XPS 8700 nVidia GTX video card upgrades,

I have a xps 8700, i7 4770k @ 3.40ghz, 12 gb of ram, gtx 645. I want to upgrade my graphics card to either a 1060 or a 1050 ti, I am wondering does my computer have a 6 pin connector needed for the 1060? And does it have enough power for to run the 1060 or the 1050 ti? I just want to upgrade my graphics card and not have to upgrade anything else in the process like the power supply, so would these graphics cards work with my pc?And which graphics card would you prefer?

Yes the XPS 8700 has a 6 pin connector, although with a GTX 1060, will have to use the adapter included with GPU to make it an 8 pin one. Still should have enough power.

The 1050 won't likely be any more powerful than the GTX 645 (Correction), although the 1050 Ti may be stronger. Note that the GTX 645 has held its price well on eBay, an indicator that it's a decent card. Most Dell OEM cards that shipped with the XPS 8700 can be had for $25 or less & why I have three extra in SFF PC's.

So considering your PSU, the 1050 Ti will be the best match, a GTX 1060 may run well, although will eventually require a PSU upgrade to bring out the beast in both the CPU & GPU (overclocking). I mean, what's the point in these upgrades w/out jacking up the performance, plus you have an unlocked CPU that with the Intel XTU utility, can also benefit by adjusting the controllers, can sync all cores to run at the same frequency.

That's why I purchased a EVGA G3 550W Gold PSU, is small & a near drop in fit in the XPS 8700. I was having random crashes which worsened with a MSI GTX 960 & i7-4790K installed, so by the time I upgraded to a EVGA GTX 1060 SSC (6GB GDDR5, 192 bit), also had the cash for the PSU upgrade.

Note that many (if not all) of the PSU's in the XPS 8700 were no longer built by Delta Electronics, those were reliable units, Dell went with a lower cost brand in 2013. And it shows, when I pulled the original out, felt as though built from recycled beer cans, the EVGA G3 550W weighed 3x more & near the same size. Just a wee bit tight near the optical drive, yet no problem, and best of all, fully modular, so only the cables needed has to be installed. Just be careful, as it has twin 4 pin CPU power connectors, match the right one carefully with a magnifying glass. Because if the wrong 4 pin connector is forced in, will cause permanent damage the the MB.

Note that this would apply with most any new PSU, as most all has twin 4 pin ATX power connectors, not just the one I purchased. Dell, in trying to save 50 cents, didn't provide twin ATX power connectors on the MB, nor provided a real x4 PCIe connection so that we could run a PCIe x4 M.2 NVMe SSD, the one that looks to be a x4 one is fake (x1 instead). Just something to sucker consumers to purchase the PC if seen online.

Good Luck!

Cat

GTX 1060 is fine with the stock PSU. if the card has a single six pin it will be fine. If it has an 8 pin, and it comes with a dual six pin to 8 pin adapter, then use it, otherwise you can buy them on eBay for about $7 shipped.

go to page 31 of this thread, scroll to the bottom and there is a link. If I post a link to eBay, my response will be moderated. "DUAL 6 PIN TO 8 PIN PCIE" power cable is what you need.

as far as brands, I like MSI graphics cards and have had good success but to be honest, the differences are fairly small between different GTX 1060 cards.

The reasons I like the MSI gaming cards are 1) they fit well 2) the fans are quiet under a load and 3) the fans are silent at idle as they spin down to zero RPM.

good luck.

The good thing about most of the GTX 1060 cards that I've seen, regardless of brand, is that most ships with the needed 6 to 8 pin adapter, and sometimes a poster or small metal badge to place on the computer. I have two, the EVGA GTX 1060 SSC & FTW  series, and both has been great cards, runs on a 4K monitor w/out issue & the max spec is 8K, although I don't see myself with one of those monitors for years, due to price.

For gaming, the GTX 1060 is best on a 1080 (FHD or 1440p (2K) monitor, while one can use the card on 4K, gaming may suffer. Note that it's best to get the 6GB version as opposed to the 3GB version, not a lot of difference in price, yet a lot more performance.

Cool thing about the 1060, it's not actually a 'budget' GPU, being 192 bit. I was originally going to get an MSI version, but due to my experience with the GTX 960 2GB just after release, wasn't going that route again. Reference design, mostly plastic body & awful cooling, probably because of the reference design fan & being 90% plastic. An utter waste of $200 for what was supposed to be a card that separated itself from the budget status, and at 128 bit bus, most certainly wasn't a departure.

So that's why I gave EVGA a shot & have never looked back. BTW, also have one of their GTX 1070 FTW series in my arsenal, and am pulling the trigger on the 1070 Ti FTW 2 as soon as I see reviews posted to the good. Release is scheduled for November 2, 2017 & should also run in the XPS 8700, although most certainly a PSU upgrade would be required for those who haven't already upgraded. Should I do so, my current GTX 1070 that I've had for over a year will go into my XPS 8700.

speccy.piriform.com/.../R2hyInI7b5BiEgBx4TPKaHu

Cat

Cool thing about the 1060, it's not actually a 'budget' GPU, being 192 bit. I was originally going to get an MSI version, but due to my experience with the GTX 960 2GB just after release, wasn't going that route again. Reference design, mostly plastic body & awful cooling, probably because of the reference design fan & being 90% plastic. An utter waste of $200 for what was supposed to be a card that separated itself from the budget status, and at 128 bit bus, most certainly wasn't a departure.

Two gripes about your post.

1) MSI makes sixteen different GTX 960 cards. The fact that you didn't like one style seems more of a choice of that style vs the manufacturer. If you didn't like the reference design don't buy that style card.

2) All GTX 960 cards had a 128 bit memory interface because that is how nVidia designed that chip. 

https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-960/specifications

So that's why I gave EVGA a shot & have never looked back. BTW, also have one of their GTX 1070 FTW

I trust you have applied the thermal mods to correct the design defects in the EVGA 1070 FTW card.

~ finally ~

please don't mis-assume I'm attacking your post or your choice of card. EVGA makes good stuff, so does Gigabyte, Asus  and ( my personal preference) MSI.

All manufacturers have their high points and their low points on individual models. 

(my opinion ) is that in the GTX 1060 class is there is very little to differentiate the cards from each other except for the card style and the fan layout. The GPU leaves only a little room for overclocking as does the memory. 

Each card is slightly different than the rest, however in the end if you overclock the card slightly and overclock the memory on the card slightly the performance of all the cards tend to settle into the "really can't tell the difference" category.

Dan, in regards to the thermal pads on the GTX 1070, since it was so new when received & also the notice from EVGA, while I did initially order the thermal pads, changed my mind about going about it & allowed EVGA to perform the work.

They didn't charge for shipping (both ways), having purchased a couple of PSU's from them not long before (as well as another after) & I even got to keep the set of pads received for just in case needed again (doubt I will).

However, I did apply the recommended firmware update, which EVGA stated 'should' take care of most heat related issues, and have adjusted the fan curve to ramp up at lower usage (100% at 50% load). Which I rarely meet, unless benchmarking.

To be fair to MSI, yes it was my decision to go with the reference design, was under educated at the time as to what this meant, the purchase was only 2-3 weeks after launch. Had I waited another two weeks, EVGA had a 4GB version that was smaller, with 4GB RAM for only $40 more, and maybe best of all, would have had less scraped knuckles in the process. That particular GTX 960 is a fairly large size card to install in mini-towers, here's the exact one I have.

www.techpowerup.com/.../msi-gtx-960

Furthermore, that GTX 960 has been in at least 5 more PC's since initial purchase, one of which has an open top ventilation system. I sit a beer on my desktop near my mouse, our kitty got entangled in the cord & the beer spilled in the PC. My wife thought it was 'just on top' and didn't want me to shove my foot up the kitty's ***,  so wiped it up, not knowing it went downwards.

Well, about a minute after firing it up, the screen started looking funny (all kinds of artifacts) & knew that something was up & forced a shutdown. Sure enough, the GPU caught most of that beer & I had to carefully remove it, disassemble, air dry all by fan after wiping out as much as possible, reapply thermal paste & reassemble, While there was a very strong smell of beer when fired up for about 10 minutes from the heatsink, the card was otherwise fine & has had no issues since......other than it can't hold a candle to the GTX 1060.:-)

So looking back, I suppose the MSI GTX 960 was a good card & better than a couple I own, many wouldn't had survived, maybe it was the plastic shell that held the excess from dripping onto the I/O panel & SATA ports, where much more damage, to include a possible fire, may had happened.

Lesson learned, have never sat any more beverages near a PC & walked off.:-)

As far as the performance difference between the GTX 645 & 1050, may not see much difference on the WEI chart, although may with the Ti version or better yet, the 1060. Chances are, the sale of the GTX 645 can defray a nice portion of the cost, last time I looked, these were still going for upwards of $75 on eBay. Much more powerful than the other card Dell installed in most XPS 8700's, the Radeon 7570, while 1GB GDDR5, still can't surpass the 900MHz mark, even if overclocked.

Cat

My post go through?

Hi Everyone,

This is my first time posting in this community and you've probably guessed it, it is because i'm stumped and don't know what to do.

I have a stock xps 8700, i7-4770, 16 gig ram with a Gtx 760. My main issue with this upgrade comes from the lack of power for my monitor. I who am a noob bought a 144hz 27in Gsync Dell monitor the S2716DG without knowing my graphics card can't even hope to make half of the most of it. So now i want to upgrade to be able to play triple A gaming titles on 2560x1440p at good frame rates 60+ maxed out settings and 144hz on low to med settings on old fps games.

Honestly, if i could get a 1080 ti into my pc i'd be happy but i'm not sure its possible to even run it inside of the small xps case without burning my insides to bits.

So my main question is between the 1070 ti/1080/1080 ti which one can i get into my pc and be able to modify my pc to make it work without getting overly expensive to the point i may as well buy a new pc. I would like to be able to get the strongest one of the three that i can safely run with modifications and upgrades(Psu, Fan, Heatsink) and that'll run with my gaming monitor without overheating and destroying my pc or freezin crashing etc.

I do a lot of gaming for long stretches so i'm very worried about cooling. Can someone please offer me some insight on which i should choose and possible what pc upgrades to go with it like certain PSU Watt or fan, etc. It would be appreciated. Although I've seen 1070's in the xps i've seen nothing higher than the regular 1070.

Is it possible to do any of the stronger cards?

AD-1. you can (likely) install a regular 1070 or 1080 in that system (the EVGA FTW Series), although you'll surely need a GPU upgrade as well. Although didn't have to, I used the near drop in fir EVGA G3 500 Gold Rated (& Fully Modular) to replace the stock XPS 8700 PSU for my 6GB GDDR5 GTX 1060 FTW, believe even if it wasn't needed, system freezing stopped the day I did. Note that there's only a couple of tabs on the MB side of the wall that needs to be pushed in a bit for the PSU swap, you'll see these, only two. Will still be larger (a bit longer), just no wider. So may have to re-route the optical drive & top USB ports just a bit to plug in your cables. Be sure to start with those at the beck, and when getting to the twin ATX power cable, you'll see that there's only a single 4 pin connection on MB.

No problem, although make sure to have a magnifying glass to ensure you select the correct wire, if the wrong one is chosen & forced in, there goes your MB & maybe more. The shape is just a bit off between the two plugs, should be easy to match both when holding the old & new side by side under a $2  magnifying glass. The plug that's different will stand out like a sore thumb, tape this off for future reference w/out damaging the cable.

Since it looks like you have a gaming monitor, I'm going to assume you desire to game, the  GTX 1060 won't cut it with a 144 Hz 2K monitor to compete with anyone. You'll need a  GTX 1070 minimum, which is on the PC I'm typing this post on, a decent card (EVGA GTX 1070 FTW, original release). You may want to note the card's measurement, could be for just a few more dollars, can get the more powerful 1080 in there, am not sure about the more expensive 1070/1080 Ti versions. Right now, I believe most of the available 1070 Ti versions are the Founder's Edition (reference style), these will be longer & less chance of fitting. Plus will run warmer, take my lesson as yours, don't purchase a reference card if you plan to push it hard. The single fan setup will leave a lot of hot air trapped inside.

I'd like a retail 1070 Ti for myself, then would move this 1070 in the XPS 8700, the 550W Gold Rated PSU will be enough power for a single card setup (NVIDIA based), plus the same i7-4770 as yours. It won't be enough for the Radeon Vega series, these are power hogs.

One warning to the wise, make sure you have all of your HDD/SSD  SATA cables installed before the GPU, or will have to be removing the card to do so, risking damage & more scraped knuckles every time you move it. May be a good idea to plug an extra (or two) in, and leave it somewhere for easy access later.

And this one will indeed be a knuckle scraper, these are huge & heavy cards, if by chance your is one of the models that shipped with a GTX 645, good to have that supporting brace, as most shipped with a wimpy AMD (OEM) Radeon 7570, although 1GB GDDR5, can't even make the GHz level, cannot find any tool to unlock this to get a 7.0 WEI score (Win 7 Ultimate) by feeding just a bit extra voltage. Oddly, the same card scores 6.9 in every PC I've installed it in, be it a PCIe x16 1st through 3rd gen. It is what it is, all I can say, yet 1GB GDDR5 is still better than 2GB DDR3, so have three of these low profile GPU's in SFF/DT style PC's, can be found on eBay for less than $25 shipped. Not the case with the GTX 645, these still goes for close to $100. Great performance for a single width card.

Back in 2015, I installed a large, yet lightweight MSI 960 (2GB GDDR5) reference style card, this is how I know it has the room, the GTX 1070 will be a bit longer, yet not quite as wide. My guess is that's going to be your best chance at upgrade (haven't checked out GTX 1080 dimensions).

Yet should you get the 1070 installed, you'll love it! Use with Displayport 1.2 cable if the monitor has the port for the best possible performance, these cards are rated for DP 1.4, way ahead of it's time, while the HDMI connection (may) a step backwards by now. These specs are continually improving, so expect any improvement in HDMI over DP (& still won't come out ahead).

Good Luck!

Cat

I have a stock xps 8700, i7-4770, 16 gig ram with a Gtx 760. My main issue with this upgrade comes from the lack of power for my monitor. I who am a noob bought a 144hz 27in Gsync Dell monitor the S2716DG without knowing my graphics card can't even hope to make half of the most of it. So now i want to upgrade to be able to play triple A gaming titles on 2560x1440p at good frame rates 60+ maxed out settings and 144hz on low to med settings on old fps games.

You can fit a GTX 1080ti and that's what I would get for a 1440p Gsync monitor.

You must update BIOS to A10 for Win7/8.1 or A11 for Win10.

You will also need a new power supply. I'd go for a 650W top rated unit from Seasonic like a focusPlus or an EVGA G3 650

Thank you both for weighing in with your experience and knowledge in this matter. It has truly been mind boggling for me ever since i decided to do an upgrade.  After doing more research, do i have any other options for cooling besides:

1. Cryorig H7 Heatsink

2. Replacing the stock exhaust fan at the top back of the case.

3.Including a front in take fan.

I believe Dan you did all these and showed pictures that i found in various topic threads.

With the case being so small this is all I've been able to see anyone do to modify their 8700's to cool the GPU and system. I have yet to see anyone do a 1080/1080 ti or even a 1070 ti so i'm worried about cooling.

There's also the hybrid options like this one:

www.evga.com/.../product.aspx

I'm also not sure if i could install that and possibly place the part with the fan near the front where i saw you placed an intake fan at Dan, the front bottom of the case to the right of their card in that open area by the grill. Though i have heard that the tubes are very rigid so now that i'm thinking about it.. i'm not even sure if a hyrbid card would be able to work.

Cooling definitely seems to be a big issue now. Do you think there is a way to sufficiently cool a 1080 or 1080 ti even a 1070 ti.

No overclocks at all just the card themselves normal.

Is there a passable way to cool them or am i venturing into the territory of the unknown?

I would love to find a cooling solution to use with the xps 8700. Unfortunately, since i don't know how to remove or put in.. any type of parts i'll have to pay a technician to do so. So i can't experiment with no drawbacks.

Is it possible to modify the xps 8700 to be capable of cooling those cards without frying my pc or am i doomed to have to get a different case or just a regular 1070 with the earlier mentioned cooling options. Could you two please shed some light on this for me please.

AC-1,

You can fit a 1080ti on the dell XPS-8900 it will have a snug fit but it will fit. You don't have to cut anything just manuever it properly. You just need to remove the HDD cage hanging on the side and relocate the harddrive below the dvd drive.

You also need to upgrade your PSU to at least a 650w and upgrade the aux fans but the CPU fan is fine as is. Also put a front fan as well.

The 1080ti generates less heat than a 980ti which I have and I use the XPS to mine Bitcoin 24/7 and with the right fan setup the 980ti GPU hums at 100% with only 64°C and all of the components inside hovers between 30-40°C. So if a 980ti which produces a lot of heat can run smoothly inside the XPS case then 1080ti should not be a problem. I currently have a ROG 1080ti which I tried just for fun and it fits but the 1080ti but this bad boy is going into a custom rig unless i change my mind.

Thank you everyone your posts, I've decided to do the 1080 ti after reading them all.

I do have some questions though for clarification on cooling.

So if i replace the rear exhaust fan with a stronger one, change out the psu for a 650 or higher like the ones Dan H or Cat and you suggest to me, and remove the HDD cage and place a(i'm still not sure which size) 92mm or 120mm at the bottom(front intake fan) and possibly another fan above that.. it should keep the temps in control gaming at 2560x1440p 144hz gsync?

when you say auxiliary fan, your speaking of changing out the rear exhaust fan for a much better one right?

I have my OS on my msata underneath/near the GPU and one HDD so taking out the cage is fine and relocating the HDD. The heaviest thing i do is gaming, no type of rendering or photoshop none of that stuff just general use and gaming.

Will making all those changes keep my temps cool and my msata and hard drive in a safe temp range so my gpu doesn't burn them to death?

This would be with using the 1080 ti Founder's edition either the Nvidia's or Evga's version in the XPS 8700 case.

rear case fan is 92mm.  I used a Noctua NF-B9. It got it on amazon, and looks like current pricing is about $15. The fan includes a splitter. This allows the single fan header on the board to run the rear exhaust and the front intake.

I used a 120mm front case fan that I had sitting around. It is a cougar, but I don't have the part number handy.I think a 140mm would fit.

I'm not a fan of the blower style cards. I find them to be noisy. Some like them. YMMV

I like the dual fan versions but the drawback of the dual fan style is you have to get the hot air out of of the case else it will just collect and swirl around -- which is why the front case fan helps.

cutting and drilling holes you have to just wing it because the front panel has some openings. It took me about an hour to do, but it wasn't pretty -- and I only had about an hour to get it done.

- - - - OR - - - -

Just buy a new case and move everything. It will be quieter, run cooler have fan locations ready to install, provide access to the backside of the MoBo without having to remove the Mobo from the case. The better cases have the power supply on the bottom and the intake air from the PSU pulls from the bottom of the case so it runs cooler.  To be candid, after doing the case mods, I think I'd buy a new case before doing it again.

There are literally a gazillion cases out there and the hardest part of doing this is matching the pinout of the on-off button to the mobo, and that's been solved already.  details are in this thread.

en.community.dell.com/.../19629462

Give it some thought. there are some really good cases in the $75 price range.