell
http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/3/

 

[matokovacikts]

Hi, I don't have a solution, rather the same problem so I would like to ask if you actually tried it and if it worked, because the answers here seem to miss the point about compatibility. I have the same motherboard and I had compatibility problem with radeon rx 550, so don't go for that one, that much I can say. Now I am also interested in gt 1030, so it would be great to know if that worked out for you (and which model if yes). Thanks

 

[william p]

i've learned a little more about the 380 recently. It does support up to Q9650 CPU, and 8GB DDR3 RAM in 2 slots. It doesn't seem to have the 95W CPU limit other Optiplexes have. So there are LGA771 swaps like X5460 3.15GHZ and X5470 3.33GHz possible (120W CPUs), MAYBE evan a QX9650 (130W). hard to tell how much OC the Dell VRMs will allow. As far as GPU goes forget Radeon. They don't support the Dell BIOS from R9 3xx (285) on up. I wouldn't bother with the GT1030, it's slower than the GTX750, The sweet spot for that machine is the Zotac GTX1050 Mini 2GB. It actually fits in a BTX Mini Tower. The 1050Ti version is a little pricey but better. No PSU upgrade required.
I woul;d get more RAM. Crucial.com will select a kit for it ( click more options in your results there) and guarantee compatibility.
If you're playing old single thread games you could just "Tapemod" the E7500 to 3.66GHz and call it a day. This raises the FSB from 1066 to 333 with 11x multiplier.
The GPU that you buy now can move forward to your next computer. The 1030 would go in the dumster with the rest of it.

 

[matokovacikts]

i've learned a little more about the 380 recently. It does support up to Q9650 CPU, and 8GB DDR3 RAM in 2 slots. It doesn't seem to have the 95W CPU limit other Optiplexes have. So there are LGA771 swaps like X5460 3.15GHZ and X5470 3.33GHz possible (120W CPUs), MAYBE evan a QX9650 (130W). hard to tell how much OC the Dell VRMs will allow. As far as GPU goes forget Radeon. They don't support the Dell BIOS from R9 3xx (285) on up. I wouldn't bother with the GT1030, it's slower than the GTX750, The sweet spot for that machine is the Zotac GTX1050 Mini 2GB. It actually fits in a BTX Mini Tower. The 1050Ti version is a little pricey but better. No PSU upgrade required.
I woul;d get more RAM. Crucial.com will select a kit for it ( click more options in your results there) and guarantee compatibility.
If you're playing old single thread games you could just "Tapemod" the E7500 to 3.66GHz and call it a day. This raises the FSB from 1066 to 333 with 11x multiplier.
The GPU that you buy now can move forward to your next computer. The 1030 would go in the dumster with the rest of it.

Thanks a lot William, that's a lot of useful advice! I eventually got the gt 1030 from MSI, becase I didn't know about the Zotac versions of 1050. Now I'm thinking about upgrading to 1050ti and once again your answer is helpful, cause I was worried about if the original psu can take it. On more thing about this, please: Do you think only the mini versions of Zotac gtx 1050/1050ti fit in?

As far as cpu goes, I have a Q9400, so upgrading to x5470 doesn't seem worth it much.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[william p]

The Mini is the only one that has a single expansion slot bracket. It fits the Mini Towers only, all others need Low Profile cards.
The QX CPU series was a no go. Even the 80W 2 core X6800 wouldn't boot.
Don't get the Ti 4GB. It sucks up too much RAM. (I tried ti to see if that would happen). The Zotac GTX1050 Mini 2GB.
You should get 8GB RAM. a 2GB GPU will use 2GB and starve the system. The 4GB card does that even with 8GB RAM.