Adding Graphics Card to Dell Optiplex

[ThaCrip]

On 7/13/2017 at 7:25 PM, MVC said:

Yup , I've seen people on youtube use the 1050 ti with the same processor I have , it doesn't bottleneck the 1050ti at all . I've seen people pairing it with a 1060 too which would be the maximum as you start seeing the bottleneck with a 1060-1070

 

Ill assume you got a decent quad core with your comment there. but assuming you do... then that sounds right in that the 1050 ti will be the bottleneck and not the CPU in general. in my case, like you already know from reading above etc, my CPU is mainly the limiting factor when frame rates start to drop quite a bit even though the GPU itself, at least on GTA 5 with max settings @ 1080p, can be the limiting factor here and there even though when it is, it's minimal as the FPS seems to stay around 50fps+ when the GPU is the problem.

 

but given what you said with the 1060/1070... that sounds about right off the top of my head before a fairly modern quad core CPU might start to become the bottleneck.

 

p.s. before buying the 1050 Ti i was debating on whether i was going to need to upgrade my i3 CPU to a i5 CPU (which would have cost roughly $100 by the time i got that along with a decent heatsink/fan) but seeing how it performs with my i3-2120 CPU(dual core) it's not worth it and ill just put that money towards a whole new system down the road when my current one becomes outdated.

 

side note: i plan on trying Mafia III here soon (probably within the next month or so) which seems to be less optimized than GTA 5. so with that game i expect ill be seeing clearly worse FPS than i am with GTA 5 as it appears my FPS might be borderline (i just hope the frame rate stays atleast 30-ish (or higher) most of the time) but i just can't see it being worth investing roughly $100 into my current system which can't use more than Ivy Bridge(3rd gen) range of CPU's anyways. my current one is Sandy Bridge(2nd gen) and Intel is currently on 7th generation which i imagine should be a solid boost with the current generation over the earlier ones of similar Ghz like i got.

[MVC]

19 hours ago, ThaCrip said:

 

Ill assume you got a decent quad core with your comment there. but assuming you do... then that sounds right in that the 1050 ti will be the bottleneck and not the CPU in general. in my case, like you already know from reading above etc, my CPU is mainly the limiting factor when frame rates start to drop quite a bit even though the GPU itself, at least on GTA 5 with max settings @ 1080p, can be the limiting factor here and there even though when it is, it's minimal as the FPS seems to stay around 50fps+ when the GPU is the problem.

 

but given what you said with the 1060/1070... that sounds about right off the top of my head before a fairly modern quad core CPU might start to become the bottleneck.

 

p.s. before buying the 1050 Ti i was debating on whether i was going to need to upgrade my i3 CPU to a i5 CPU (which would have cost roughly $100 by the time i got that along with a decent heatsink/fan) but seeing how it performs with my i3-2120 CPU(dual core) it's not worth it and ill just put that money towards a whole new system down the road when my current one becomes outdated.

 

side note: i plan on trying Mafia III here soon (probably within the next month or so) which seems to be less optimized than GTA 5. so with that game i expect ill be seeing clearly worse FPS than i am with GTA 5 as it appears my FPS might be borderline (i just hope the frame rate stays atleast 30-ish (or higher) most of the time) but i just can't see it being worth investing roughly $100 into my current system which can't use more than Ivy Bridge(3rd gen) range of CPU's anyways. my current one is Sandy Bridge(2nd gen) and Intel is currently on 7th generation which i imagine should be a solid boost with the current generation over the earlier ones of similar Ghz like i got.

Actually , my cpu is really old too , in fact , it's a sandy bridge too. I'm surprised at how the i5-2400 performs even in 2017 , it's old but still really good , you can get the i5-2400 for like 50-60$ on ebay or probably cheaper if you're lucky

[The Evil Overlord]

14 minutes ago, MVC said:

Actually , my cpu is really old too , in fact , it's a sandy bridge too. I'm surprised at how the i5-2400 performs even in 2017 , it's old but still really good , you can get the i5-2400 for like 50-60$ on ebay or probably cheaper if you're lucky

Then I'd have to in good conscience recommend a 7XX or 9XX series card, the 7XX series are just as good for your rig and you stand to potentially see little, if any difference overall

[ThaCrip]

3 hours ago, MVC said:

Actually , my cpu is really old too , in fact , it's a sandy bridge too. I'm surprised at how the i5-2400 performs even in 2017 , it's old but still really good , you can get the i5-2400 for like 50-60$ on ebay or probably cheaper if you're lucky

 

Yeah, i think your price estimates are right. but the problem is i got to buy a decent heatsink/fan for the i5 Ivy Bridge Ebay purchase which seems to be roughly another $30 or so on top of the i5 Ivy Bridge CPU price. that's why i initially said about $100 to upgrade from my i3 to a i5 on my motherboard.

 

so that's why i figure.... given my performance i am getting with my i3 i am better off avoiding the CPU upgrade (i.e. i3 Sandy Bridge to a i5 Ivy Bridge on my current motherboard) and just investing that money into a more up to date system when my current setup becomes outdated. will be a more efficient use of $$$ that way. but i guess it just depends as Mafia III is not all that optimized and i suspect a i5 upgrade would help but it's probably not worth spending another $100 or so (maybe a bit less if i am lucky) just to get one game running noticeably, but not a lot, better. if i could get the CPU for next to nothing and then buy say a 'Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO' (which is currently $29.99) it might be worth it but considering ill need that 212 Evo heatsink/fan that basically ends up making the CPU upgrade much less appealing.

 

but yeah, any semi recent i5 quad core range seems to be a strong performer. i could have went with a quad core back when i bought my mobo/cpu/ram back in May 2012 but a i5 was quite a bit more than the i3 (i want to say roughly another $100 or so) while the i3 was easily good enough back at that time (just seemed to offer more bang-for-the-buck back in May 2012 even though now it would have paid off a bit to have a quad core). hell, even today the i3 is not bad considering it's only a dual core.

 

 

2 hours ago, The Evil Overlord said:

Then I'd have to in good conscience recommend a 7XX or 9XX series card, the 7XX series are just as good for your rig and you stand to potentially see little, if any difference overall

 

I read in a review on the 1050 Ti that they specifically mentioned one of those 9xx range cards (i think it was a 960 card) being basically identical to the 1050 Ti performance but the 1050 Ti consumes less power. so the 1050 Ti is overall better but obviously not worth it if you already got that 960 card(assuming that was the one they said was the same performance as the 1050 Ti).

[MVC]

1 hour ago, ThaCrip said:

 

Yeah, i think your price estimates are right. but the problem is i got to buy a decent heatsink/fan for the i5 Ivy Bridge Ebay purchase which seems to be roughly another $30 or so on top of the i5 Ivy Bridge CPU price. that's why i initially said about $100 to upgrade from my i3 to a i5 on my motherboard.

 

so that's why i figure.... given my performance i am getting with my i3 i am better off avoiding the CPU upgrade (i.e. i3 Sandy Bridge to a i5 Ivy Bridge on my current motherboard) and just investing that money into a more up to date system when my current setup becomes outdated. will be a more efficient use of $$$ that way. but i guess it just depends as Mafia III is not all that optimized and i suspect a i5 upgrade would help but it's probably not worth spending another $100 or so (maybe a bit less if i am lucky) just to get one game running noticeably, but not a lot, better. if i could get the CPU for next to nothing and then buy say a 'Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO' (which is currently $29.99) it might be worth it but considering ill need that 212 Evo heatsink/fan that basically ends up making the CPU upgrade much less appealing.

 

but yeah, any semi recent i5 quad core range seems to be a strong performer. i could have went with a quad core back when i bought my mobo/cpu/ram back in May 2012 but a i5 was quite a bit more than the i3 (i want to say roughly another $100 or so) while the i3 was easily good enough back at that time (just seemed to offer more bang-for-the-buck back in May 2012 even though now it would have paid off a bit to have a quad core). hell, even today the i3 is not bad considering it's only a dual core.

 

 

 

I read in a review on the 1050 Ti that they specifically mentioned one of those 9xx range cards (i think it was a 960 card) being basically identical to the 1050 Ti performance but the 1050 Ti consumes less power. so the 1050 Ti is overall better but obviously not worth it if you already got that 960 card(assuming that was the one they said was the same performance as the 1050 Ti).

yes  ,the 960 and 1050ti are close in performance , the 1050ti is cheaper , newer and is more power efficient , I've seen a couple of benchmarks the other day comparing both those cards and the 1050ti wwas slightly better. 

[MVC]

is there a difference between these two?
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487291&cm_re=gtx_1050_ti-_-14-487-291-_-Product
and
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125916&cm_re=gtx_1050_ti-_-14-125-916-_-Product

the gigabyte is 194$ with taxes and the evga 1050ti sc is 213$ with shipping and taxes

[Jim K Global Moderator]

The eVGA is running at slightly higher clock speeds....will you notice it....doubt it.  Worth the extra money /shrug  Maybe get the one with free shipping.

[MVC]

13 minutes ago, Jim K said:

The eVGA is running at slightly higher clock speeds....will you notice it....doubt it.  Worth the extra money /shrug  Maybe get the one with free shipping.

Alrighty thank you btw,  do you know why prices change constantly?  Like,  literally, the gigabyte is now 214$ ?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Dunno. Prices go up and prices go down. If those two cards are within a few bucks of each other... I'd go with the EVGA.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

1 hour ago, Jim K said:

Dunno. Prices go up and prices go down. If those two cards are within a few bucks of each other... I'd go with the EVGA.

Ditto. Get the EVGA. It has better warranty. And prices fluctuate daily, even hourly, I noticed on Amazon.

[Circaflex]

4 hours ago, MVC said:

is there a difference between these two?
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487291&cm_re=gtx_1050_ti-_-14-487-291-_-Product
and
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125916&cm_re=gtx_1050_ti-_-14-125-916-_-Product

the gigabyte is 194$ with taxes and the evga 1050ti sc is 213$ with shipping and taxes

The SC is overclocked from the factory. I'd lean towards the eVGA because of support and the factory overclock for your scenario.

[MVC]

Thank you guys

[PGHammer]

I just installed the MSI GTX1050Ti GT OC (the dual-fan equivalent to the EVGA SC) in my own desktop, and I can safely say that whether the GPU is going to be a bottleneck is game-dependent.  If a game is an older one (ANNO 2205 is a major example), the GTX1050Ti ain't gonna bottleneck squat - unless you are talking 4K - and that is silly for a card at this end of the retail price scale.  My CPU is a great deal LESS than that of the OP - it's a G3258 clocked dead-stock; however, I have ANNO 2205 "firewalled" - every graphical setting jacked to the ceiling.  Smoother than Land'O'Lakes whipped butter.  Definitely capable of 1080p almost all day.

[xendrome]

BTW i'd go EVGA any day just because of their support/warranty.

[PGHammer]

45 minutes ago, xendrome said:

BTW i'd go EVGA any day just because of their support/warranty.

Nothing against EVGA - in fact, I had EVGA originally in mind (the GTX550Ti that was replaced was EVGA); if anything, blame mining; EVGA GPUs are heavily in demand among the miner crowd - even Amazon typically ran out of stock within 24 hours of restocking.  Contrariwise, the MSI I ordered instead was ordered on a Saturday, and arrived (via USPS!) today - and is now in use.

[Vvo]

The easiest way to identify if a geforce 1050/1050 ti card needs a psu connector to power it is to look at the number of fans the card has. More fans = needs psu connector to power the card.  One fan = no PSU connector needed 

[Rippleman]

just as an informational update in case anyone tries it, the 1050ti does NOT work with Small Form Factor Dell optiplex 780. Because I am always the curious type, I did actual try to install it. Because son has EVGA model, its double wide and high which means I actually had to take a grinder and cut out part of the chassis to fit it since the heat-sink faces left and not to the right. The pic doesn't have the 1050ti in the photo, just a crappy old card, but shows why you need to cut metal. The black plastic right (hard drive cradle) above the card also would have to be removed so you can only do this if you DON'T use a full size hard drive.

https://ibb.co/i3Awga

 

Now, it turns out after all this, the reason it doesn't work is because a optiplex 780 only provides 25 watts to the PCI. The 1050ti needs 35 watts. 

 

What a waste lol of time but I had to try. Maybe this post might save someone doing this if this post comes up in a google search

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PGHammer]

15 minutes ago, Vvo said:

The easiest way to identify if a geforce 1050/1050 ti card needs a psu connector to power it is to look at the number of fans the card has. More fans = needs psu connector to power the card.  One fan = no PSU connector needed 

However, neither the EVGA GTX 1050Ti SSC or MSI GTX 1050Ti GT OC (both are dual-fan models) require the extra power - which was a pleasant surprise to me (those were the two GPUs left standing before Miner Madness and Stock Shortages - even on Amazon - forced prices north)).  An even bigger surprise is how well this GPU works - even with a decided-weaksauce Pentium G CPU - my G3258/MSI Ti tag-team can still approach 1080p@30 fps (it falls just short @ 23 fps - in Ashes of the SIngularity - Escalation. (Ashes - Escalation is VERY much a quad-core CPU game - Stardock specs an i5 as the CPU floor; therefore 23 fps @1080p with a G3258 is nothing to sneeze at.  More like boggle at, instead.) I used the built-in benchmarking tool included with the game.

[Vvo]

 @PGHammer, I'm surprised of how EVGA managed to pull that off.

[PGHammer]

I'm not - the GTX 1050Ti has a 67 watt TDP; that is the lowest TDP for any desktop GTX Ti part ever. (In fact, it is eight watts lower than the previous TDP Miser - the GTX750Ti at 75 watts.)  The REAL boggle factor is that the newer part has four times the memory of the older part, along with that lower TDP.