My garage PC, the little Dell that could. Need GPU advice

[Hans Gruber]

I have a Dell Optiplex 790 with i5 2400. Newly ackquired.
It now has 8GB of ram
I use an old ViewSonic 19" 1280x1024 LCD
SSD and 1TB spinner drive
Win 7 Pro 64bit also should I stick with Win7 or upgrade to Win10?

I have an old 8800GT. Is that enough or not enough considering it takes a fair bit of power.
I am looking for a list of cheap graphics cards that I could find on ebay that will exceed the 8800GT performance.

My last upgrade will be to the PSU. Probably a 450w but could go as high as 550w.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I have a Dell Optiplex 790 with i5 2400. Newly ackquired.
It now has 8GB of ram
I use an old ViewSonic 19" 1280x1024 LCD
SSD and 1TB spinner drive
Win 7 Pro 64bit also should I stick with Win7 or upgrade to Win10?

I have an old 8800GT. Is that enough or not enough considering it takes a fair bit of power.
I am looking for a list of cheap graphics cards that I could find on ebay that will exceed the 8800GT performance.

My last upgrade will be to the PSU. Probably a 450w but could go as high as 550w.

Hans, I like the GTX 760 but the prices have come up recently higher than fair market value. That may be a little more card than you are looking for.

 

[XavierMace]

Having conversations with yourself could be a sign of mental illness.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I was merely breaking the silence on this thread.

 

[happy medium]

Gtx750 requires no power connector and you can grab one cheap on eBay.

If you want to game a little and sip power a gtx1050 or gtx950 could max settings at your resolution and is the best choice for your system.

Windows 10 is the way to go.

 

[AdamK47]

How was this PC ackquired?

 

[Hans Gruber]

How was this PC ackquired?

Through a business transaction where currency changed hands in the trade of goods.

 

[AdamK47]

Through a business transaction where currency changed hands in the trade of goods.

A typical ackuisition.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I often buy little nick nacks from China to feel important receiving mail several times per week. I call them care packages sent by myself to myself.

 

[NTMBK]

I often buy little nick nacks from China to feel important receiving mail several times per week. I call them care packages sent by myself to myself.

Do you hum Ode to Joy while you open them?

 

[Shmee]

GTX 950 or GTX 960 would be a good place to start with Geforce cards, for AMD I would consider Tahiti cards, (7950/7970, 280(x)) and possibly 7870.

 

[Spjut]

There's a risk that a modern graphics card won't work in that motherboard. Many older OEM motherboards have had compatibility issues with graphics cards using UEFI. (nvm, Dell's page finally loaded up and there are multiple BIOS updates, one which explicitly says has a fix for PCI-E cards, so it should be fine if you update BIOS)

I see no reason not to get Win10 if you can upgrade. Even on my old Core 2 Quad, 7GB RAM and 8800GT/GT610, Windows 10 felt more snappy, and Windows 7 only has two years of support left.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I updated the bios (A21) when I got the machine. I am using the HD 2000 integrated intel graphics right now. The machine came with 4GB of 1333mhz ram. It doesn't have a bios setting for the integrated graphics to bump it up to 1024MB. I am researching a way to increase onboard memory usage for integrated graphics without the bios settings.

I have 8gb of ram now. A Gskill Trident 2GB X 2 2000mhz and a HyperX 2GB X 2 1600mhz kit. Max memory speed on this dell is 1333mhz.

I have to get a new power supply 450w and maybe a bit more to use my 8800GT. I think the fan on it is shot but that isn't a problem. I may just ues this PC as a garage file server type setup with integrated graphics for awhile.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

If you don't game on it, a GT710/Radeon 240, or GT1030* if you want something a little more modern for (VP9) video acceleration, will be fine and sip power compared to that 8800GT.

I wouldn't use anything older then Kepler for 10. Perhaps Fermi in a pinch, but NV has just moved it to legacy status. If you want something from AMD, you'll want to avoid anything Terrascale.

*maybe one of those new GT1030's with DDR4 memory for even lower power...

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you were in the Seattle area I could give you a free GTX 560 with a bad fan, or a problem-free Radeon 6850 for $20. I also have a GTX 680 gathering dust. The cost to ship a card these days is just too high, even before eBay fees.