Crossfire mothboard fit in a dell studio xps 8100?

[bromchild84]

Hello,
Im a bit of a novice really. Im looking to upgrade my XPS 8100 and was wondering if a crossfire motherboard and an extra graphics card would fit in? Ive currently got a HD5770 which I would like too crossfire with a 6770 but obviously I would need a motherboard that would support crossfire and im unsure if it would all fit in???

 

[Raiddinn]

I need to know if your motherboard form factor is ATX or BTX.

There seems to be like 4 different motherboard types used in the Studio XPS 8100 and I am not sure which one you have, so if you just list that I can look up the form factor of the motherboard myself.

Also, I wanted to say that I don't think you will be in for a good crossfiring experience if you do what you are intending. The best results are obtained when the cards are the same model and even the same manufacturer.

Having an entire generational gap between the two cards is inviting trouble.

Also, it may not even be better than the one 6770 alone.

The way crossfire works is that each card takes turns drawing one frame. That means the fastest one can't go any faster than the slowest one. It will never take 2 turns when the slowest has only taken one, even if you crossfire a 6990 with a 5770.

It doesn't really matter when one card is ready to render or not, only that it is either that card's turn or not. Practically speaking, the cards would work mostly the same if you just had 2x 5770 except that 5770 + 6770 would be harder to configure than 2x 5770 is.

I think for the same price as a 6770 you could get a 5830 and it would likely perform better than the 6770 + 5770 CFd and be about 100x easier to configure.

Then you could just sell the 5770 and recover some of the cost of it, it should still have some value on ebay.

If you wanted to apply the savings to an even better card, you could probably get a 6850 or 6870 for the same as the 6770 + what you sold the 5770 for and it would perform much better than anything so far mentioned.

That would also save you from having to buy a new motherboard that accepts 2x video cards which is probably another $100, if you applied that also to the new card that would put you in HD 6950 range which would be about equal to 6 or 7 x 5770s CFd together.

In any event, try to find out the motherboard form factor and let me know if you have changed your mind how to proceed based upon my comments.

 

[bromchild84]

Motherboard is a DELL 0T568F if that helps?

Yeah it makes sense what you are saying, I have a i7 860 @ 2800mhz, 6gig Ram (going to upgrade this too) my screen is my 32" 1080p TV

In your opinion what would get the best out om my computer (running Crysis 2, Skyrim, Deus Ex 3 etc on maximum settings) without being overkill due to the 1080p res but also being good enough to run any game (at the moment) on maxed settings?

And what would you recomend ATI or Nvidia?

Thanks for the reply

 

[Raiddinn]

I tried to search for 0T568F and didn't come up with anything, sadly. What is your serial number or express service code instead?

As for a 1x video card that will work with the max settings on every game, there isn't one. There are games out there that won't even play on max settings with the highest tessellation levels with 1x GTX 590 $700 card. Those being paired with the best possible processor too.

Without the best possible processor, the list of games that would play at max with a 590 is even less.

Being that we are talking about $100 or $200 here for spending on a video card, the list is even fewer games that can be played at ultra ultra settings.

Better is to just give a budget range you think you can afford to spend and then I will try to tell you a good card at the low end of the range, the middle of the range, and the high end of the range and then you can look up how those games play with the cards I said and decide from there which you think will meet your cost and quality needs the best.

As for video cards, everyone's situation is different, but I would generally recommend NVIDIA cards to the people with neverending $ and ATI cards for anyone whose budgets are pretty strict.

My personal budget is mid range (my video card is $200) and I have an ATI card. It is, however, the best possible fanless card because noise limitation is the key deciding factor for my situation, followed by cost effectiveness.

TBH, for me I kinda lean towards ATI because I have always had ATIs and they have always worked for me except for 1 card I got off ebay that was DOA, but I don't blame that on ATI.

For other people, though, I just try to get them the card that suits their individual situations the best, regardless of maker.

 

[bromchild84]

Thanks for all the inf its much appreciated

I think I will go down the 1x Card route, its sounds much less complex

Also I think here in Scotland UK the cards are MUCH more expensive the GTX 590 is £640 GBP think thats about 1000 USD

The HD6950 is £240 about $380 USD
and the HD6970 £296 about $465 USD

These two interest me, is there a big performance difference between these two? Or a big enough performance difference to justify be buying a GTX 580 (£390 or $610) or would the 580 be overkill for my system and 1080p screen?

Sorry for all the questions but im not very clued up on graphics cards etc

 

[Raiddinn]

I wouldn't pay $80 USD more for the 6970 instead of the 6950. Between the 6950, 6970, and 580 I would say the biggest bang for your buck is the 6950 and tell you to get that if you are worried about cost effectiveness.

The 590 is good for people who don't know what to do with all the money they have, but most people just aren't like that. You could get a nice 40 inch LED flat panel TV for the difference between those two things and most people are willing to sacrifice a little bit of FPS for an additional 40 inch TV, especially when you are talking about, say, 100 FPS vs 105 FPS.

 

[bromchild84]

Thats great thanks, im swaying towards the 6950, although there is a used gtx 580 sitting at £150 on ebay uk BUT its probably not advisable to purchase a used one as I wouldn't know what I was getting

One last question, how will I know that any of the above cards will fit in the xps8100 unit?

 

[Raiddinn]

The motherboard manual should tell you the maximum dimensions that will fit in the case.

If you just look up your dell express service code you should be able to download the manual and find out from there the biggest thing you can use.

Generally, the bigger the cost the bigger the card, so the 6950 is probably the smallest one too. You will still want to do some research to see if it works, though.

You can try just searching the internet for "Studio XPS 8100 fit 6950" or something and see if anyone else has tried it before and what their results were. The way the internet is there is usually someone who has tried it before and wrote about it.

It is the same thing I would do if you asked me to tell you if the 6950 would fit.

 

[bromchild84]

Perfect, thanks again for your time

I shall do some research

Cheers