[SOLVED] GPU Compatibility

[Duklin__]

Yo, I'm looking to upgrade my current GPU to a gtx1660 Super, and I have multiple questions about it


->[CURRENT SPECS]<-

CASE DIMENSIONS: Height- 406.80mm(16in), Width- 185.34mm(7.3in), Length- 444.26mm(17.5in)

MBD: Dell XPS 8900

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700

GPU: Nvidia GTX 745 (OEM)

RAM: Samsung M378A1G43DB0-CPB 2x8GB

HDD: WD Blue 1TB (2012) [272GB left]


1. Will it even fit?

2. How do I know if I'll be able to attach it to the MBD?

3. How do I know/check if my PSU has the vital amount of wattage and/or power connectors to be able to fully utilize it?

4. Will my other components bottleneck it?

5. How do I know if it'll overheat in my computer? And if it does, what do I do then?

6. How much will/should it cost by Christmas in USA?

7. ???

Any answer to any of these questions will be greatly appreciated especially question 7

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

1) can't say. External dimensions of the case do not represent available space internally.

2) as long as you have at least a PCIe 2.0 slot you're fine.

3) if it's the PSU that came with the prebuilt then don't count on it having enough wattage and/or necessary connectors.
But you can check the connectors and wattage by opening the case and looking at the connectors and the information printed on the side of the PSU.

4) you're fine on CPU and RAM.

5) it might get hot and throttle if the case has poor airflow (which it might l

6) nobody knows. It'll at the very least cost retail, but otherwise you may get a discount either for black Friday or holiday season.

7) !!!

Your best bet for an upgrade is to get a proper PSU, a proper case (and extra case fans if needed) and of course your GPU.

 

[Duklin__]

1) can't say. External dimensions of the case so not represent available space internally.

2) as long as you have a PCIe 2.0 slot you're fine.

3) if it's the PSU that came with the prebuilt then don't count on it having enough wattage and/or necessary connectors.
But you can check the connectors and wattage by opening the case and looking at the connectors and the information printed on the side of the PSU.

4) you're fine on CPU and RAM.

5) it might get hot and throttle if the case has poor airflow (which it might l

6) nobody knows. It'll at the very least cost retail, but otherwise you may get a discount either for black Friday or holiday season.

7) !!!

Your best bet for an upgrade is to get a proper PSU, a proper case (and extra case fans if needed) and of course your GPU.

Thanks so much for the help! I do however have some more questions after seeing your answers now

1. Once I open up my case, how can I assure it's big enough for the gtx1660 super?

2. How can I confirm the motherboard has a PCIe 2.0 slot?

3. What wattage would you recommend for it?

4. if the right power cable(s) for the card are there, where do I look and what will they look like?

5. How do I know if my case has enough airflow to supply the GPU?


Again, thanks so much for the help!

 

[Gerald6049]

1. Once I open up my case, how can I assure it's big enough for the gtx1660 super?

What kind of GTX 1660 Super do you want to get ? Go to the manufacturer site, and you will find the card dimension. You can measure the space in the case by refer that information. Here is the example :
https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-1660-SUPER-GAMING-X/Specification

2. How can I confirm the motherboard has a PCIe 2.0 slot?

Of course they have. The slot is being used with the GTX 745 now, and they are listed based on this specs paper :
https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/...op/xps-8900-desktop_reference guide_en-us.pdf

3. What wattage would you recommend for it?

500-600W will be enough, IMO.

4. if the right power cable(s) for the card are there, where do I look and what will they look like?

Usually they looked like this one, with PCI-E written :

5. How do I know if my case has enough airflow to supply the GPU?

Not really sure, since it's a built in case.

 

[Duklin__]

What kind of GTX 1660 Super do you want to get ? Go to the manufacturer site, and you will find the card dimension. You can measure the space in the case by refer that information. Here is the example :
https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-1660-SUPER-GAMING-X/Specification

I'm being held up on the sizing matter. I'm not completely sure how I'm supposed to measure my case, so I'm just going to share some pictures and see what your guys' input is.

The GPU I'm getting is 8 x 1.7 x 5 inches

As always, any help is greatly appreciated


Edit: don't worry, I am going to clean the case before I eventually hook it all back up

 

[Gerald6049]

I'm being held up on the sizing matter. I'm not completely sure how I'm supposed to measure my case, so I'm just going to share some pictures and see what your guys' input is.

The GPU I'm getting is 8 x 1.7 x 5 inches

As always, any help is greatly appreciated


Edit: don't worry, I am going to clean the case before I eventually hook it all back up

I'm pretty sure they will fit, by considering the photos. For Dual Fan or single fan version, not really sure for triple fan.
I will recommend single fan version to give a more space in the case. and don't forget to upgrade the PSU.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

based on the measuring tape you could fit a 10" GPU in there with some wiggle room.
So if the GPU you're gonna get is 8" long then you're fine in terms of it fitting into the case.

Which returns us to the other issues at hand, such as the power supply

Looking at the cables coming off it, it has the cables you need to plug into the GPU.
However, as for the wattage I don't know. can't read it in the picture.
As for build quality, it's a basic unit that most every pre built company uses, so it's poor.

I wouldn't put a heavy load on it.
If it looks like you can unscrew it from it's mount in the case and actually remove, try to do that to confirm if you can.
If you can, then look for another power supply to go with your GPU.
as stated earlier, you should have about 500w.
You can get away with 450w honestly.
Just make sure it's decent quality and not gonna blow up, or catch fire.
Cuz otherwise it'll cost you more than the PSU by itself by way of taking other components out with it.

 

[Duklin__]

Thank you so much for the help guys 🙏

Looking at the cables coming off it, it has the cables you need to plug into the GPU.

Yeah I noticed it had 2 6-pin connectors coming off of it. However, I'm pretty sure my model said it needed an 8-pin connector - can I get away with just using the 6-pin(s)?

as stated earlier, you should have about 500w.
You can get away with 450w honestly.

My PSU can go up to 460w max - could this work? Supposedly, now I can't remember very clearly, but I think my computer said it's using about 200w on average right now, so maybe there's quite a bit more space left?

If this changes anything, I don't really ever play GPU/CPU intensive games per say (like Microsoft Flight Simulator or something of that sort), however I might in the future

Just make sure it's decent quality and not gonna blow up, or catch fire.
Cuz otherwise it'll cost you more than the PSU by itself by way of taking other components out with it.

How can I check if it's good quality? If it makes any difference, I have yet to come into any problems with crashing or power abruptly turning off. In fact, the only real issue with my PC is the lack of a good GPU.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

a tier list can help point you in the right direction to understanding what brands and models are made with higher standards or not.

No PSU has 8pin connectors.
It's always 6pin with an additional little 2pin attached to it for 6+2 equaling 8.
Unless it's an old cheap PSU like what you have that only has 6pin.

Here is a PSU tier list if you want to peruse it.
If you can afford anything in tier B that is 450w or more, then go for it.
Otherwise you will be looking at tier C.
Don't buy anything lower than tier C.

[EOL] PSU Tier List rev. 14.8

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (END OF LIFE) Last Update: 27-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue ...

linustechtips.com

Otherwise, you could just tell me your budget and I could just recommend one for you.
But it would be brand new, as I can't offer any recommendations for buying used market stuff.

Along with a budget, specify the currency and country.
as parts prices and availability vary around the world, it's not identical.

 

[Duklin__]

Otherwise, you could just tell me your budget and I could just recommend one for you.
But it would be brand new, as I can't offer any recommendations for buying used market stuff.

Along with a budget, specify the currency and country.
as parts prices and availability vary around the world, it's not identical.

Budget: <$150 US dollars
Country: USA

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

This PSU falls into Tier C so it's suitable and only $70
Limited stock left But I assume you will be buying soon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838YDBP3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fUdtFbJX8ZBGK

 

[Duklin__]

This PSU falls into Tier C so it's suitable and only $70
Limited stock left But I assume you will be buying soon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838YDBP3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fUdtFbJX8ZBGK

Cool, thanks for the recommendation!

If you don't mind me asking, what are the reasons for buying this PSU rather than other possibly higher quality and more expensive products? I probably should've addressed this earlier when I was denoting my budget, but I'd rather pay >$100 for a PSU if it meant I wouldn't have to worry about upgrading for a longer amount of time than something <$100

I really appreciate your help man 🙏

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Cool, thanks for the recommendation!

If you don't mind me asking, what are the reasons for buying this PSU rather than other possibly higher quality and more expensive products? I probably should've addressed this earlier when I was denoting my budget, but I'd rather pay >$100 for a PSU if it meant I wouldn't have to worry about upgrading for a longer amount of time than something <$100

I really appreciate your help man 🙏

It comes down to a few things when selecting a PSU.
The tier list is there to give you an idea of build quality.
Build quality will go hand in hand with the type of load you are putting on the PSU.

As stated by the Tier List, it's for more mid range hardware.
You aren't trying to run the an RTX 2080 Ti with it and overclock it as well, so you aren't putting too much strain on the PSU to deliver what is needed of it on the 12v rails and on it's capacitors.

Even if you upgraded to a higher end GPU down the line, that PSU is made well so it would be fine because I doubt you are going to spend over $1000 on a graphics card.

You could spend more money on a GPU for a few different reasons though.
More wattage for higher end components and overclocking said higher end components that would have you needing more juice.
Or you want more wattage for the sake of taking advantage of the efficiency rating.
pulling about 50% of what the PSU is capable of will result in you getting the most out of it's efficiency curve.

Efficiency rating is simply to let you know how efficient it is at actually converting and not wasting the electricity it pulls from the wall when you put about a 50% load on it. going over 60% load will result in the efficiency not mattering, and pulling less than 40% will be the same thing.
If you haven't cared prior to this point, then you won't care after this point about just how efficiently you are using electricity.
This only really has to do with your electric bill.

Getting things like RGB if you care about that.

Higher quality PSU's cost more as well, but it's mixed in with factors like 80+ ratings, wattage, whether or not it's non, semi, or fully modular, etc.
So basically you have units of a certain wattage, followed then by efficiency rating, followed then by modularity. Then there is the build quality and all these things combined differ the price.
Just cuz it says 750w, 80+ Gold, and fully modular, doesn't necessarily mean it has good build quality.
But also just cuz something is 80+ Bronze or even Silver/White and 400w and non modular, doesn't mean it has poor build quality.

But to summarize overall, unless you are going to spend some extra moolah to get a high end GPU and CPU combo, and also want to overclock, you don't need anything higher end because it would be overkill and not necessary for your hardware.

The PSU I provided is good enough on build quality, it has more than enough wattage, and fits nicely into your budget.

However, if you plan on taking the PSU and GPU you are getting, and eventually in the not so distant future putting them into a case of your own choosing, and getting your own choice of CPU, Mobo, and RAM and essentially going custom built, and you also want to have a glass or acrylic side panel and look inside, and also also want to do better cable management, then going with a more modular PSU would help with the aesthetics.


But in case you are interested, and will eventually get a new CPU, Mobo, RAM, and Case and do a custom build, here are some PSU's much higher on the quality list and plenty suitable for overclocking an RTX 2080 Ti if you wanted to get a more "premium" unit that has higher wattage, an 80+ gold rating, and fully modular.

For Seasonic:
Seasonic FOCUS 750w for $120 (limited stock yet again)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077J9G9CH

For Corsair:
Corsair RMx 750w for $135
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...ply-Units-Advanced/RMx-Series/p/CP-9020179-NA

Corsair RMx 850w for $145
Best Buy
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsai...ar-power-supply-black/6229601.p?skuId=6229601

Corsair Website
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...ply-Units-Advanced/RMx-Series/p/CP-9020180-NA