What BIOS for Dell XPS 8300 to support GTX 1050Ti?

[bjmintaka]

I am finally upgrading my Dell XPS 8300 (i-7 2600, 3.4 GHz, 16GB RAM, Win 7 Home 64-bit) video card from the factory AMD HD 6700 to an EVGA GTX 1050Ti. The current BIOS is A04 from 2011. Do I need to upgrade to BIOS A06? If so, do I need to upgrade to A05 first, and then again to A06?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Barty1884]

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/XPS-8300-MSI-GeForce-GTX-1060-6GB-works/td-p/5089302

Seems to be fine, yes.

Whether you need to update the BIOS or not, I'm not 100% sure.

I would try with A04 and, if that doesn't work, you should be able to jump straight to A06 (unless the BIOS spec specifically mentioned upgrading to A05 first!).

 

[das_stig]

i would go with the latest, 8 years is a long time and probably what Dell offer will be the last one they support.

 

[bjmintaka]

I am hesitant to upgrade BIOS unless I have to. I have read of black screen issues, factory graphics card not working after upgrade, etc. I am not that conversant with computer mods, so want to keep it simple if I can.

I am not even sure how to install the drivers for the new card. I tried to pre-install them, but since the card is not there yet, they couldn't install. But don't I need the drivers for the card to work? How can I see a display to install them after the card if the display doesn't work?? Seems like a chicken and egg situation...

I assume the card defaults to some common config, like 640x480, to allow proper install?

 

[bjmintaka]

OK...I installed the graphics card received today. It seems to work OK with BIOS A04, so as of now, I am not upgrading to A06 (it it ain't broke, don't fix it...).

The driver install worked fine (I used the DDU utility to delete the AMD driver and associated files/reg links prior to installing the new graphics card)...except that Windows wants to "upgrade" the video driver (to an older March driver rather than the one I downloaded from NVIDIA dated 12/2018), and also audio drivers. If I allow Windows to go ahead with the update, will it recgonize that the driver is a previous version and just not install it...or will it overwrite the current (newer) driver?