XPS 8700 nVidia GTX video card upgrades,

My Palit GF 970 Jetstream is working fine with dell 460 W Standard PSU (XPS 8700, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD; original GC by dell was Geforce 720, first replaced by a HIS AMD 7790 icooler).

And why shouldn't it? The tests I have read about the topic say that power consumption for the whole testing system (!!!) does barely exceed 350 W with any tested GF 970. 

Anybody saying that you should rather use a 850 W PSU instead of 650 W and that the original PSU will not be working well (like writen in the original thread, with a lot of calculation around it that obviously must be wrong) just ignores the facts.

Anyway, it's nice to have a better PSU, especially for OC, but speaking for me, I bought a dell PC because it was not very expensive. Otherwise I would have bought a customized PC right away, with more efficient coolers for CPU and case as well.

The size of PSU recommended by the graphics card manufactuer always seems to be too high, I guess. For example, I am still using the following system:

PSU 350 W only

Intel Core i5-650

ATI 5770

4 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Win7

This is the original configuration, as sold by - you guessed ist - dell (Studio XPS) in 2010, never causing any trouble (except for the unholy ATI drivers). 

Graphics card was then replaced by HIS ATI 7790 icooler, also running fine (again except for the AMD drivers that really sxxxed, the last catalyst update not working at all). HIS recommends 500 W PSU minimum, although the card has a TDP of only 85 W and should fit in almost any system. A very nice midrange card, also doing well in my xps 8700, much better than I expected.

Well ShadowJoe, how did it work out for you? I am going to have a very similar setup, except I got a mSATA SSD Crucial M550 with the 1TB my XPS 8700 came with.

Any response is appreciated. 

Everything went perfect with my setup. The PSU handles everything like a champ. If I play Far Cry 4 on a single monitor, all settings are on ultra with msaa x8. At this setting the frame rates are give or take right on 30 FPS. When I set it to triple monitor mode (good thing I didn't name it) all the settings are still on ultra, but I have to lower the anti-aliasing to msaa x2 to get the 30 FPS. I am very impressed with the gaming power this computer offers. I still prefer to play the games with triple monitors. It is an amazing experience that I hope does not die off as it has gotten me back into gaming.

I decided to just use the 2 TB hard drive that came with the computer to run the operating system. I installed the 500 GB SSD for the game installs. Also installed a 4 TB hard drive for my movies.

The computer cools very efficiently. And stays very quite.

My Monitors are the Dell S2715H. I am running at 60 hz at 1920x1080. 40 FPS that fluctuates down to 30 FPS at msaa x8. Its completely smooth. I have v-sync turned off. What anti-aliasing setting do you have set? If I turn anti aliasing to msaa x4 on single monitor then it goes up into the 50 FPS.

Also, if I play single monitor, I am playing in windowed mode which shows the desktop on the other two monitors. I will try disconnecting the other two monitors and see if this makes a difference.

I find it strange that you don't get higher FPS in Far Cry4. I'm at around 75% completed in this game and everything is on Ultra and I never dip below 70FPS on my single monitor (BenQ XL2420TE) running at 120Mhz. 

You say you have 30FPS on a single monitor setup and this seems low for a 900 series card. I also have the Special Edition XPS just like you.

I use smaa and I always game at 1920x1080 which is the native resolution of my monitor and always in full screen and not windowed.

When I turned on smaa on a single monitor the frame rate shot up to 70 FPS. smaa on my triple monitors went down to a very playable 27 FPS. I turned on v-sync at 5760x1080 resolution (triple monitors) and its now at 30 to 38 FPS. smaa looks really good so I think I'll keep that setting.

I must be one of those people that can't see the difference between 30 FPS and 70 FPS...

Speaking of that single NOISEY case fan.  A nosie that can drive one crazy if you're in a quiet room.  Any suggestions on a high end replacement?  I'm thinking with only a single fan, that needs to be replaced with a high air flow/low nosie fan.  

My system is brand new, and the fan is loud even surfing the web.  It has an annoying buzzing sound.

My fan is very quiet. Are you sure it's clean? It tends to pick up some dust after a few months so it's always a good idea to clean it every few months. Unless there's a defect in yours but mine has been turning for the past 18 months and I clean it regularly and it's as quiet as the day I bought my XPS.

Then it's defective. Call Dell since it's on warranty.

My case fan is noisy. I ordered a 92mm Noctua NF-B9 fan but it hasn't arrived yet.

http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-B9-PWM-Cooling-Fan/dp/B006ISKYPE

I should receive the fan today or tomorrow and may get it installed this weekend and see if that helps quiet it down.

Would the new GTX 960 also be compatible with this BIOS update?

The 960 is just slightly better than the 660/760.  It's not worth an upgrade at all.  

Yeah that's what I was about to ask, thinking about upgrading from my OEM 660.