XPS 8300 and VisionTek AMD Radeon 6770 Experience

I ordered an XPS 8300 with the 6770 card! I'll let you know how mine is when it arrives (3-39-2012).

Thanks Richard, but I'm concerned that the motherboard or power supply Dell puts in their 8300s ordered with the 6770 card may be different than that in the units built with the 6450.  I sincerely hope you don't have a similar experience to mine as the noise was astounding!

also, if you put the 6450 back into the computer, do you have the same problem with the fans?

the 8300 shouldn't have any problems with the 6770, the power supply is 460w, which is fine for it.

a stock 8300 with 6450 or 6770 shouldn't be any different. I suspect a motherboard problem. you should have them replace it.

Yeah, I did for a day or two, then it quieted back down.  Weird, huh?  I'm back to the original motherboard as tech could never get the new motherboard to recognize the 6770 card (two different ones).  Hard to believe two bad motherboards or two bad graphic cards in a row.  I know current board has issues now as it will three beep on startup once or twice before lighting up.  I keep it in sleep mode rather than turning it off.  What i don't know and can't get an answer to is whether the CPU fan speed is controlled solely by the temp of the CPU or whether an increased power draw from the power supply  is enough to signal the fan to increase rpm in anticipation of a temp increase.  The 6770 card requires a separate power connection and I wonder if that extra draw is enough to trigger the rpm increase.  Still don't believe it should go to 100% at idle...

I've upgraded to an Evga Nvidia GTX 560 Overclocked (900Mhz core clock) and everything is working just fine.  Fans on the CPU and case never seem to increase speed and the fans on the GPU only increase under heavy load (but still fairly quiet).   The system has the i7-2600, 8MB memory, 1TB disk.  You can check the PSU label to see if it is 460W (if it has the two 6 prong GPU connectors it most likely is 460W).  You can aslo check the Motherboard with CPUZ.  It should be 0Y2MRG which is the most current.  

The GTX 560 requires two 6-pin PCIe power connectors from the power supply.  Just to let you know, VisionTek cards are always over priced and never worth getting compared to other brands.  

OK, thanks.  I verified that the motherboard is the OY2MRG and I know the power supply is 460W model with the 6 pin PCI-E connectors on a separate rail.   I'm glad to hear you are having no problem with an after market card. That gives me hope.   Can you please tell me if the GTX 560 requires a separate power source other than the PCI-E slot (ie PCI-E six pin rail)?  It sounds like it probably would, but i'd like to verify that if you don't mind.  Thanks.

Thanks Kelbear1. That too is good news as it says the CPU fan ramp up isn't due to increased power draw.  There's obviously some other issue at play here.   I'm not very knowledgable in the graphics card area.  That's why I upgraded via Dell, and I'm glad I did.  Can you imagine the finger pointing if this had happened with the Nvidia card?  At least with the VisionTek Dell is making things right.  This is my 3rd Dell.  I keep coming back because they stand behind their product.    

The Evga Nvidia GTX 560 requires the 2 six pin power supply connectors.   My 8300 come with a graphics card power supply cable that had 2 six pin connectors on it.  Snapped into the back of the card with no problem.  The card came with some adapters but I didn't need them.  According to the Nvidia web site the GTX 550 Ti requires 1 six pin connector but the 460, 560, 560 Ti, and the 570 all require 2 six pin connectors.  The 580 requires 1 six pin and 1 eight pin and the 590 reqiures 2 eight pin conectors.  Also according to the Nvidia web site, the GTX 560 is the highest you can go without changing out your power supply (it requires a minimum system PSU of 450W).