[SOLVED] GFX card upgrade for Dell Inspiron 3650

phoenyx

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Feb 9, 2014
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Hi guy's :) Just a quick question which would be great if you could answer for me!

Though I'm guessing the answer will probably be a no, is it possible to upgrade the graphics card to something more powerful in my Dell Inspiron 3650?!

It doesn't have a standalone gaming or high memory graphics card just a standard Geforce GT730. I don't play games but I have recently got into video editing and Adobe Premiere is apparently quite GFX memory intensive. I've noticed it can't play real-time review edits back smoothly once you start adding effects to them in the editing timeline, though it's fine on clean footage. It does say my driver is out of date and it may cause issues but i darn't install that in case it gets any worse as the only one available on Nvidia's website is the gaming version of the driver not the multimedia one! I could upgrade the base memory though of course, if that would help? But i read Premiere's usage is less based on that and more on the GFX card memory.

My full pc spec is:
Pentium i5-6400 CPU 2.7Ghz
8GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce GT 730
Windows 10 64bit

Thanks :)
 
Solution
So the GT730 has a 38W TDP and I don't see a 24 pin power cable connecting to the motherboard (bottom front corner, 8 pin connection, please inform if this NOT true) so we have to assume 38W is the max this machine supports.

If that's the case, a GT1030 is the best you'll get. That's roughly between a GTX750 and GTX750Ti.

That said....This form thread seems to indicate that up to a GTX1650 (versions without a power connector on the side) may be possible.... that would be the thing to try first if you buy from somewhere with a fairly lenient return policy.
So the GT730 has a 38W TDP and I don't see a 24 pin power cable connecting to the motherboard (bottom front corner, 8 pin connection, please inform if this NOT true) so we have to assume 38W is the max this machine supports.

If that's the case, a GT1030 is the best you'll get. That's roughly between a GTX750 and GTX750Ti.

That said....This form thread seems to indicate that up to a GTX1650 (versions without a power connector on the side) may be possible.... that would be the thing to try first if you buy from somewhere with a fairly lenient return policy.
 
Last edited:
Solution

phoenyx

Distinguished
Feb 9, 2014
51
1
18,535
So the GT730 has a 38W TDP and I don't see a 24 pin power cable connecting to the motherboard (bottom front corner, 8 pin connection, please inform if this NOT true) so we have to assume 38W is the max this machine supports.

If that's the case, a GT1030 is the best you'll get. That's roughly between a GTX750 and GTX750Ti.

That said....This form thread seems to indicate that up to a GTX1650 (versions without a power connector on the side) may be possible.... that would be the thing to try first if you buy from somewhere with a fairly lenient return policy.

Thanks. I checked out the thread about the GTX1650 and it certainly looks like a big upgrade in gfx power. It seems a few users on there were able to successfully install and run them too. I found links to a few on amazon such as this one here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...c78-ba616030b420&pf_rd_r=RMMAMQR4CS4M7253BK41

I'll take a look inside my case to see what kind of psu i have and also what it looks like in there regarding room and where the current gfx card is plugged in to and I'll post a few photos up. Thanks :)