XPS 8500 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 video card

Hi GWNick,

Dell XPS 8500 can be configured with an Nvidia GeForce GT620 - Full Height card. It has VGA, HDMI and DVI-I connectors for the monitor.

Please reply for any queries.

Thanks.  I'm not sure if the card that I referred to above as the "included" card is the same as the "Full Height card" that you say "can be configured" - different words, different meaning?  Since a Dell Sales rep already told me that what you say is not possible, would you mind just confirming that the computer configuration linked to above "has VGA, HDMI and DVI-I connectors for the monitor."

Thanks again.  This would be a lot simpler if the Dell Sales Rep had given me the same information.  I'm ready to place my order as soon as I get this confirmation.

Hi GWNick,

Dell XPS 8500 is mini tower; on a mini tower we can fit a full height card only. Half height Card is customized for slim tower.

Dell XPS 8500 can be configured with an NVidia GeForce GT620 - Full Height card. It has VGA, HDMI and DVI-I connectors for the monitor.

Please reply for any queries.

Hi,

I bought new XPS 8500 last month as configured below. 

I'm getting a low score on graphic card and want to upgrade to get better performance/score and video editing.  What do you suggest for a budget card, not for game, mainly for video editing in Adobe Premier/Photoshop Element? 

Thank you.

if you can swing $120 i would suggest a AMD HD 7770 ... it has good bang for your buck ... if you don't want to spend that much you could go with a  Nvidia GT 640, or AMD/ATI HD 6670 ... the problem with the low end Nvidia gt 620 is its memory bus is only 64 bit and will choke your otherwise very fast system .  The other cards i listed use a 128 bit bus which makes a big difference.  Dell shouldn't be selling such a low end graphics card like the GT 620 with the XPS 8500 system.

adding more RAM to your system can boost video editing a lot too.  If you have the 8gb of RAM sitting in 2 of the 4 available RAM DIMM slots dropping in 8gb more will boost performance. 16gb would be even better.  Video editing loves RAM.

a combo of 8gb ram and a medium level graphics card will boost your video performance a bit.

example:

8gb more of DDR3 1600 ram www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

video card HD 6670: www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

all depends on what you can afford.

the online manual has good instructions for doing stuff inside you XPS 8500 http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps8500/en/om/om_en.pdf

Thank you for your useful suggestions and link on video card and memory.  Both of these upgrades will definitely boost XPS a great deal.

I live near Frys which has ads for MSI MSI R7770-PMD1GD5 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card for $80 after rebate.  I'll go pick it up after work.  Thanks for pointing out this video card.

Frys also has Patriot 16GB (2x 8GB) 1600mhz Dual Channel DDR3 Viper 3 Black Memory PV316G160C0K below.  Will this memory work with XPS 8500?  Else, could you provide link to Newegg 16gb DDR3 1600?

Series: Viper 3

Edition: Black Mamba

Capacity: 16GB (2 x 8GB) Kit

DIMM Type: 240-Pin NON-ECC UDIMM

Voltage: 1.5V

Tested Frequency: PC3-12800 (1600MHz)

Tested Timings: 10-10-10-27

Base Frequency: PC3-12800 (1600MHz)

Base Timings: 10-10-10-27

Tested Platforms: Intel® 6 & 7 Series / AMD 9 & FM Series

Feature Overclock: XMP 1.3

I got MSI card and Patriot memory mentioned above and wanted to report back.

MSI is about 7 inch in lenght and fits in the XPS 8500 case just fine.  Put card in the slot, install driver from CD, readjust screen solution in Catalyst Control Center to fill the entire screen.  All went smoothy with no issue and still quite a bit to learn all the settings since this my first video card upgrade.  Window index score on graphic shoot up to 7.5 from 5.3.  Very excited.

XPS 8500 comes with (2 x 4 GB) in 2 slots. Installed Patriot 16GB (2x 8GB) on two remaining open slots.  Run memory diagnotic in BIOS and verified both run at 1600mhz.  Now PC has 24 GB installed, however, system only recognize 16GB, the reason is because my Win 7 version is home premium and maximum memory recognized is 16 GB, that's my understanding from reading in this forum. It's a bummer.  I want to maximize full 24 GB for video editing so I must either upgrade to Win 7 pro or Win 8.  Is there any way to get around this OS limitation?

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