Aurora R9, help regarding graphics card upgrade

Question

Hi, my understanding is that the stock graphics card in my R9 failed. Screen went black a few weeks ago. Computer would boot up but I couldn't see or do a thing.

Dell diagnosed it as a failed video card. I didn't want to spend over $300 having Dell replace it with another 1650 that was not very good to begin with. So I thought I'd do it myself and wound up getting a RX 6600 to replace it.

Maybe I should have sought more advice first, but here I am. A couple questions.

1. Do I need to put a power cable into this card? I see a cable plugged into the board that says GPU_PWR. Am I supposed to unplug that and put it into the new card? See attached photo. I tried to illustrate the cable I'm seeing and an arrow pointing to where it might go? The stock card did not have a cable plugged in.

2. The Aurora has the base power supply. Which I think is 475. Or about that. The card recommends 500W or more. But I do not plan on pushing this card to the limits. I'm a casual gamer. Will that be an issue?

3. While looking up info about installing this card, I saw a comment online that worries me. Someone said that while trying to install an AMD card into their Aurora, they got a black screen and someone replied that: "you have to insert [the] dell GPU, hit F2 for bios and then disable SecureBoot and enable CSM (legacy support) to use a non-Dell card or it refuses to display video due to security violation.

So, now I'm worried that this card won't work. And if it doesn't work. I can't put in the OEM card either to change BIOS. So then what do I do? Buy a used OEM card in eBay?

Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you

ProfessorW00d · Accepted Answer

The cable connected to GPU_PWR does not go into your graphics card. That is an EPS 8-pin power cable and your graphics card needs a PCIe 8-pin power cable. There should be some PCIe 8-pin (6 + 2) cables tucked up in the storage space in the swing-out PSU contraption. That is what you need for your graphics card. You must have that EPS 8-pin power cable connected to GPU_PWR.

Unfortunately, the "disable secure boot" story is true. Do you know anyone with an OEM Dell graphics card you could borrow to get into BIOS?

Look and see if you have a PCIe cable stored like this

bobblah · Answer

Thank you so much for the reply. I'm sure I sounded like a noob. But that makes sense, I just found that black cable tucked away up near the power supply. Now I know!

However, I don't know anyone in close proximity with a Dell desktop. I just chatted with Dell and they told me to buy part number 00C77 which is the 1660 ti. But they don't have any in stock. So maybe I'll return the RX 6600 and just try to find a used one of these cards on ebay.

Thanks much.

ProfessorW00d · Answer

If you are searching for used OEM Dell graphics cards, with a 460 watt PSU you may get away with an RTX 3070 or RTX 4060. Whatever you get make sure it is no longer than 270mm to fit in your case.

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Aurora R9, help regarding graphics card upgrade

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