XPS 8700, upgrade graphics card?

36V90 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, PCIe, 3GB, DVI-D/3DP/HDMI, 120w
DVP9W Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, PCIe, 4GB, DVI-D/DP 1.3/1.4/HDMI 2.0, 75w
24K8H Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, PCIe, 2GB, DVI-D/HDMI 2.0/DP 1.3

If gaming, which CPU,  i7 4770 or i5 4570 in that machine?

What resolution monitor will you be gaming on?

Idk the cpu offhand ill have to check tomorrow but i know its quadcore i7  and i think its 3.2 ghz.

I have a three monitor setup,  two of them are 1080p samsungs,  one of them is a lesser quality dell with and weird size,  i bought it because it swivels Vertical.

 its not necessarilly being used "for gaming"  but Im a freelance game developer and use tools like unreal engine 4, unity, blender, etc.  so i want it to be able to handle 4k and vr eventually,  and just run these tools faster and smoother. 

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@vice versa wrote:

Idk the cpu offhand ill have to check tomorrow but i know its quadcore i7  and i think its 3.2 ghz.

I have a three monitor setup,  two of them are 1080p samsungs,  one of them is a lesser quality dell with and weird size,  i bought it because it swivels Vertical.

 its not necessarilly being used "for gaming"  but Im a freelance game developer and use tools like unreal engine 4, unity, blender, etc.  so i want it to be able to handle 4k and vr eventually,  and just run these tools faster and smoother. 

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Through testing I've seen done, the RTX 2070 is every bit as fast as the GTX 1080.   With the i7 4770 and at 1080p you will likely have a slight bottleneck if you don't cap framerates and are running 100+ fps and the CPU will be pushed to the limit sending data to the GPU.  It should be fine at 1080p but the CPU temps might get hotter than you would want.  Capping the framerates should keep that from happening.

If you plan to use 1440p with this setup you will likely have a bottleneck with the CPU, it should be able to handle 1440p it but will be running at 80-90%+ usage at those resolutions with graphic intensive games.  Will likely lose a few fps but should be playable.  I saw this happen when I used the GTX 1080 with the i7 3770 which is about 10% slower than your machine.   I was able to play games at 1440p but once I put the GTX 1080 into a machine with the i7 8700 the fps and smoothness was better.  At 4K....not quite sure your CPU can keep up with that many pixels....

If you run into high CPU and high case temps from the GPU and CPU, you can certainly liquid cool the CPU a couple of different ways using an Asetek 545LC with the 92mm rear exhaust fan and add a lower 120mm intake fan.   Or the second option which will be less expensive would be to add a Corsair 2018 H60 or H75 CPU cooler and use it as a front intake fan with their 120mm fan(s).  

Here are a few posts that will help you to do this:

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/XPS-8900-upgraded-w-AIO-liquid-cooling-Samsung-950pro-GPU-PSU/td-p/4700378

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/Attn-XPS-8700-Owners-Upgrade/m-p/4687836

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/XPS-8500-GTX-1080-MSI-Sea-Hawk-hybrid-GPU-Asetek-liquid-CPU/m-p/5043834

Before you do anything, you should read the very last post on this informative XPS 8700 GPU upgrade thread from DanH.  With the efforts involved in modding the XPS 8500/8700/8900, a case swap might be a practical idea.

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/XPS-8700-nVidia-GTX-video-card-upgrades/td-p/4536878/page/50

The Corsair H60 or H75 CPU cooler installed with a the rad stands is not that hard to do....it would be the most cost effective way to cool the CPU and add an intake fan.   I wish I could tell you it was a 100% slam dunk and easy to do but it hasn't been confirmed yet.   The other AIO fan install in the XPS 8900 looked to work fine.  The only concern I would have would be the hoses running over the GPU to the front position.  There should be room there to do that and the hoses should be long enough.  I did just install a H60 in a XPS 8930 and it's a nice unit.  The dual fan H75 would also work well   The instructions on how I installed the MSI Sea Hawk radiator and fan using the rad stands involves no removal of sheet metal or rivets, you would just be installing the CPU cooler radiator instead of the GPU radiator.

I'm excited for you with the new GPU.  Good luck and have fun, should be real nice!

And here i thought id just be replacing a gpu and power supply.  This just got a whole lot more complicated

You will be okay.

Just watch the CPU % usage and CPU temps on graphics intensive games.   That card is overkill at 1080p unless you are using higher refresh rates...nothing wrong with that and that's the only thing you need to watch out for.  

You at least have some options to cool the CPU and the case if you need to.

Bummer about the lack of anyone having tried the upgrade yet.  I would've assumed that at least one person out there was an early adopter of the new graphics cards.

I am actually seriously considering an RTX 2080 within the next 3 or so months for myself, and moving my current GTX 1080 over to my son's computer.

Yeah,  im just going to build a new onr when i have enough money. I was going to paste a picture of the parts but apparently you can do that on this site with a phone

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@vice versa wrote:

hey all, ive been wanting to upgrade my graphics card for a while, and since nvidia is realeasing new ones that are actually affordable this time around, I figured I should probably get on this soon.  So what I would like to know is,

1.Will an RTX 1070 be compatible with my motherboard (I dont see why it wouldnt be but my computers pretty old now)

I recently bought the EVGA RTX 2070 XC Ultra and can confirm that it works with the Dell XPS 8700, BIOS version A12.

2. does brand have anything to do with compatibility or are they all basically the same thing (by brand I mean Asus, MSI, etc.)

I think it's a mix of both the video card brand and the motherboard brand.  It's possible that one is compatible but not the other.  As in the case with the Dell XPS 8700 BIOS wasn't very compatible with the GTX 900 series but after a very long wait, Dell had a BIOS update that resolved the issue.

3. Will an RTX 1070 fit in my case or will I have to upgrade that too?

Length wise, it should fit in just fine.  Since the version I bought took up 3 slots it was difficult getting it to connect to the PCIE slot since the card sits on top a row of SATA ports. I had to swap out the SATA cable with ones that had angled connectors.  If you buy a 2 slot version of the card, it should fit right in without the need for the the angled connectors.

4. I know Im probably going to have to upgrade my PSU as well.  I usually use Crucial for upgrades, but they dont do power supplies, anybody know which psu to upgrade to buy or where i can find more info?

I personally have a Seasonic 760W PSU. It's a bit of an overkill but I got it on sale when I was upgrading to a Asus GTX 970.  It's been working well for me since I bought it over 4 years ago.

 

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