Upgrade video card

[tontod]

I recently bought an Optiplex 960 with the ATI Radeon 3450 HD. I would like to upgrade to an Nvidia vid card to take advantage of CUDA. I'm not sure if the GTX cards would be compatible? Should I just go with the Geforce series?

 

[Dahak]

from what I was able to look up on dells site, there are 2 issue if you want to upgrade the card
1) the power supply, it does not look like it has an additional connector for the video cards
2) physically fitting, the gtx cards might be too long, you would have to measure from the back to the front to see if it would physically fit

 

[Denithor]

This is a standard size case, correct?

What is the power rating for your PSU?

Best bet is probably a GTS 250 1GB (not the 512MB model) - those are lower power & physically shorter cards than most of the other CUDA enabled lineup.

 

[tontod]

Originally posted by: Denithor
This is a standard size case, correct?

What is the power rating for your PSU?

Best bet is probably a GTS 250 1GB (not the 512MB model) - those are lower power & physically shorter cards than most of the other CUDA enabled lineup.

Its a standard size case, yes. The MB has a single PCI-Xpress slot (not 2.0), will that be an issue? The PS is rated at 305 W - I think that might not be adequate?

 

[tontod]

How big a power supply would the GTS 250 need? Will 500W be adequate?

 

[M0RPH]

Are you gaming or do you just need cuda? Because there are lower end nVidia cards that will give you cuda without requiring you to replace your psu.

Here's a list of cuda-enabled cards here.

 

[tontod]

I dont do much gaming these days, would be mainly for CUDA. But my question is would all of those be compatible or fit the 960.

 

[M0RPH]

Well I'm guessing you have the mini tower, here's a pic of the inside. I don't know how long the GTX cards are and whether they would fit physically, maybe someone can look at that pic and tell you.

If you can get by with a lower end card like the 9500GT, I know that would fit since it's not a long card... and it would drop right in with your current power supply since doesn't require high wattage or a 6-pin power connector.

 

[tontod]

Yes, thats what it looks like. Thanks for the info, might just do that - get the 9500GT.

 

[tontod]

The only thing with the 9500GT is that it says a 350W PS is recommended, would I be ok with a 305W PS?

 

[Denithor]

What are you using CUDA for?

Although the 9500GT [/i]supports[/i] CUDA it's not really a strong enough card to actually do much with it. IE - if you want to use Badaboom for video encoding you are going to need a much stronger GPU than the 9500GT.

The Dell PSUs are pretty underrated - they crank a lot of juice even if the sticker on the side doesn't claim it.

The GTS 250 is shorter than the other G92 and GT200 series cards and also draws considerably less power than the other models (and this is on an i7 965 system with all the bells & whistles - your Optiplex should be far lower).

I'd say you'd be just fine with a GTS 250 - just make sure you get the 1GB model so you get the shorter/lower power version.

 

[tontod]

Originally posted by: Denithor
What are you using CUDA for?

Although the 9500GT [/i]supports[/i] CUDA it's not really a strong enough card to actually do much with it. IE - if you want to use Badaboom for video encoding you are going to need a much stronger GPU than the 9500GT.

The Dell PSUs are pretty underrated - they crank a lot of juice even if the sticker on the side doesn't claim it.

The GTS 250 is shorter than the other G92 and GT200 series cards and also draws considerably less power than the other models (and this is on an i7 965 system with all the bells & whistles - your Optiplex should be far lower).

I'd say you'd be just fine with a GTS 250 - just make sure you get the 1GB model so you get the shorter/lower power version.

Mainly for running DC apps (SETI@Home), but might want to do video encoding in the near future.