Question Best GPUs under $200 for Dell Precision T3620?

[Avro Arrow]

Yes. I'm not looking to completely overhaul my PC or get the best equipment in existence. I'm just trying to do the best I can with my current limitations (budget, PC case, etc).


That one isn't compatible with the latest versions of DaVinci Resolve, which is the main program I need it for.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=166399

Huh, well, shows what I know about content creation (Very little). I had no idea that kind of issue could exist. Oh well, it was a thought. Hopefully there's a Quadro that is compatible that can do what you want it to. I didn't see any Quadros being recommended and thought "Maybe that would be a good idea..." because I didn't think that they stopped being supported, I just thought that they would become slower (but still function).

 

[hbenthow]

So yes, that or any other card that is less than 220mm long SHOULD work but it would better if you could take a measurement from the edge of the rear I/O shield where the card would attach to the back panel to the leading edge of the drive cages so we have an idea of what ACTUALLY will fit based on your own measurements, rather than simply trusting what somebody else has done, even though, it is probably accurate anyhow.

I measured it, and there's about 9 inches (228 mm) of room.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, that leaves room for a lot of options. Doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a SFF or short single fan card necessarily. But, that EVGA RTX 2060 XC is probably the very best Nvidia option you're going to see for less than 200 dollars that will fit.

Is it true that AMD GPUs are inferior to NVIDIA when it comes to hardware encoding?

Yes, it IS true. But it really depends on your specific usage AND what cards we are talking about, when it comes to "by how much". But in the end, Nvidia cards, all of them pretty much, are simply better in this area and by a fairly decent margin.

Video Encoding Tested: AMD GPUs Still Lag Behind Nvidia, Intel (Updated)

AVC, HEVC, and AV1 encoding put to the test

www.tomshardware.com

 

[hbenthow]

Well, that leaves room for a lot of options. Doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a SFF or short single fan card necessarily. But, that EVGA RTX 2060 XC is probably the very best Nvidia option you're going to see for less than 200 dollars that will fit.

I happened across something a little surprising: compact versions of the GTX 1650 Super and the GTX 1660 made by Dell.

I can't find detailed specs on them, but they do appear to be genuine Dell products. From what I can tell, they have low enough wattage that I could get a Dell 365W PSU rather than getting a different brand and hoping it fits, and they also don't take up much space in the case. They seem specifically designed to maximize compatibility with Dell desktops.

The Dell version of the 1650 (4WY5P ) is available here and a few other places:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-4WY5P-GeForce-Graphics-Heatsink/dp/B0CDDG6PFM

And is mentioned on this list:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/c...ktops/faq-aurora-r12/647f922af4ccf8a8de3d833e

On the list in this post:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/c...a8de9dc4e5?commentId=647f90ddf4ccf8a8de23e576

And this post:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/c...a8de7d03dd?commentId=647fa283f4ccf8a8de81200d

The first and last links also mention the Dell version of the 1660 Super, which has the model number 7MKYT. That one should be even more powerful than the 4WY5P (which is a 1650), and even has 6GB of VRAM instead of 4.

I found it for sale at various places, including here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204531517518

What I like about these options is that they seem highly optimized for use in a Dell (physical size and shape, wattage, etc), and it appears that while not as powerful as the RTX 2060, the 1660 Super is a massive improvement over my current GPU.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1660S-Super-vs-Nvidia-GT-1030/4056vsm283726

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nothing surprising about any of that. If you want a half decent graphics card, but don't want to spend close to 200 bones, then those are great options. Especially if you are just doing video and such and not gaming. But, and here's the real truth. It really does not matter WHAT you are doing. If you want to do it at a high level, buy the best card you can afford. And if your budget is 200 then the best card you can afford is the RTX 2060 and nothing else, at all, is going to compare to that when it comes to hardware encoding. Especially not at or near that price. The only thing we EVER regret, is what we did NOT do, when we knew we should have.

 

[hbenthow]

Nothing surprising about any of that. If you want a half decent graphics card, but don't want to spend close to 200 bones, then those are great options. Especially if you are just doing video and such and not gaming. But, and here's the real truth. It really does not matter WHAT you are doing. If you want to do it at a high level, buy the best card you can afford. And if your budget is 200 then the best card you can afford is the RTX 2060 and nothing else, at all, is going to compare to that when it comes to hardware encoding. Especially not at or near that price. The only thing we EVER regret, is what we did NOT do, when we knew we should have.

$200 is my "maximum", not necessarily my ideal price. I don't have much money and have to save up a while for each component I buy. The last one I got was a heatsink. Next, I need a PSU, then a GPU.

After a little more research, I found that the 7MKYT (1660 Super) needs a little more wattage than a 365W PSU can safely provide on my system (it takes 125W, which would not leave enough for the rest of my computer components), so I'd need at least a 500W PSU.

I'll think it all over, but at this point, I think I have figured out the two best options.

Option 1 (budget option): Get a 7MKYT and (first and separately) a PSU with enough wattage to run it (and likely enough to support upgrading to a RTX 2060 later if I ever wanted to - 600W would probably be ideal). Total = about $160-$220.

Option 2 (high performance option): Get a RTX 2060, a 600W PSU, and a high-quality USB Wi-Fi card to replace the PCIe one I'd have to replace. Total = about $270-$310.

Do you know what the best combination of low cost + reliability would be when it comes to PSUs?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you know what the best combination of low cost + reliability would be when it comes to PSUs?

So, this is definitely in my wheelhouse, as another of the moderators here likes to say. Unfortunately though, there is no such thing. There are exactly ZERO "low cost but reliable" power supplies. ESPECIALLY right now, or pretty much, since about the time that the pandemic plus the giant cargo freighter that got stuck in the Suez canal happened and completely screwed up the supply chain for probably years.

In light of that however, regardless of which way you go on the graphics card, since quality units under 550w tend to be just as expensive, or more, than those with higher capacities (Because higher capacity units with any quality at all tend to sell in much larger numbers than lower capacity models), this is probably the very best, least expensive option out there right now. It's a somewhat older model/design/platform, but one that was very good and well recommended just a few years back and would be more than suitable for this type of build assuming fitment, which also severely limits the options as the majority of quality power supplies that are less expensive, also tend to be longer than the 140mm you suggested as the maximum length able to be used in this case. This unit is 750w, which is perfectly fine, and is the same price as the exact same model in a 650w unit, so doesn't make sense to not get the 750w model as the platform is reliable but is known to be noisy under heavy load. The fact that it's reasonably higher capacity than any of the hardware you are planning to use, would ever need, means it would pretty much be noise free operation for it's lifetime which would likely extend that lifetime somewhat as well.

There are definitely less expensive models out there, but honestly, there are none that will fit, that are less expensive than this unit right now, that I would trust. And if there are no professional reviews of a unit, or at least of some other unit using the same platform, I will not use or recommend others to use it.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair CX750M (2021) 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-08 14:29 EST-0500
Aris, who is arguably about the most knowledgeable PSU reviewer and engineer in the world, with maybe only Jon Gerow (JonnyGuru) coming in at a close second, says the platform is reliable.

Corsair CX-M Series 650 W Review - Great Value

The Corsair CX-M Series 650 W is one best available budget PSUs. It performed very well in our tests and runs reasonably quiet. Given the affordable positioning it shouldn't be an issue that it lacks the 12+4 pin PCIe connector for future GPUs, most budget PSUs won't meet the strict ATX 3.0...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[hbenthow]

There are definitely less expensive models out there, but honestly, there are none that will fit, that are less expensive than this unit right now, that I would trust. And if there are no professional reviews of a unit, or at least of some other unit using the same platform, I will not use or recommend others to use it.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair CX750M (2021) 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-08 14:29 EST-0500
Aris, who is arguably about the most knowledgeable PSU reviewer and engineer in the world, with maybe only Jon Gerow (JonnyGuru) coming in at a close second, says the platform is reliable.

Corsair CX-M Series 650 W Review - Great Value

The Corsair CX-M Series 650 W is one best available budget PSUs. It performed very well in our tests and runs reasonably quiet. Given the affordable positioning it shouldn't be an issue that it lacks the 12+4 pin PCIe connector for future GPUs, most budget PSUs won't meet the strict ATX 3.0...

www.techpowerup.com

How does this one compare? It's the same price:

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Warranty-Power-Supply-200-GE-0600-V1/dp/B0C1ZX644C/

 

[Darkbreeze]

There are no reviews of that platform, and EVGA has had some VERY poor quality budget platforms over the last ten years, as well as some very good ones. I suspect this is possible of similar quality and reliability as the CXm I linked to above, except that we KNOW that platform is fairly reliable. We don't know that about the GE series. Plus, EVGA is on very sketchy ground these days, and I'd be hard pressed to want to buy anything of their aside from maybe the G7 series units which we know are very high quality. But even then, it doesn't much matter if a unit has a ten year warranty if the company is going to be gone in three years. I'm not saying it IS, but I AM saying it MIGHT be. They already shut down all graphics card production because they refused to be bent over by Nvidia and don't want to work with AMD or Intel.

I know I recommended an EVGA graphics card to you earlier, however I think that is a somewhat different situation since that card would only have a three year warranty anyhow and they have plenty of warranty stock for such situations on those slightly older models like the RTX 2060. I hope I'm wrong, because EVGA has been one of the better companies out there when it comes to product support, but I guess nothing lasts forever.

In my opinion, I'd avoid that PSU especially since we know nothing about the internal build quality, reliable or even what platform it uses. Hell, don't even know what OEM they used for the platform.

 

[hbenthow]

In my opinion, I'd avoid that PSU especially since we know nothing about the internal build quality, reliable or even what platform it uses. Hell, don't even know what OEM they used for the platform.

I see. So Corsair is the clear winner.

Thank you for the recommendation and all of the advice.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You are welcome. And, if you want something with a bit better quality than that CXm, which is LITERALLY about the least expensive but clearly entry level unit, that I'd recommend, you might consider something like this which admittedly is a bit more expensive but is also a MUCH better unit.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($95.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $95.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-08 15:31 EST-0500