Is it possible? XPS 8940, 500W PSU and Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Dual OC V2 12GB

Well, to be honest, I am NOT sure....

Reason being:

• A few 8940 users are having problems using an RTX40 series card with a 500W PSU.
• Card calls for a 450W PSU.
• How much extra does the 'rest' of the PC h/w require?

I do have an RTX2060 6GB card, and I have a 500W PSU as well, and have no 'real' problems.

That said, my card was made FOR Dell by MSI. It is not the same as the Retail MSI card. Mine has larger fan and heat sink than the Retail version. More to reduce heat and possible power.

What I'd suggest, but it with return capability, but before that, ensure you have the proper power connectors available.

If you do have a Discrete card now, you quite possibly will have some and might even be the correct ones. If you DO NOT, it is quite possible no Discrete cable was included in your build.

I also have the RTX2060 6GB card, but it is not enough for basic features for video editing. I do have another desktop but wanted to have this as an extra for somebody that helps me with basic stuff. Need  a card with at least 8GB vram and 3060 is only available for a reasonable price.

Anyway, seems like this upgrade is "no go". I also contacted Dell today with some questions regarding a new "Pro Max" - series and decided after 25 years, that there will be no more purchases of Dell anymore, private or business.  I'm done with Dell, if they make it harder and harder to upgrade anything on new models. It will be cheaper and more convenient to purchase other brands or locally build systems.

Thank you anyway.

Well, this new line up can be confusing.  Check here though --> https://www.dell.com/community/en/topics/dell-pro-desktops, and @redxps630 posted this, https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/dell-pro-desktops/new-dell-model-confusing-name-cheat-sheet/69210897ca58a9338dfb8749. There are also some FAQ's there.

Anyway I hit the same problem. For my wife, her XPS8500 from 2012 can't run Win11... So I did my research and found the Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 was what I wanted, and it came with an RX4060 at the time. There are some preconfigured models or you can customize it here -->https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/dell-ebt2250-desktop and RTX 50 series card can be on it.

I did upgrade to 32Gb's RAM and 2 drives, 1TB SSD and a 2TB mechanical drive.

Clearly and XPS follow on model, and you can get some Black Friday deals now.

Performance wise, it is quite a bit faster than my upgraded XPS8940, upgraded to a boot SSD and 32Gb's of RAM. Performance test show a clear winner, but in reality, the 'feel' is about the same (both have the Intel WiFi 7 BE200 M.2 Adapter (XPS8940 upgrade) and we have WiFi 7 Deco system... both PC's read 940Mbps wireless speeds which is probably why browsing, getting email 'feels the same'.

You should check it out. Oh, I'd get a Dell discrete Video card with it. Seems most are changed from the Retail versions, looking at it visually you can tell. There is also a YouTube review of the EBT2250, check it out there searching for it.

Seems, looking here for the card, it says 450W for the PSU och looking at Youtube, a lot of people having 500W PSU have 3060 and 3070 cards. So maybe it would work anyway.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-dual-rtx-3060-oc.b8778

At the moment I'm not buying any new Dell. Not after they told e today, that the new Pro Max Towers are only upgradable with founders editions of the graphics card. I'm just tired of those limitations all the time.

@HelixGalaxy​

Seems, looking here for the card, it says 450W for the PSU och looking at Youtube, a lot of people having 500W PSU have 3060 and 3070 cards. So maybe it would work anyway.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-dual-rtx-3060-oc.b8778

At the moment I'm not buying any new Dell. Not after they told e today, that the new Pro Max Towers are only upgradable with founders editions of the graphics card. I'm just tired of those limitations all the time.

I stated the 460W above and did get that info from the same site.

That 460W covers the CARD. Now the card might never use that much, it would depend on what application you run and what it asks the card to do. I screen intensive game at high resolution would be more than likely to one to hit it.

That would lead you to 40W's for the rest of the PC...  and with my RTX2060 running my desktop  (3840x2160) and Firefox browser one to this page. Quite a few background tasks are running as well. Task Manager reports 1/2 RAM used and 10% of the CPU and my UPS application reports 144W's being used at the instance I looked at it. just looked again and it is 132W's and then before I typed this dropped to 114W's.

Not know who much power a video card draws on boot up, it may or may not be the problem?

Even if it were to 'work' and you can boot, there could be a point, depending what you do that you might not have enough power and the PC would lock up on you? It could even happen weeks after you bought the card and you might not think the card was the problem.

Again, the Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 appears to be the XPS follow on model. Put the card costs towards that and I'm sure you'd be happy (other than your pocketbook).

Not sure what Dell Pro Max. tower you were looking at, but the T2 (https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/dell-pro-max-fct2250-desktop) seems to have the more recent Nvida ADA cards which are faster. Using the Custom build option you can get what would work for you.

I do NOT work for Dell, I get NOTHING if you buy Dell, but I am just trying to UNDERSTAND your true issue here, and more importantly to me, who IS looking into replacing his 8940, why you are dismissing something like the Pro Tower EBT2250 or the Pro Max Tower? As I see it, the EBT2250 is the cheaper option though.

Any insight you can provide to ME would be helpful.

@HelixGalaxy​ 

Oh, by the way, I started MS Flight Sim, something that would 'push' the RTX2060.

It was sitting on its OPENING screen where you pick what you want to do. Opened the UPS Application and my PSU usage was 265W's... and it would be much higher if I was flying.

But the 2060 card, that was initially sold with 8949 from the begining is basically this card:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-2060.c3310

The TDP is 160W and for most of the 3060 cards seems TDP is 170W. At least that the power concumption is probably almost the same for a 3060 and a 2060 card. I just don't get why a 3060 would be an issue then with 500W PSU, if 2060 was not an issue?

Again, the Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 appears to be the XPS follow on model. Put the card costs towards that and I'm sure you'd be happy (other than your pocketbook).

Well, I though so, but there is no point. The configurations are 45-50% higher in price thata comparable, other brand locally in Sweden (compared with 3 years warranty). Dell is just not affordable anymore. And frankly, the issues with upgrade in the future are not making me happy. Beeing locked into to only beeing able to upgrade in the future to only "founding fathers" cards is useless, disspointing. Whos wants to buy a new Dell for $4000 and then beeing locked in the future. That is basically my issues buying another Dell. Been doing that for 20-something years, and I finally woke up :)

Seems like the author here have a link to a list of card, working with 500W PSU:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8940-recommended-graphics-card/676da6746395ab51f4a19477?commentId=67706de0945fad16c4862b20

Among those, there is a 3060 12GB card.

Seems the recommendations are so different.

I guess, this means that 3060 12Gb in general is ok for 8940 ....

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/sv-se/xps-8940-desktop/xps-8940-setup-and-specifications/gpudiscrete?guid=guid-d6248aeb-4661-44f3-84d0-9c79f6dcd32c&lang=en-us 

@HelixGalaxy​

But the 2060 card, that was initially sold with 8949 from the begining is basically this card:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-2060.c3310

No, it IS not. Pull the 2060 or open the case and look at it. Dell's version has ONE large fan, not 2 small ones. Looking inside the fan it appears to have larger heat sinks:

The TDP is 160W and for most of the 3060 cards seems TDP is 170W. At least that the power concumption is probably almost the same for a 3060 and a 2060 card. I just don't get why a 3060 would be an issue then with 500W PSU, if 2060 was not an issue?

Again, the RTX2060 is NOT a Stock card but ONE built by MSI to Dell's specs.

Again, the Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 appears to be the XPS follow on model. Put the card costs towards that and I'm sure you'd be happy (other than your pocketbook).

Well, I though so, but there is no point. The configurations are 45-50% higher in price thata comparable, other brand locally in Sweden (compared with 3 years warranty)

OK, Sweden would have different pricing I'm sure.

Still, in the US prices have gone up too.

The EBT2250 cost I think about $500 more than the XPS8940 in 2020... Still, new Intel CPU which is more expensive, an RTX4060 card, and the Intel M.2 BE200 which is also more expensive that the old N speed M.2 adapter in the 8940.

Faster RAM too and that I'm sure is more expensive as well.

I would think any vendor selling a similar configured PC would be in the same price range? They were when I was looking in March.

 Dell is just not affordable anymore. And frankly, the issues with upgrade in the future are not making me happy. Beeing locked into to only beeing able to upgrade in the future to only "founding fathers" cards is useless, disspointing. Whos wants to buy a new Dell for $4000 and then beeing locked in the future. That is basically my issues buying another Dell. Been doing that for 20-something years, and I finally woke up :)

I don't know the reason for Founder's issue cards being the only ones you could upgrade too? Google "nvidia founder issue card vs. standard cards" but it appears those could be 'reference' cards. Those don't have the extra features that 3rd part adds to the Reference card?

Read that as less power draw. Still, not know what will be available 2-3 years from now seems sort of a 'flip off' answer to me?

@HelixGalaxy​ 

That list is "The following table lists the specifications of the discrete Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) supported by your XPS 8940. "

What it means is Dell Tested it and will support it. However, that may not be the case for any card but the ONES Dell sold?

Assume you put a card in NOT in that list, have a problem, Dell Support would have you REMOVE the card in most cases. 

Also not that list is OLD in terms of what Nvidia produces now. The latest card you could have bought in 2020/2021 from Dell was the RTX 30 series.

Again, look at the LIST you could have put into the 8940 at purchase time:

Video cards =
KX61M MSI GeForce RTX 3070 8GB, Three DP 1.4a/HDMI 2.1
MTVG8 Nvidia/MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR, 12GB
86RMK MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB, Three 1.4a/HDMI 2.1
GPCKW MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super, 8GB, Three DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b

G7CH1 MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Super, 6GB, DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b/DVI-D

DHRKF MSI GeForce RTX 2060, 6GB, DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b/DVI-D

KPNXF MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 6GB, DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b/DVI-D

7MKYT MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super, 6GB, DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b/DVI-D

4WY5P ECS GeForce GTX 1650 Super, 4GB, DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b/DVI-D

7HNWN ECS GeForce GT 1030, 2GB, HDMI 2.0/DVI-D
WNDM8 MSI RX 6600 XT, Navi 23XT

4FCCX ECS RX 5700XTD, 8GB, Three DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b

38MPY ECS RX 5700DE, 8GB, Three DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b

NH5PX MSI RX 5600 XT, 6GB, Three DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0

5V7N7 MSI RX 5300, 3GB, Two DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0b

Onboard Intel UHD 630, Two DP 1.4/HDMI 2.0

ALL RTX cards were made by MSI for Dell, and like the RTX2060, I'm sure ALL cards are not like the Retail versions, and possibly more toward the Founder's series of cards.

There are reasons I always go Founders Edition. :)

They are better built, adhere to standards, usually have a better form factor.

It's no surprise Dell would sanction them.

My XPS 8950 was almost made for my RTX 5070FE, it runs so nice and fits so well.

@Element115s4​ 

Sure, but my issue is, that after 4-5 years of use, maybe upgrading a video card is needed. Prices goes down and maybe an upgrade from 40xx to 50xx is interesting. In that case, after 4-5 years, there are not any FE-cards on the market to buy. At least not in Sweden. Not used, not new, not at all. Then, you have no choice and cannot upgrade. That is my a main issue to locking the unit to only accepting FE-editions. Basically I have no choice, to try that with this old 8940.

@ispalten​ 

"ALL RTX cards were made by MSI for Dell, and like the RTX2060, I'm sure ALL cards are not like the Retail versions, and possibly more toward the Founder's series of cards."

Sure, but after 4-5 years now, I have no choice. Can't buy a Dell card (locally in Sweden, not used and probably not for a reasonable price wordwide), so for me only way to get more VRAM (coming up to at least 8GB from my 6GB to get the unit work with some features in Davinci) is getting 2060 8GB or 3060 12GB. Even if i buy a 3060 oc 12GB, which are avaible new for a reasonable prices, I could theoretically "downgrade" them to a quite/slower mode, so there wil be sligtly slower, but also less power consuming, closer to FE-editions. Still will have the 12GB vram.

@HelixGalaxy​ 

Ebay works, especially for PC 'used' parts. Normal for seller's to get a failed PC, strip out parts, and sell them on Ebay, that is where I got the picture I posted of the Dell card.

Normally, hard to get parts are more expensive.

Look at Ebay today (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=rtx2060&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p4624852.m570.l1313) and it is easy to get an RTX2060, some retail packaging, others HP or Dell even. Want Founder's Editions, same thing, see https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=video+card+founders+edition&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1311&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=rtx2060&_osacat=0.

Of course, I'm not sure this works in Sweden.