I sold my aging gaming rig. I put a Radeon 7790 in that in 2013 but I ended up not gaming enough that it actually sat in storage all last year and I just used a laptop.. Now I have this Optiplex 755 MT that was a computer that I had leftover from the last time I bought a batch to 'flip'.. I have an Xbox 360 which covers all my gaming wants EXCEPT, Garys Mod and games that I bought for PC that also have console versions, like Singularity and Bioshock.. The onboard graphics just won't cut it, but I don't want to spend a lot either because, it's near 10 years old albit fast enough and I could still get more ram and a better processor. Will the 305W power supply run a Radeon HD3850? I know that card is as old as the box itself but, I know it was among the best back then. I can get a 256mb version brand new pretty cheap. Needing the 6 pin PCI-E power has got me wondering because I know I can get a SATA power adapter but thinking it might be pushing it.. Is it power hungry enough to be antiquated? I know more modern cards of the same power don't need the extra connector. If I gotta upgrade the power supply, then the $20 card will actually cost a lot more than $20 I want 30+ frames on everything at med settings, and I want to spend no more than $50 with shipping. The most taxing game I have is probably Singularity. I don't expect to play recent games. My specs are as follows C2D E6750 4GB Ram ( fastest supported ) Win 7 64 bit 2 3.5" SATA hard disks, 1 2.5" SATA hard disk and 1 DVD-RW
The most powerful card you can fit into a SFF Dell is probably going to be a GT 740* (Newegg has some for less than $150). They say they require a 400W PSU, but those are just estimates the manufacturer makes and are typically bloated. That tiny PSU is actually enough to power the card fine for most day to day things. Whether it will hold up in games... well there's only one way to know. If you can find a better PSU that will fit in the case, then you should be in good shape. *Note: According to nVidia, the GDDR5 version of the GT 740 requires a 6-pin power connector where as the DDR3 version does not. A few years ago I installed a 560 Ti (recommended 500W) in a machine with a 430W PSU. I stressed it as much as possible to be sure and it worked perfectly fine. With a limit of 300W tho, a GT 730 is as high as you can go. I wouldn't recommend going AMD for the video card as they typically have higher power requirements. EDIT: Oops, you said MT... Okay so you only have two limitations; 1) those cases are BTX and there is no room for a double-wide card, and 2) power. You could get a GTX 950 (350W) to work if you cut the plate in half or modded the case... Or the ASUS GTX650-E-2GD5 (400W)... or the GT 740 (400W).
But what about going with an older card? I'm pretty sure that it's PCIE x16 rev. 1.0 so getting a 3.0 card would be unnecessary, as well as high cost.. Theoretically, a GT640 should run like the GT740?, but also 9600 and 9800 GT's are not expensive on Ebay and according to some online benchmarks, they can be faster than the GT 640.. I've found 640's for $55ish which is around what I was thinking top dollar would be for this box.. It cost me like $50 3 years ago, and now it's close to 10 years old My old gaming rig was an AMD Athlon X3 445 Rana that was OC to 3.5ghz stable and cool. I had 8gb of Corsair Vengence and a Radeon 7790 2gb when I sold it.. The card in it that I used to run was a Geforce GTS 250 which as I understand was a re release of the 9800+ under the ( at the time ) new 3 digit numbering system... If I can get close to the performance of the GTS 250 in that system I would be happy. I've just never had to worry about power or case fitting. I knew I had to have a single slot card because of the BTX case.. The Gaming rig ran an XFX Pro series 650W power supply, and it had enough amps on the 12v rail for just about anything.. The Optiplex 755 is the first Dell Desktop I've ever owned as my personal desktop, so it's limitations are taking some getting used to
I was recently looking for a low profile, low wattage, low cost video card for my Dell Optiplex 790 DT (small desktop, Intel i7 2600, 16gb ram, 3Tb WD hard disk, uses low profile video cards). It has a 235-watt power supply. Dell recommends a 35 watt or less video card. This was not for gaming, just for general web surfing and home office use. Here is a list I put together during my search of possible video cards to get. I ended up getting the AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphic Card (used from an Amazon reseller for $15). This video card works well with most Linux distros I have tried it with (about 10 Ubuntu based distros, drivers automatically installed) and Windows 7 and Windows 10. Once again, this was not for gaming, just for general web surfing and home office use. Dell Optiplex 790 DT (low profile) - possible low profile Video Cards ========================== Low Profile Video cards - sorted by PassMark Benchmark rating (high to low) Model - PassMark benchmark - Wattage used by card - Typical used price GeForce GT 720; benchmark 758 - 19 W -- $35.00 AMD Radeon R5 230 1GB DDR3; benchmark 424 - 19 W -- $35.00 GeForce GT 610 1024MB GDDR3; benchmark 357 - 29 W -- $35.00 Asus ATI Radeon HD6450 Silence 1 GB DDR3; benchmark 287 - 18 W -- $25.00 AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphic Card; benchmark 231 - 19.1 W -- $25.00 Sapphire AMD FirePro 2270 1GB DDR3; benchmark 230 - 17 W -- $25.00 Radeon HD 6350 512MB ; benchmark 212 - 19.1 W -- $10.00 GeForce 210 Silent 1GB DDR3; benchmark 184 - 30.5 W -- $25.00 ASUS Radeon EAH4350 512MB DDR2; benchmark 177 - 20 W -- $20.00 ATI Radeon HD3470 256MB; benchmark 149 - 30 W -- $10.00 ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro 256MB; benchmark 126 - 14.8 W -- $15.00 ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2 ; benchmark 124 - 25 W -- $10.00 GeForce 8400 GS 1 GB DDR3; benchmark 115 - 40 W -- $25.00
The GT 640 and the GT 740 both have the same GK107 (Kepler) GPU, which means the 740 is just a refresh but is slightly improved. The biggest difference is that the driver for the 740 will support DX 12.0 (which will only matter if you're running Windows 10 and a DX12 game).
isn't there a way to force a bios flash for the newer card to the older card? I mean, I don't run Win 10 so it doesn't matter, but I seem to remember a way to make that work on some of the older cards when it was just revision changes
Mine lists 75W TDP, on the mobo, but I think if it's a card with a 6 pin connector, it won't matter, at least as long as the PSU can handle it.. The GT720 is intreguing tho, being 19W with such a high benchmark compared to the rest
Ah the good ol' days... I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure you can't BIOS flash graphics cards anymore unless AMD/nVidia let you. They're so locked down to prevent people from doing just that. You can get enthusiast cards designed for overclocking that have Dual BIOS and features like that just for modded BIOSes, but you will have to pay a premium for them.
Yeah, I remember reading about it. I never actually did it.. Either card will rock this little box if I can get it enough power. I have a spare 500W power supply somewhere if I can find it. It's a no name that I pulled from a case, but has what I need I think.. Have an Ultra 400W LS series somewhere too, but that one is very old, probably bought around 2005. I'll have to look. I have a couple old cases with parts dummied in them for safe storage but I don't know what's what I have a Geforce 8400 GS If I can find the motherboard box that it's in.. Those are my other hiding spots for good used parts, but nothings organized after a couple moves anymore
I found my old Geforce card.. It's an 8500, not an 8400 like I thought.. Found it in the old box for my Geforce GTS 250, along with a 56k win modem that I pulled when I pulled the 8500.. It's no GT 640/740 or even a 9800 GT but, it's something for now. I know it will run Garys Mod
Ok so this 8500 runs Garys mod 'ok'. It is far from perfect, I run between 22-37 frames on med settings and is very playable but I'm used to running 60 frames on high with no fluctuation.. Anyone think over clocking the 8500 GTS will do any good? I know it is the same as the 8400 GTS with minor clock differences.. I'm thinking it's not really. It's an EVGA card if that matters
It is set to 1024x720.. I gained some FPS with a driver update. The driver was in the Win 7 installation already and auto detected, but was an old driver. I updated to the latest and gained about 10 FPS. It does not drop below 30 frames now