Optiplex 790 & KFA2 and Galaxy GTX 750 Ti Low Profile - Will it work

[TonyD123]

I have been looking for days at various threads recommending the HD7750 for a SFF optiplex 790 but the one by VTX on amazon has been discontinued.

So my question is: can/should I but the following low profile version of the GTX 750 by GALAXY/KFA2.

I have a 240Watt dell PSU with 17.0Amps on the +12volt rail and 0.8Amp on the -12v rail. I am aware the Mboard is restricted to about 25watt on this dell and given that the card requires no extra power connector can I assume it will draw all the power from the board? and, assuming that, can I assume that nothing will explode or (more likely) burn out?

As for the dimensions, it will be very, very tight and I think in fact the fan casing will be 1mm from the PSU - is this dangerous for the fan/PSU? should I remove the fan (of course voiding warranty) or just not buy the card.

Here is the link; I live in the UK.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-058-KF&tool=3

Finally, can I actually get away with buying this card or would I be wasting my money?

Damn near 21 years old and I'm like a child at christmas, although to be fair this card is a 9 on GameDebate and along with my 9 CPU should make for a nice gaming machine, the size of a large lunchbox.

Thoughts please, especially vis a vis whether the PSU will be enough and whether it will be enough if I unplug the DVD drive on the dell and/or underclock/volt the card.

Regards,
Tony.

 

[clutchc]

Btw, I'm about to upgrade my other machine with a new AMD gfx card. So if you want me to do any more comparison testing with the GTX 750 Ti, let me know quick.

 

[TonyD123]

Haha! Classic! Cut costs anywhere anyhow. Good to hear they sent some out to you though and Amazon UK are pretty good with refunds so I'm sure it's the same there.
But yeah I bought from a UK site with a UK storefront (admittedly some 200miles from where I live but still, better than across and ocean) so I don't think I can ask galaxy directly for any. Oh! that reminds me: did you register for the 2 year warranty? It should have at least one year manufacturers by default (though in all probability the laws are different there).

That is what I thought would happen, but would it happen immediately? or say after an hour of gaming? I was gaming at 1050 (maximum supported by my monitor) and at Witcher 2 auto detect (pretty damn high) settings. I didn't expect it to either, but there it is. I will confirm with the lid on soon; it may stress the fan more. Assuming it never dies (exc. capacitor aging) do you I can add system RAM? 5w per stick no? Actually, scratch that. 4gig is alright for gaming.

Should it have shut down immediately upon overload?

 

[clutchc]

I almost never do the warranty thing. Never keep cards that long. Constantly building, selling PCs or parts. (That, and I forget ;-p)

If your PC gets hot with the cover on, is there any way you can cut a hole in the case's cover over the card/PSU to let it breathe? I did that once with a mid tower case that had a solid top. The CPU was getting quite hot as the heat built up in the top of the case, so I used a 4 3/8" hole saw and put a round hole it the top of the case. Then I added a filtered grill cover for exhaust. I planned on adding a fan there but never needed one after cutting the vent hole. You would not have room for a fan, but the filtered grill cover would allow better air flow to the card.

If you are gaming at only 1680x1050, that GTX 750 should be an amazing improvement. I was amazed using it at 1920x1080. I tried Crysis 3 figuring it would be a wash-out, but it actually played it smoothly at somewhat less than mid settings. And Crysis 3 is a graphically intense game. Is your PC the one with the Athlon II X4?

I wouldn't want to guess how long before the PSU would run into a low voltage situation when the current starts climbing. It will depend on what settings you are using and which game, etc. But I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it played Witcher 2 with no issues.

I just picked up Hitman Absolution as a free game w/the new card I just bought (but haven't installed yet). My GTX 750 Ti and Phenom II X4 (3.74ghz) ran the benchmark at ultra with 58/35/28 max/avg/min FPS @ 1080p. Amazing what that card can do with no 6 pin connector!

I presume you only have 2 DIMM slots for memory. If so, 2x4GB won't use any more power than 2x2GB. But most of today's games are still 32 bit. So they can only address 4 GB memory anyway. But of course, Win7 uses some and so does the frame buffer. So 8GB would be about right for gaming.

 

[TonyD123]

Hehe, I suppose in that case you have a point. And yes if the case gets hot I won't have a choice but to cut a hole out. I guess I will have to monitor by hand and GPU/CPUz and make a final decision.
I may use the 1080p plasma, but I guess I'll just dial down the settings accordingly. I'll buy Crysis once I'm done with Witcher and Thief (probably Crysis 4 by then though :] )

And my PC has an i5-2400. It's a comparatively low powered card so perhaps that made the difference.
Also, I have 4 slots, so it would likely add another 10w (2gb each from crucial to match the current ones). We'll see.

If push comes to shove and I have to my a new power supply at least now I have all the information I need (I might try to squeeze the flex in).

Thanks for all the help mate; your guidance has been invaluable.

As always I will let you know how the PSU and temps fare in real conditions, but it should be marked as solved for all the silent Googlers out there anyway.

...I wish I could do that: buy cards, test them, trade them. As close as it gets to professional gaming outside of Asia - being in a closed environment with all those gamers in the same room must be a trip. This card is the best I've ever played on though (admittedly, not saying much xD ).

 

[clutchc]

Oh! I was way off with the Athlon II X4 guess...lol. I was thinking it was an older Optima. You must have one similar to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883155269

That GTX 750 Ti will be able to stretch its legs with the i5-2400. No bottle neck there. Enjoy.

 

[TonyD123]

Clutchc,
I hope you are well.

As promised here is the update:
Witcher 2 runs on high for several hours, no lag, no slowdown, not a problem - beautiful.

Thief, however, has some issues:
Firstly, there is a rather large base level that loads on the VRAM - not in itself a problem, but it absolutely is when I have only ~90mb left of the VRAM at any given point. I disabled the SSAA and reduced the effects and the problem is significantly less prominent.
Secondly, the card runs at around 64degreesC under load (in games) and 75+ (in furmark - I was wary of letting it get any hotter as the fan seemed to be locked at 50%). It runs 33c idle; the PC has not shut down yet.

My concern stems from the fact that during the game I see small flickering black squares over the textures of floors and/or walls. Is it that the card is getting too hot, is the lag due to some form of 'memory leak' and, finally, could the GPU be faulty?

Finally, and rather fortuitously, I spoke to a friend who has the GOTY edition of Crysis 3. I borrowed it from him and installed it, but I get the following error, always accompanied by the screen blacking out briefly and a message that Nvidia drivers failed momentarily but are now restored (updating/reinstalling the drivers, etc. didn't help; I am at somewhat of a loss):

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Crysis3.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.1
Application Timestamp: 02f4d040
Fault Module Name: Crysis3.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 02f4d040
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 01d61af2
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.4
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 528d
Additional Information 2: 528d466643aecbc7e055b4b2625bdce3
Additional Information 3: 7779
Additional Information 4: 7779dd32d9badb7fc2a796113b089758

It really is a fantastic card though!

 

[clutchc]

Hey, glad to hear from you that all is well with the card. Those temps are fine. Gfx cards run much hotter than CPUs. Nvidia has a 95C max temp for their GTX 750 Ti: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-750-ti/specifications

Can't really help you with the game crashing issues. Maybe give CCleaner a run and do the Clean and Registry portions both. It might be that you are consuming all your Win7 resources. Or the PC has several registry errors causing issues. https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Also check your tray for stuff running that you can disable. Could be software conflicts.

Crysis 3 is a Origin game. How did you get Origin to allow you to run a borrowed game? Bootleg? Unless you have it licensed to your Origin account, I would expect it not to run at all.

 

[TonyD123]

95c sounds seriously hot but in my experience games never really push it above 65c. I will now sign up for that warranty, just in case.

Well you're right, initially it wouldn't start at all, but I looked online for a 'fix' which when I found it, as you say, seemed to be teetering on the edge of piracy. Returning video games, however, is a hassle so I wanted to test it out first to iron out exactly these kind of errors. Presumably you are dubious that, had I got it working, I would have still bought the game; it's 9.99GBP on amazon - very few people in this day and age can't afford a that.

The flickering black artifacts on the floor concern me a bit, perhaps the game itself is buggy? I had the same issues WAY back with battlefield 2 and an intel hd 3000 laptop.

 

[clutchc]

If the game isn't a legal copy or is a copy from someone else's PC, there could be scads of reasons it is giving you problems. If you like the game, download it direct from Origin. The game has gone through several updates to fix bugs. Origin automatically keeps the game updated so you never have to worry about having a buggy version.

Crysis 3 is one of the best looking games I've seen. Even on low-mid settings it looks great.

 

[TonyD123]

Hehehe, waddaya know?
I bought it from Origin directly, updated, and presto!
Also, at 1050 I can get away with textures on high if I turn shadows down to low.

Good call.

 

[clutchc]

Outstanding! That was one of my favorite games to play single player. And you are getting your money's worth out of the GTX 750 Ti. Crysis 3 is just about the most graphically demanding game to play a max settings there is. I can't do max with the rig in my sig. But the best thing about Crysis 3 is how great it looks at lower settings.

Did you ever get your L-P brackets so you could close up your computer case? I'm wondering what the tmps will be like with it closed up.

 

[TonyD123]

This really was a worthwhile investment. That much was clear from witcher (incredible atmosphere when detail is set to highest) but Crysis really brings out the beast!
I experience spikes of lag when AA is on so, for my own peace of mind if nothing else, I've turned it off. Not only will it help prevent overheating but I really can't tell the difference, especially since it is rendering at 1050 natively.

I did indeed get the brackets; there's no way I would be able to play with the card sticking out of the top! I removed the VGA port altogether from the card since it is superfluous for my setup. I kept the stock mesh type slot cover: if nothing else it aids air flow.

Also, so far no shutdowns. The temps I gave above are with the case lid on. In games it almost never touches 70c, but in Furmark it went to 75/76 before I aborted the test. The fan never seems to go above 50% which makes me wonder if it is locked to that setting and, perhaps, whether I might need to unlock it (Afterburner?) but other than that I'm so glad Amazon ran out of stock of the HD 7750, haha!

Edit: I just checked your rig, surely a 290X is more than capable of running textures at max (it's understandable that it might not fully max the game - I don't dare even try with my (comparatively) pitiful 750)

 

[clutchc]

I can do textures OK, but to just arbitrarily set all in-game settings to max, produces a lot of stutter. If you'd like to experiment with getting the best display possible with Crysis3, check out the Master when it comes to game tweaking, Koroush Ghazi: http://www.tweakguides.com/Crysis3_1.html
He used to do a continual game tweak blog, but has since moved on to other endeavors. He did game tweaks for Nvidia's site for awhile.

It doesn't sound like you have any issues with heat, either the card or the processor. You may be able to hole saw a 4 3/8" hole in the cover over the card and put a 120mm fan grill in that location if heat becomes an issue. I did that once with a solid top case that was getting too warm. Thermal dynamics exhausted the warm air out the top w/o a fan.

I have to say, I'm pleasantly shocked that the Dell stock PSU is handling everything so well.

 

[TonyD123]

At 1050 I've had no issues so far (barring the odd anomalous lag spike) but I have bookmarked that site for reference when I hook up my 1080 res plasma to the card.

As for drilling into the case, if it becomes necessary I will probably look to adding another fan with a grill on top rather than just a grill. I would mount the grill on hinges and then the pc is on I can open the grill like a window. When it is off, or doing light computational tasks, I can leave it closed - to attach I was thinking either velcro, or a weak magnet (not too sure if the magnet would have any adverse effects, seems unlikely as it would be a very weak fridge magnet type thing).

I am somewhat worried about whether the PSU would be able to supply the amps for the extra fan (it would naturally consume much more at startup) and the connector to the board is, surprise surprise, a proprietary 5-pin-4-wine connector. Assuming the normal Dell crap then there will likely be no rhyme or reason to the colour coding of the wires either; it would be unsurprising to find a pink 12v power wire.

If it comes down to it, I will just sever the 5pin connector from the existing fan and just splice the wires into a splitter, and give the existing Dell fan an ordinary connector. Oh boy.

For now though, I'm good. It hasn't shut down so far, and long may it continue.

 

[clutchc]

You're going to see a drop in fps/performance once you move to a 1080p display. 1,764,000 pixels/texels vs 2,073,600 pixels/texels to render per frame. You'll have to lower some settings. But it will still be an improvement over what you were used to.

Adding a 2nd fan should be like the straw that broke the camel's back. Most fans are .25A (3W). But if it does cause some shut down issues, you'll know just how close you were.