THE VIDEO CARD DISSCUSION THREAD! Its time that someone made this thread! Please post and join the discussion!

I posted this problem in another area but I figured I would give this a shot as my problem is related to a graphics card.

I have a dell studio 540 and I recently purchased a new HIS Radeon 5770 along with a new PSU (Antec 650W) to power everything properly.

I removed the old drivers (even using drive sweeper) and installed the new graphics card drivers and card and now my computer will not boot.  I get no beeps and a black screen.  I am hearing the fan of the graphics card so I assume that the power supply is working for the graphics card (I tested the power supply with the old card and no glitches at all). 

Any help or suggestions on what else I can try to make this work?

Was the old graphics card an onboard video card or is it a discreate card? Also what type of card was the old graphics card was it ATI or Nvidia?

Hi Hunter,

I have a inspiron 531, upgraded the power supply to 550 w and want to upgrade the video card as well.  This machine has onboard video.  I bought a diablotek  PCIe and when I put it in the PC takes a long time to boot and I get no video out of the card but the onboard still works even after disabeling it in the BIOS.  Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Tommy

Hello redbarron674 (Tommy) nice to meet you. Well i have a few questions. Where are you plugging the monitor into? Also the drivers for the onboard video must be also uninstalled and the new graphics drivers installed. You should probably disable and uninstall the onboard graphics card before you put your new graphics card in. May i ask what kind of graphics card did you get?

The old card was an ATI Radeon 3450 that came with the system.  

I had two monitors so on initial boot up I had a monitor plugged into the new graphics card, but after hearing the boot up, I plugged the other into the onboard video.  The new card is a diablotek 3d model number VX700SE-256p.  Thanks for getting back to me so soon. 

I need help with a GT220 installation.  I have an XPS 410, running Windows XP, with a 375 watt power supply, a 21 inch HP monitor with DVI connector and had a GeForce 9400GT card installed.  Everything was good and worked fine.  When I installed the GT220 and turned the PC back on I got a buzzer sound from somewhere inside the pc, several buzzes each about 2-3 seconds duration and then they stopped the PC came on but I had no video, the monitor would not detect the video output.  I checked the cable was securely attached and rebooted and same result.  I checked the video card and found that it was not completely seated in the slot, so I fixed that and rebooted, but same result.  The fan on the card was running and so it appeared it was getting power.

Now I was worried it was too late, that I shorted out something, so I put the old video card back in, which I already knew worked, but I got the same buzzing sounds and failure of the monitor to detect the video card, no video.  Have I destroyed my PC?

Matt

There is a sticky (pinned thread) on the first page wherein Dell assures us the stock PSU will handle the Dell 260, which might be true, assuming that 1) Dell has derated the GTX 260 from the average "retail" cards, or 2) as long as you aren't loading it up at the same time with other devices. It might make it, but unless the stock PSU's output is understated, the 95w CPU and normal 250w to 275w GTX 260 (depending upon manufacturer), added together, will go over 350 watts at 100%.  That is simple math based upon repeated actual measurements of the power consumption of the i7 860 CPU and a GTX 260 core 216 GPU with both at max load. 

I can ony conclude Dell has watered down their version of the GTX  260 to get it to max out at 182w loaded up, because the many reputable hardware reviews of various GTX 260's out there show much higher power consumption.

I put in a GTX 285 OC after upgrading the PSU to 650w.  At 100% the video card alone pulls way over 350w all by itself.

Has anyone tried installing a GTX 260 in the xps 8000 using the power supply thats installed? Dell says the installed psu in the 8000 will handle the GTX 260, true or not? Any help is appreciated!!

I have no idea warder 348 if the NVidia GTX 260 will work in the dell xps 8000. But i do know for a fact that it will work in the xps 9000. IF you want it to work look at the dedicated power supplies you can buy. These work with your current power supply. They fit into one of your cd/dvd drives. It is really efficent for small for computers like the xps 8000. There is one by Visiontek. I have not tested this yet, the key word is yet, but i may soon. It is a 450 watt dedicated power supply. Add it to i think the 375 watt power supply of the dell xps 8000, but the max wattage u can get is 800 watts. which is plenty for even an Nvidia GTX 295. So look into this. You may find it to your liking.

Take, Care

Hunter

Thanks for the add :) I am very happy that you are receiving a Studio Xps 9000. I think the graphics you need to look into are the Nvidia GTS 250 or the Nvidia GTX 260. These are awsome cards. I have the GTS 250. These cards run from 100-200 U.S dollars, but are well worth the price. Your computer is compatible with both of them. Also i believe they both have an S-video port. You will experience great picture quality. So look into this i would being looking at Newegg. www.newegg.com

Good Luck,

Hunter

P.S: Happy Holidays

I am sorry it has taken me a while to return everyones messages. Well supersolid64 i believe that what ever has happened would be best fixed be a dell technician. There are some technicians on the dell community try to find them and ask them for help. They will be able to guide you further into these incidence.

Sorry,

Hunter

Thanks for the great thread.  I have a studio 540 with a 350w PSU with 18A on 2 rails(OEM).  I would like to upgrade my video card but I dont want to upgrade the PSU yet.  From what I have read my system can handle a 9800 GT or a GT 240.  Any suggestions?  I am confused about the GDDR and the clock speed.

NVIDIA 9800 GT 
600 MHz GPU 
112 Processing Cores
 400 MHz RAMDAC
Memory
 1024 MB, 256 bit DDR3 
1800 MHz (effective) 
57.6 GB/s Memory Bandwidth
Interface
 PCI-E 2.0 16x
 DVI-I, DVI-I, HDTV-7
 SLI Capable
Resolution & Refresh 
240Hz Max Refresh Rate 
2048x1536 Max Analog
2560x1600 Max Digital

NVIDIA GT 240 
550 MHz GPU 
96 Processing Cores
 400 MHz RAMDAC
Memory
 512 MB, 128 bit 
3588 MHz (effective) 
57.4 GB/s Memory Bandwidth
Interface
 PCI-E 2.0 x16
 DVI-I, VGA, HDMI
Resolution & Refresh 
240Hz Max Refresh Rate 
2048x1536 Max Analog
 2560x1600 Max Digital

Any recommendations or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

John

Does the installed power supply have 2 6pin cables for the video card?