Hi - Hope this is the right forum section. I have a Dell Optiplex 7010 Tower. 8GB RAM and 500GB Sata drive. No GPU.
Wondering if you can help me get some hardware to get the game running better. It runs well now on low quality … would like to see better graphics if possible. The tower has the standard power supply. Can upgrade it if you let me know which model would work in order to get a new GPU that goes with that.
Any help is appreciated
thanks
Need a bit more information to help you;
If you only need a GPU then something like a GeForce GTX 1660, not sure what the equivalent AMD card would be, would do wonders for you. Might need a PSU upgrade too though.
I guess one could ask the question, how much are you willing to spend? and would it be possible to build a brand new PC for the same price?
Thanks for the quick reply. Some more info 
I am willing to spend about 150-200 euros there … I am not asking to make the game look perfect, but at least get it a bit better. What would you go for ?
thanks
SSD will probably be a better overall upgrade due to much faster system boot and general application performance improvement.
Any GPU should be a significant improvement but be wary of power requirements. I suggest any of Geforce GTX960/970/980.
i’m currently using a Geforce GTX 970 with my i5-6400. it’s plenty capable for EVE, for a second data point i played through doom 2016 at 1080p, high settings, median 90fps, worst 35fps. it uses two 12V connectors.
Find the 12V amp rating of your power supply (maybe printed on its side).
Count the 12V power cables (with 6 pin connectors).
Confirm you meet the 12V amps and connector requirements of the GPU.
Even if those are met, the PSU may not have enough wattage, but you have good chances with recent cards as the past couple GPU generations have been very kind on power requirements, e.g. chart via 2015 tomshardware
Also, I realize that this is a ton of information. Please don’t be intimidated. It might seem complicated, but it’s really not that bad. Plus, you play Eve, which is like, 10 times more complicated.
Okay, an SSD will improve things like boot times and load times. A graphics card will allow you to make things prettier and, since you have intel integrated graphics, allow you to play a lot of games that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Personally, I recommend both, but it you’re only going to get one upgrade, I’d go with the graphics card.
Okay, when it comes to a graphics card, the average person wants to look at four things, (1) what is the wattage on your PSU, (2) does it have a 6-pin or 8-pin power connector (or no PCIe power connectors at all), (3) what exact PCIe slot you have (i.e. PCIe 4.0, PCIe 3.0), and (4) what display connectors it has. So, graphics cards often take a lot of juice. In fact, they might even take more than can be supplied through the PCIe slot.
So, not only do you need to make sure your PSU has enough wattage, but also if it can provide additional power through a 6 or 8 pin connector. Now, I tried looking up the Optiplex 7010 computer, and found different versions. So, I’m going to make a guess that you have a 240 w PSU with no additional power connectors for a GPU, but can’t say for certain. So, you’ll need to verify that yourself by looking for an information sticker on the side of the PSU (it may be on the backside) and looking for the connectors. The connectors look like this, and usually have “PCIe” or “VGA” written on them.
Second, PCIe slots have more and more bandwidth as you move up the version numbers (how fast they can talk to the graphics card). And beefier cards tend to need more bandwidth. If you don’t give it to them, they’ll still work, but their performance will be throttled. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t pair a newer generation card with an older generation slot. They might have better features, support the latest version of directx, have a lower TDP (use less power), an attractive price point, and all that. Plus, you’re probably going to be rolling with a low end card that won’t need a lot of bandwidth anyway. So, in this particular case, you probably don’t need to worry about it.
Anyway, there’s a good chance that your PSU is only about 240w, and has no additional power connectors. Now, there are decent cards that don’t require auxiliary power connectors, but 240w is really low. Not only do I worry about the PSU being able to power low end cards when under load, but I’m also concerned over if they offer enough of a performance increase to even justify their cost.
So, you would probably want to upgrade the graphics card AND the PSU, but apparently some optiplex 0710’s have a slim tower that fits a proprietary PSU. If this is the case for you, you’d also need to get a new computer case as well (plus some tier 1 computer manufacturers can also sometimes use proprietary connectors, such as from the mobo to all the front panel stuff, so we would need to check that as well -I know good times. Got to love the tier 1 manufacturers).
So, before you go any further, I suggest you find out exactly what is in your computer. You can try posting an exact model number (usually found on a sticker on the back of the computer) for someone to look up, or crack open the case and take a look yourself. We need to know (1) what is the wattage of the PSU, (2) does it have any auxiliary power connectors for Graphics cards (probably not), (3) does it look to be the ATX size, or something different, and, while we’re at it, (4) tell us what monitor connections you have (you can always buy adapters, but it would be nice if your card had the right connections from the get go). And, if you can, (5) you might as well give us your motherboard model as well (printed on the Mobo, use CPU-Z, or look it up with your exact computer model number).
Hi and thanks for the long reply! I read every bit of it.
So, collected more info about PSU. You were right, it doesn’t have any VGA cables or cables that would go to GPU. The size is roughly 15x15cm I think it is the standard size.
The tag on the side and board photo added. and this is the full detail reference of the board (from sysinfo). It look like it has 2 x PCIe x16 v2.0.
I was thinking … if the PSU size is standard size, I found new ones for 500W for about 60 euros, that would get me a nice GPU to with and if money left/next upgrade can be an SDD.
Is that realistic ? If so, any PSU recommendation ?
thanks!
Alright, that PSU looks to be a normal sized ATX PSU, so that’s great news, as it means standard PSU’s will fit your case. Anyway, 275 watts is still low, so I do recommend a PSU upgrade.
Okay, I don’t know if you have a preference, but I thought I’d provide an AMD and an Nvidia option. Now, I could get into the differences between the brands, but I think you’ll be happy with either one. My AMD selection is slightly more powerful than the Nvidia option, but it also sucks down more juice and puts out more heat. That’s not a super big deal since you have to buy a new PSU either way, but it will cost you more in electricity over time.
AMD
You could probably get away with a 500W PSU, but you need a new PSU anyway, and the price difference is only 7 bucks.
Total Price - $195
Monitor Connectors - 1x HDMI, 1x DVI, 3x Display Port
XFX Radeon RX 570 8gb - $140
Thermaltake 600W PSU - $55
NVidia -
Total Price - $200
Monitor Connectors 1x HDMI, 1x DVI, 1x Display Port
Zotac GTX 1650 4gb - $160
Thermaltake 430W PSU - $40
Okay, both of these cards are similar enough in performance to my GTX 1060, that I have a pretty good feel for how they should perform. So, you should be able to multibox at least 4 Eve clients at 1080p and 30fps with good settings. You will be able to do some 4K gaming (such as Eve), but you’ll struggle to get decent framerates at 4k even with low settings in most modern games. You should, however, be able to maintain 60FPS in modern games at 1080p with high settings (turn them down a scoach from the most demanding graphical settings). And that’s what I do. I run a few games at 4k or 2560x1440, but I run most at 1080p because I think the higher framerate and graphical settings go a lot further towards improving the gaming experience than a resolution about 1080p.
Anyway, I know these options are at the upper limit of your price range, and don’t leave anything left over for an SSD. But, this is what I would do if I were in your shoes. You can always add an SSD later when you get the funds.
Anyway, hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions, or if you want to go with another route.
thanks for this. Looks like the AMD route is more likely. Question regarding BIOS, Board, processor. Will it be an issue supporting this GPU ? Maybe the CPU is old and can pose an issue ? as I think it is 3rd Generation.
I found this locally, can you check and let me know if the choice is ok please :
www.megekko.nl
thanks
I’ve never encountered any problems like that. Sometimes I’ll have to update the bios to support a newer CPU, but never a graphics card. But, yeah, there are 2 other things to check: (1) if the card is too long for your case and (2) if there is a driver for your particular OS.
Anyway, the card isn’t particularly long, so it shouldn’t be an issue, but you can check if you want to be sure. The card length is 243 mm (you should measure from the back of the case along the slot, and make sure that card wouldn’t extend into the hard drive cages, or anything like that).
You can find the drivers here. Crazy -it looks like they don’t have drivers for windows 8 or 32bit versions of windows. Well, at least we know you have a 64bit version of window, since you’re playing Eve. Hopefully, you don’t have windows 8. I mean, it might work with the windows 7 driver, but I don’t know for certain.
Damn. That’s a high price for that card. Can you find any other variations of the RX570 that are cheaper (i.e. one made by like Gigabyte, EVGA, MSI)?
I am running Windows 10 so shouldnt be an issue there.
I found this one :
A bit cheaper. Would it do ?
Give me a few minutes. I want to see what’s available on that site.
Okay, I like to look at ratings to get feel for things like production quality. If I see a bunch of 1 or 2 star reviews, it’s usually because the component is failing at a high rate. The problem with the Asrock card, however, is only 2 people left ratings on Amazon, which isn’t enough to gauge the failure rate of the card. So, I’m going to suggest the MSI Radeon RX 570. It’s getting good ratings, and it will save you a few dollars over the XFX version. Note that it has the same monitor connections and also has 8GB of VRAM.
Understood. Regarding PSU’s, can I ask you to have a glance at the page please ? Just in case something is more interesting.
Thanks
Yeah, I’d roll with the one you picked out. It meets the recommended wattage for the MSI card, has an 8pin connector, and an attractive price. Do note, however, that it has LED lights. I like LED’s but some guys don’t.
Anything else?
Yes … thanks for the above.
Let’s say plan B : No PSU update and get a lower end GPU. Something that does not require being plugged in the PSU. I think I saw 2 models that might qualify :
Asus-AREZ-RX560-O4G-EVO - 86 eur
I don’t see any cable socket in it …
or :
Sapphire-11233-02-20G-AMD-Radeon-R5-230-2GB for 69 euro
Same link (cant paste links for some reason)
Would that improve the performance reasonably? or not worth investing in that option ? as it could be much cheaper.
thanks
looks like option 1 requires 400W min … so that is off
No. The R5-230 has comparable performance to integrated graphics. It would pretty much be a lateral move, not an upgrade.
Now, there is the Nvidia GeForce GT 1030. It says that it requires a 300w PSU, but video card manufacturers seem to err on the side of caution when recommending PSU wattage. So, it will probably work with your current PSU. Now, it is better than what you currently have, and will let you turn up your graphics settings in Eve by some amount, but it seems crazy to spend 85 bucks on such a small upgrade.
Yeah, it sucks that you have to buy a new PSU to upgrade your graphics card, but you’d get much better performance and more life out of a beefier card. And remember, if you decide to build a new computer, you can take the PSU, graphics card, and SSD, and put it in the new one. In fact, over the past 20 years, I think I’ve only built 3 computers from scratch (and I still have an optical drive that is like 15 years old). Everything else was upgrades. A new graphics card here, a replaced PSU there, occasionally a new CPU/Mobo/RAM. You know what I mean?
Anyway, I’ve got to run. I’ll check back in later today.
Makes sense. Just thought I would cover my basis and ask about this.
I think I will consider going for a new box and sell this one. As if I swap things around I wont be able to sell it any value…
I will keep on browsing! thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
