This post is more than 5 years old
90 Posts
0
18242
Can put 2nd video card in XPS 8300?
I want to add a second video card to my new XPS 8300. Of course, there’s only one PCIe x16 slot. A PCIe x1 video card should do the trick, but I’ve read that some Dells don’t recognize them unless they’re in slot 1, which is of course occupied by the main video card.
Can anyone confirm whether an XPS 8300 will see a PCIe x1 video card in another slot besides slot 1?
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
1
June 6th, 2011 07:00
You cannot have a PCI X16 video card and then add PCI X1 video cards to the open pci-E slots.
You can put in a Video card that would support up to 3 monitors like a Radeon 5770 if the power supply is upgraded and the 5770 card fits in the case.
In Most cases other than for motherboards that have more than 1 PCI-E X16 video slot you cannot have more than 1 video card.
You can add additional Non Gamer monitors via USB VGA or USB DVI connectors.
If you want to add many more video cards then you need something like the Mac Pro that allows up to 4 PCI-E video cards and 8 Monitors.
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
0
June 3rd, 2011 21:00
Per the specs of the 8300 (see setup guide in the online manual section)
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
it only has 1 PCIe 16x slot and then 3 PCIe 1x slots. This means at most the 2nd card could be PCIe 1x, which limits you to some very low end options.
sudio
90 Posts
0
June 4th, 2011 00:00
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I know the 2nd card must be PCIe x1, and that it'll be a low end option. That's OK; this is for a 3rd monitor. My question is whether the XPS 8300 will even see a video card in slots other than slot 1 (the x16 slot). I've seen conflicting info on this.
sudio
90 Posts
0
June 6th, 2011 11:00
Thanks much for the reply. Good to know this is true not only of Dells but of most motherboards with one x16 slot. I’d prefer not to buy a new main video card (got a Radeon 5670 with the rig), so I’ll look into a USB solution.