Which GTX 960 Can I use to upgrade my Dell XPS 8900

Thanks, Dan - I'll probably go for the GTX 960 as the GTX 1080s all seem to be $500 plus.

I looked at a few articles - I'm a little tentative about opening up such a new machine but will try the install myself, it looks easy enough and your dimensions vs. the card I'm considering look like I'll have no problem size-wise.

Thanks again for your help!

Steve

Apologies, I was typing too fast. I meant to type 1060 when I typed 1080.

the GTX 1060 cards are set to be released in a few days with prices in the $250 to $300 range. Rumors are these will be FAST for the price. I'd seriously consider waiting a couple of weeks and even if you go with a GTX 960, the price will likely drop a bit in the coming weeks.

one more thing. The Dell PSU has two six pin PCIe power connectors. Some of the cards have 8 pin connectors, and they usually come with a six pin to 8 pin adapter. Just be aware of this.

thanks for all your help, Dan!

GTX 960 is en route for Friday delivery, watched some videos and am confident I can handle this - and if I can't, I have a friendly local PC place who will do it for $75.

Just a quick follow up to those who may benefit from knowing - my EVGA GTX 960 arrived on Friday, Friday night after work I disassembled my 8900, released the old board, snapped (gently) in the new, found the two hidden 6 prong power cables stuffed elsewhere in the cabinet, connected those to the provided 8 prong adapter plug, screwed everything back together and I was in business!

Driver installation was a little trickier for some reason but eventually I got the thing running and it's running like a champ now.

It didn't help my flight simulator texture loading speed vs. the GTX 745 though - not at all - which means I have other factors at play and it never was a graphics card issue.   I'm wondering if the provided SSD that takes data off the main drive is somehow too slow - but that's another investigation.

Thanks again for the help.

Steve

milwaukeeroad, I have been looking at replacing the GT 745 on my XPS 8900 too.  Can I ask which EVGA GTX 960 model did you end up buying?  Are you still happy with the performance or have you run into any other problems?  Thanks!

Hi The Roots -

This is the model I purchased and yes, I've been extremely happy with it - but I only run Flight Simulator with it - I don't play any other games, so I can't speak to whether or not it runs Call of Duty or whatever at 100FPS - I play at 30 FPS (If I'm lucky - but that is mostly CPU driven in flight sim - even at 4.0Ghz).

Steve

Sorry MilwaukeeRoad, I was looking for the specific model of the EVGA GeForce GT 960.  Here's the link of the different models from the EVGA website,

www.evga.com/.../ProductList.aspx

Do you remember which one it was or the Mfr. Part Number?

Also, have you done anything regarding the SSD cache?  I too have felt the start-up time on my system has been slower than what I expected.

It didn't help my flight simulator texture loading speed vs. the GTX 745 though - not at all - which means I have other factors at play and it never was a graphics card issue.

Hmm.

Can you be precise on the exact flight simulator and version?

What monitor do you have? What resolution?

Which cable are you using? (HDMI/DVI/???)

What driver version are you running?

Did you completely remove the OEM dell nVidia driver and re-install a new driver?

sorry for the long list of questions, but something seems out of alignment on your system. 

Sorry Dan-H - I tried to paste my specs of the card, didn't work I guess.

I bought....  

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB ACX 2.0+ 04G-P4-3965-KR

Don't get me wrong - it looks stunning (I run FSX-Steam Edition with tons of add on planes and Orbx scenery - VERY graphics intensive).   Reflections of water and metal, sky, clouds, beautiful.

But in very intense scenery areas, after a few minutes of flying, the texture loading time really bogs down to the point that some items lack textures.

I am using HDMI on a 46" Samsung LED TV, forget the resolution (but even running at a very low resolution didn't help the texture loading).

Not sure about driver version and no, I'd better look at removing the OEM driver - not sure how I do that?

Thanks,

Steve

Oh - and no, I didn't figure out the SSD cache defragging issue just yet.

I am using HDMI on a 46" Samsung LED TV, forget the resolution (but even running at a very low resolution didn't help the texture loading).

Framerate may be limited by the Samsung LED TV. 

Do you have another display to test it out? Preferably one with Display Port or DVI, and HDMI.

If you get better framerates with DP or DVI to a monitor and then again over HDMI to a monitor then the limit is likely the TV side.

If HDMI to a monitor is slower than HDMI or DP, the  limit might be HDMI on the card, but I don't think that card is limited to 30 FPS if it is 1080p resolution.

If your TV is a 4K TV, that might be the constraint.

What about running a graphics benchmark like unigine heaven

 https://unigine.com/en/products/benchmarks/heaven

milwaukeeroad, Thank you very much for the information.

I have the EVGA GTX 960 running as well. I got tired of waiting for the 1060. So far no issues. I also am running the Dell P2715Q 4k monitor through a SIIG HDMI KVM switch to connect my laptop. The limiting factor is the KVM which only supports 30mhz and not 60mhz. The KVMs are still catching up. But even at 30mhz the 960 is stunning with the monitor. I have also upgraded memory to 32gb.