Dell Optiplex 790 graphics upgrade

[prestoncole27]

Hello! I plan on buying a dell optiplex 790 as a cheap budget gaming PC, And I would rather not upgrade my power supply(As of right now) I just wanna get going right away and not put in alot of time waiting for stuff to arive. Can anyone recommend a good graphics card a dell optiplex 790 would run well with for gaming BTW it has a intel core i3. Also if someone could tell me what I should do in the future like what power supply and graphics card I should buy after my first one.

 

[Firewalp]

I had an optiplex 790 with an i5-2400 and installed a zotac low-profile gtx 1050 Ti. It was an awesome little gaming rig. That's definitely one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get into PC gaming, imo.

 

[prestoncole27]

Awesome are you sure the power supply would not need upgraded? Also a little extra question would a GeForce 640 fit? Its a bit more in my price range.

 

[xeddiex]

Looks like there are few variants of optiplex 790 with different style of pc cases.

Optiplex 790 Desktop:
HxWxD: 14.17in x 6.89in x 16.42in (36.0cm x 17.5cm x 41.7cm)
PSU: 265W

Optiplex 790 Mini Tower:
HxWxD: 14.17in x 4.02in x 16.14in (36.0cm x 10.2cm x 41.0cm)
PSU: 250W

Optiplex 790 Small Form Factor:
HxWxD: 11.42in x 3.65in x 12.28in (29.0cm x 9.26cm x 31.2cm)
PSU: 240W

Optiplex 790 Ultra Small Form Factor:
HxWxD: 9.32in x 2.56in x 9.44in (23.67cm x 6.5cm x 24.0cm)
PSU: 200W


Not sure which one u are having, but the last 2 can be eliminated as they are having slim cases, and cards wont fit in there.
For the Desktop and Mini variant, they only come with 250W+ PSU, which is lower than the recommended 300W.
But I guess give a try on a low profile 1030/1050, and keep fingers crossed

 

[Firewalp]

Awesome are you sure the power supply would not need upgraded? Also a little extra question would a GeForce 640 fit? Its a bit more in my price range.

I ran the system under full load with several benchmarks and stress tests, never had a problem. That was my travel gaming PC for about 6 months before I sold it.

 

[prestoncole27]

I am getting the desktop (The top one) Do you think it could handle a geforce 640 without upgrading the power supply? And the processor is a core i3 3.1 GHz.

 

[Wolfshadw]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from prestoncole27 : "Dell Optiplex 790 Desktop"

Hello, Does anyone know if a dell optiplex 790 Desktop with core i3 3.1 GHz could handle a geforce 640 without upgrading my power supply?

Hello, Does anyone know if a dell optiplex 790 Desktop with core i3 3.1 GHz could handle a geforce 640 without upgrading my power supply?

First off you need to make sure the card will fit in your case. Which one of these

do you have?

Based on your question the 640 won't fit. That DT is 4.0" tall or wide depending on its placement. The card is 6.7" x 4.38" which means the 640 won't fit in there. You need to seek out low profile(AKA LP) cards.


https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137139
and
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137079

are a couple options. Do you have a budget? Where will you buy this from, specifically? Newegg US or Canada? Amazon UK?

But what about your original question?


350 Watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 20 Amp on the +12 volt rail.****
PCI Express, PCI Express 2.0 or PCI Express 3.0 compliant motherboard with one graphics slot. is what the card asks for.

Standard 250W PSU
or optional 250W
up to 90% Efficient
PSU; Energy Star 5.0
compliant, Active PFC

is what's in that PC.

No it can't handle it.

System Specifications Document

Pg. 21 shows the Desktop version only has a 250 watt PSU. I'd say no card worth while is going in there without a power supply upgrade.

-Wolf sends

 

[william p]

GTX1050Ti runs off of the PCIe slot ( be sure and get one that doesn't need 6 pin PCIe). The low PSU rating is because the small cases don't have as many expansion slots, and drive bays to power. In the Dell market place where companies are running thousands of computers the low power PSU is a selling point. The aftermarket units tend to be over rated instead. You probably have a 95W CPU limit, and a 75W GPU shouldn't be a problem.