Will an AMD 6850 work in a Dell XPS 8100?

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amcs

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Hi,

there are lots of topics about what a Dell Studio XPS 8100 can or cannot handle as to graphic cards. People seem to agree that the Dell's 350w PSU can handle easily an ATI Radeon 5770.

As a recent buyer of a XPS 8100, and being undecided between a 5770 or a 6850, what would the forum members recommend me? Would the PSU also handle a newer 6850?


Thanks in advance,
Adriano.
 
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If the 6850 is ~125W then your fine. 125+100+ 25-50 = 250-275W. You're not to exceed 300W so your ok. I also agree I wouldn't want to be that close to the limit, but you can always upgrade it later if you're worried about it.
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You could run the 6850 on a 350W PSU, but it is definetely not recommended. I would suggest a HD 5670 to be safe, but yes, you should be fine with a 5770 as long as you don't overclock.
 
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Assuming you have the 350W PSU that has 29A on the 12V rail, you can run up to 348W total. Take away 150ish for your CPU and other stuff, this leaves around 200W for your GPU. Any of the 150W-175W TDP cards would be fine. Not sure if this includes the 6850, but I think it does. You might not have enough 6 pin connectors however.
 
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Without having the exact specs of the PSU, it's difficult to give accurate advise, especially because we don't want to tell you that you can, when you probably really shouldn't.

I did find an article here;

http://compreviews.about.com/od/maindesk/gr/Dell-Studio-XPS-8100.htm

which states, "Graphics are probably one of the weakest aspects of the Studio XPS 8100 system. The main reason for this is the relatively small 350 watt power supply that lacks much of the performance needed for the high end 3D graphics cards. The default NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240 graphics card provides a mediocre experience with support up to 1650x1080 resolutions. Those wanting higher graphics will either have to upgrade to a GTX 260 for 1920x1200 support or a Radeon HD 5770 for Direct X 11."



According to AMD's website however,

5770:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5770/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5770-overview.aspx#3

"450 Watt or greater power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended"


6850:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6850/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6850-overview.aspx#2

"500 Watt or greater power supply recommended"



Now, obviously, people have put 5770's in the XPS 8100, which does not meet AMD/ATI's minimum requirements for the 5770, and it seems to work fine, but it's pretty clear that the 6850 does take a bit more power, which would take that poor Dell PSU one step closer to the edge.

It's all your choice, and I stand by the "without knowing the PSU's exact specs" but, personally I wouldn't go against the hardware manufacturers specified requirements.
 
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I remember having read at some place (maybe in this forum) that a guy tried and succeeded (at least for awhile) using a 6850. But having asked him if that was still okay, he didn't answer me.

Anyway, the 5770 TDP (which Dell says is ok for the XPS 8100) is only something like 20w less than the newer 6850...

Having opened my machine, I got the following specs:

LiteON PSU

Input
100-127V ~/10A
200-240V ~/5A
50-60 Hz

Output

+5V / 18A MAX
+5Vaux / 2A MAX
+12VA / 12A MAX
+12VB / 18A MAX
+3.3V / 17A MAX
-12V / 0.8A MAX

And the following note: Maximum continuous total DC output power will not exceed 350w. The maximum continuous combined output power (5v & 3.3V excluding the 5v Auxiliary output) is 160W. The maximum continuous combined output power (12VA & 12VB) is 300W.
 
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didn't I say it was a LiteOn....😉 and mentioned the HD5770, imagine that..
did you look at my signature.. (DCSE) 😗
even though it's only a test, classes weren't anything special except of all of the Dell secrets to learn..
Click to expand...

Congrats on being a DCSE, but I wasn't exactly giving the LiteON PSU specs for you, but to the other members of the forum that complained about not having the specs to make a suggestion.

And the case still is: could that PSU handle the extra 20w from the AMD 6850 TDP (compared to the 5770)?

Another user, ct1615, replied me in private that that wouldn't be a problem, since that PSU could handle an AMD Radeon 6850. But I'm still not quite confident.

Anyone agrees or disagrees?
 
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I honestly don't like the idea of being that close to my limits...
my opinion.
upgrade to the power supply in the XPS 9100 it's 525-watts and a perfect fit...
Click to expand...


In Brazil Dell only sells the XPS 8100 (which is actually imported from Mexico... go figure).

So that wouldn't probably be an option. Of course I could upgrade to another 3rd part PSU (there are lots of good ones sold in Brazil), but the computer is so new, and I still have 1 year of warranty left, that I'm really thinking in trying to test my PSU limits --- after all, if anything goes wrong, I can just say that my PC is not booting... 😛

And now you say that that would be unethical, but I bought this machine precisely because of its 6-pin power plug, and the AMD 6850 needs only one of those... I don't know... would I be really that evil stressing my PSU that much and not caring if it stops working, given the fact that it can be easily replaced by Dell's support?

That said, would I put in risk any other components besides my PSU? Or... could I hurt the Mobo, the HDs, the processor, and all that? Or just the PSU would stop working if I stressed it to its limits?
 
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go for it...
Click to expand...


Ok, thanks for your answer, but I'd really appreciate if you could answer this last question (as previously stated):

That said, would I put in risk any other components besides my PSU? Or... could I hurt the Mobo, the HDs, the processor, and all that? Or just the PSU would stop working if I stressed it to its limits?
 
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That's true. The guy says:

I added a 120GB SSD for boot partion & GTX480 and the machine is now extremely quiet and fast. The power supply is a bit short on power plugs. But a $7 adapter did the trick. The 350W rated power supply was more than enough to handle the GTX480.

I just can't think which $7 adapter was that... even though there are 4 or 5 Sata power connectors coming from the PSU.

There isn't an adapter from Sata to 6-pin GPU, is there?

Anyway, I wouldn't dream attempting what he has done... NVidia GPUs consume way more than ATI/AMD ones... and imagine how much must be the TDP of a GTX 480...

I'd be glad running a simple AMD 6850 (~127w TDP), and my system being stable.
 
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