Thanks Chris for the reply :emotion-1:

Dead end also with EVGA on this issue.  

EVGA does understand it is a motherboard BIOS issue.   Even though they did the v BIOS update on 600 series cards so they would work on the XPS 8300/XPS 8500, they won't be doing the same for any 500 Series cards.  

At the mercy of Dell on this one to update their BIOS.  Not looking good and pretty much stuck in the middle with no options other than to buy a new card.

Brand new i7 machine and am unable to do any gaming  with it at all....not exactly what I expected.

I did start a thread in XPS Club for successful upgrades so as to spare anyone else from running into this problem.

HanoverB,

The Bios and driver updates we offer are for the Dell OEM (original equipment manufacturer) video cards. We do not write Bios updates for 3rd party (PNY, MSI, etc.) vendor hardware. Any reference we made was for the Dell GeForce GTX 560 Ti, not a retail video card. I am not saying a future Bios may not fix the issue, but we are not going to write one based on a 3rd party video card.

Wow. This is ridiculously poor customer service.  Guess I will go back to building my own pc(s) if this is the level of (or lack of) support Dell provides for their products.

Won't buy another Dell pc that's for sure.

Shame on you Dell

When installing an after-market graphics card into a certified Windows 8 PC with UEFI enabled, the system may not boot.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3156

Not all Dell's fault....the EVGA GTX 560 I had was an older non-reference card that was working fine in a Studio 540 but it was one of those situations where this particular card didn't work in the XPS 8500.  Neither Dell or EVGA had the BIOS update to get the card working.  This was a known issue that affected both the XPS 8300 and XPS 8500 where certain cards just didnt work.  There is a good database of working cards on this forum however that should help folks from running into the same problem.  

I bought a GTX 660ti after the GTX 560 didn't work out and have been perfectly happy with the XPS 8500, added a mSATA card and have a very nice machine I use for gaming and home use.    

Just help setup a friend with a new XPS 8700 who upgraded a basic machine with a new power supply, graphics card and SSD using Windows 7 and that machine really is smooth and flies!     He had to choose between building a pc or going the Dell route and he's happy with the way it turned out.

Dell is useless. They want your money and won't give you industry standard for your money. I bought a dell xps 8500 in 2012 and now I'm having an issue with the GTX 770 not working. Dell decided it isn't worth their time to provide to their customers a bios that will recognize all cards. I didn't know what I was getting into back then but now I help people with computers on a regular basis. They all know not to shop with dell. The only reason dell is working on the latest GTX 980 cards and their bios is because they can't get away with people anymore.

Please see my preceding post that gives the link to my solution. It should be applicable to most graphic adapters in addition to NVIDIA. The fact that I had to piece together the procedure to installing an NVIDIA graphics card on my Dell instead of receiving the answer from Dell was incredibly frustrating. The PCI-X configuration is an industry standard. The PCI slots on motherboard should accept any card designed to that standard.

In a post earlier in this thread, a Dell employee states that Dell really doesn't care about supporting 3rd party hardware. That employee should pop the case on their Dell and take a tour of the non-Dell hardware that is installed. This was the most accurate statement of Dell's policy towards its customers. Dell at one time was responsive and provided useful solutions to technical problems. Their primary focus now is the commercial market with almost total neglect of the customer base with which  Michael Dell started his company.