How can I upgrade my Dell Optiplex graphics card

[Fourthnation]

Hello everyone. I would need a bit of help on how to upgrade my pc. As title says, my pc is Dell Optiplex 755 Mini Tower ( yes I knw its kinda old and low specs pc). It has only 2gbs of RAM, Intel x3100 GMA and 1.8GHz processor. I was wondering is there any way I could upgrade my graphics cars without having to change PSU or processor. I have read some stuff and found out many graphics card wouldnt fit into this dell model so I would appreciate if someone could spend few minutes on answering and suggesting possible solutions.
I would be willing to spend up to 90$ for a new graphics card (if it doesnt require other upgrades such as PSU or CPU)

Cheers

 

[voltoid27]

If you don't want to upgrade your PSU or CPU, you have limited options. You will need a card that can run exclusively off of power drawn from the PCI Express slot, since your power supply has no cables to support additional power to a discrete GPU. Further, using a maximum of 75W that the slot can provide, you will ensure that you don't overload your power supply (you have about 85W of power to work with on the PSU, so the 75W limitation won't bump into that). With a $90 budget, you're looking at either an Nvidia Geforce GT 740 or an AMD Radeon R7 250. I'd recommend against the Nvidia card since it's built on an older architecture with little life left in it, whereas the AMD card is still being supported well through driver updates. I have some used & tested R7 250's I'd be willing to part with, you can PM me if interested.

 

[william p]

Best GPU without PSU swap is GTX750Ti. Single slot card under 6 3/4" will work even if it's wide. 2 slot card can fit if you remove bracket and cut it in 1/2. Then trim plastic cover so air goes out the side towards the rear vent. Long skinny single slot card will work if you can find one. Avoid any card that requires 6 pin connector. You will need more RAM (5-6GB) if you install a modern GPU, they use some of it as a cache.
BTW it also supports 8GB DDR2 1066 memory, and Q9400, Q9550, Q9650 CPUs. It's much newer than the Dimension E520 in my sig. It could be a 1/2 decent computer.

 

[william p]

Be sure you have latest BIOS from Dell, and find out if it's EUFI or AHCI "Legacy" BIOS. Your GPU BIOS must match.