HELP ME! Upgrading graphics card on Alienware X51 R2

[x_Furious_x]

I've had my Alienware for a little over 2 years and think it's time to upgrade my graphics card. I am looking to get a GeForce GTX 960, 2GB upgrading from a Radeon R9 270, 2GB. It is $193.99 at BestBuy right now and has awesome reviews. Will it work with what I have though? Any feedback and advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Here is what I have now:

4th Gen i5-4440 (6MB Cache, 3.1 GHz)
8GB RAM DDR3
Alienware 330W, PSU

 

[RTW970]

Hm, I used to have an Alienware and I have to say, it's low power supply does restrict its upgradability, especially with GPUs. I'm not an expert in the area of power wattage for every GPU but you might not get to use the graphics card to its full potential. The only upgrade I ever considered for my reference GeForce GTX 645 was an EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti FTW (the best 750Ti) because it used little power. If you have an R9 270, I wouldn't bother upgrading, for the price, the GTX 960 is really not much of an upgrade. I'd say if the R9 270 is working fine now, then keep it. It's still a very good card for its price and definitely beats a 750Ti. By the way, out of interest, is the Radeon R9 270 that you have a reference model?

 

[maxalge]

I've had my Alienware for a little over 2 years and think it's time to upgrade my graphics card. I am looking to get a GeForce GTX 960, 2GB upgrading from a Radeon R9 270, 2GB. It is $193.99 at BestBuy right now and has awesome reviews. Will it work with what I have though? Any feedback and advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Here is what I have now:

4th Gen i5-4440 (6MB Cache, 3.1 GHz)
8GB RAM DDR3
Alienware 330W, PSU

yeah a gtx 960 is good, you need to make sure it has the reference cooler design though or you will see too high temps in your little case


like this:

 

[x_Furious_x]

I've had my Alienware for a little over 2 years and think it's time to upgrade my graphics card. I am looking to get a GeForce GTX 960, 2GB upgrading from a Radeon R9 270, 2GB. It is $193.99 at BestBuy right now and has awesome reviews. Will it work with what I have though? Any feedback and advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Here is what I have now:

4th Gen i5-4440 (6MB Cache, 3.1 GHz)
8GB RAM DDR3
Alienware 330W, PSU

yeah a gtx 960 is good, you need to make sure it has the reference cooler design though or you will see too high temps in your little case


like this:

Is this one okay?

 

[x_Furious_x]

Hm, I used to have an Alienware and I have to say, it's low power supply does restrict its upgradability, especially with GPUs. I'm not an expert in the area of power wattage for every GPU but you might not get to use the graphics card to its full potential. The only upgrade I ever considered for my reference GeForce GTX 645 was an EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti FTW (the best 750Ti) because it used little power. If you have an R9 270, I wouldn't bother upgrading, for the price, the GTX 960 is really not much of an upgrade. I'd say if the R9 270 is working fine now, then keep it. It's still a very good card for its price and definitely beats a 750Ti. By the way, out of interest, is the Radeon R9 270 that you have a reference model?

Yeah I did realize it was not that much of an upgrade, but I really only need it to run CSGO on high settings. Right now with the R9 270, I have to run it on low settings and only get 60fps. I have read that the GTX 960 should do the trick. As for reference model, is this what you're talking about? R9270-DC2OC-2GD5. Hope that helps.

 

[maxalge]

I've had my Alienware for a little over 2 years and think it's time to upgrade my graphics card. I am looking to get a GeForce GTX 960, 2GB upgrading from a Radeon R9 270, 2GB. It is $193.99 at BestBuy right now and has awesome reviews. Will it work with what I have though? Any feedback and advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Here is what I have now:

4th Gen i5-4440 (6MB Cache, 3.1 GHz)
8GB RAM DDR3
Alienware 330W, PSU

yeah a gtx 960 is good, you need to make sure it has the reference cooler design though or you will see too high temps in your little case


like this:

Is this one okay?

no, it will dump all of its hot air into the case


It MUST be the reference design

 

[RTW970]

Ah, it is an ASUS model? Anyway, I think the problem for CSGO is not the GPU. It's probably because the power supply is restricting the card itself. AMD cards do need quite a bit of power. I have heard of people getting cards as high as the 970 to work inside an Alienware but it's still very restricted and you won't get the full performance you want. I wanted an MSI GTX 970 really bad and I just sold my Alienware in the end and together with my savings (and gifts from other people lol) I built a PC that was a power house compared to the Alienware. I personally think Alienware is not quite worth it because of its restricted upgradability. Now I'm not suggesting you do the same as I did and sell your Alienware and build a PC (because let's face it, not everyone has the time and resources to build a computer straight away) but it is always an option. If you were to go down that path, I would suggest buying a lesser GPU that's still decent like a GTX 750Ti and selling the Alienware with that and keep the R9 270 for the build because it's a handy GPU to have for a first time build. Anyway I'm going completely off topic here. Now NVIDIA cards atm are more power efficient than AMD cards so maybe if you were to get a GTX 950, you would get the full use of the card. The GTX 960, I'm not so sure. I'd say someone on this forum will tell you or else you can do some research yourself and find the answer. But I'd say you would get full performance out of a GTX 950 because it consumes less power. But whatever you do just remember to sell your current GPU for a good price because you could get either a GTX 950 or a GTX 960 for almost the exact same price and maybe even cheaper than an R9 270 so you would be making a good deal with a new fully performing GPU without losing any money.

 

[x_Furious_x]

Alright so here I am just messing around with my computer. Just to remind you all this is an Alienware X51 R2. I've had it for 2 years....now. When I first got it I just plugged my HDMI into the port I saw..was pretty excited so I rushed through it. Today, I have found this little plastic piece right behind the GPU, what is it you might ask? It's a cover for the HDMI port direct to the GPU......................I am an IDIOT. Plugged it up and graphics are awesome. Anyways...no gpu upgrade which I get to save $200.

Thanks for all the answers but I think I'll stick to this gpu for now.

 

[RTW970]

Haha I knew something was up, the R9 270 just shouldn't run CSGO on low so the PSU was the only thing I could think of. Anyway glad you found your own solution.

 

[ZeusGamer]

According to Nvidia, GTX 960 requires a PSU that has 400W power supply. You're going to need to upgrade your PSU to a better one before you can think of upgrading the GPU.