Alienware X51 R2 Graphics Card Upgrade

Hi folks, I wonder whether a techy might be able to give me some advice.

I have a Alienware X51 R2 with a 330w power brick, 16go of RAM a Core i7 processer and a Geforce gtx 660 graphics card. In DCS 2.0 I have to have most graphics option at a low setting and get 60 - 70 fps. However, when the action starts ever second or so the fps drops to 20 - 30 creating an annoying stutter. If I replaced the existing graphics card would I be able to run higher settings and get rid of the stutter ? I'm looking at the following cards;

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4Go Superclocked GAMING EVGA-04G-P4-1962

04G-P4-1962-KR

or

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 - 4Go EVGA-04G-P4-2974-KR

GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 - 4Go

or

GeForce GTX 750 Ti WindForce 2 OC - 4 Go

Any thoughts or alternative propositions ?

Thanks in advance

GTX1060

As much VRAM as you can afford.

Graphics cards will rarely upgrade the visuals in DCS. Of course if you are going from a low end GPU it will help. I run a GTX 970 and the "4" (3.5+0.5)GBs of VRAM helps quite a bit, especially with my triple monitor setup. DCS uses mostly the CPU. That being said, chichlidfan is correct and you want as much VRAM in the GPU as you can afford. Depending on your CPU, if you can, I would suggest overclocking it, even if it's just a slight bit. This will help quite a bit.

Keep in mind a cpu over clock will need better than stock cooling. It's an H87 chipset so it may not overclockable. 330w is also on the weak end of psus. Is it an actual power brick? Or an internal psu? According to the specs you would need a gpu that uses 2 6pin and less than 175w.

Thanks for your replies guys,

I think that possibly the GTX1060 with need too much power (I only have 330w (to be verified)).

With respect to the power brick it is an external power source however, there may be a bottle neck when it is received in the PC, I'll have to look into that.

I currently have 2 go of Graphics card Ram and, if I understand correctly 4 go will be better and if possible 8 go would be great. I'll have to look into which cards would fit into my tiny PC and again the possible power problem.

I currently also have graphics card driver problems, my screen goes black briefly and I get a little box to tell me that "Display driver Nvidia Windows Kernel Mode driver has stopped responding". Something I hope would disappear if I change GPU. I've been trying all sorts of fixes to date to little avail.

Anyway, thank you again for your suggestions, have fun !

Thanks for your replies guys,

 

I think that possibly the GTX1060 with need too much power (I only have 330w (to be verified)).

 

With respect to the power brick it is an external power source however, there may be a bottle neck when it is received in the PC, I'll have to look into that.

 

I currently have 2 go of Graphics card Ram and, if I understand correctly 4 go will be better and if possible 8 go would be great. I'll have to look into which cards would fit into my tiny PC and again the possible power problem.

 

I currently also have graphics card driver problems, my screen goes black briefly and I get a little box to tell me that "Display driver Nvidia Windows Kernel Mode driver has stopped responding". Something I hope would disappear if I change GPU. I've been trying all sorts of fixes to date to little avail.

 

Anyway, thank you again for your suggestions, have fun !

I have a a 1060 founders edition in my X51 R2 with 330w brick and it works great! As you may know the x51 can only use GPUs with a blower type fan due to its design, and as far as i know the FE is the only 1060 with a blower thats small enough to fit.

EDIT: Just checked newegg the only other 1060 with blower on there is the ASUS GTX 1060 turbo and its too long (10.5")

Hi folks, I wonder whether a techy might be able to give me some advice.

I have a Alienware X51 R2 with a 330w power brick, 16go of RAM a Core i7 processer and a Geforce gtx 660 graphics card. In DCS 2.0 I have to have most graphics option at a low setting and get 60 - 70 fps. However, when the action starts ever second or so the fps drops to 20 - 30 creating an annoying stutter. If I replaced the existing graphics card would I be able to run higher settings and get rid of the stutter ? I'm looking at the following cards;

 

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4Go Superclocked GAMING EVGA-04G-P4-1962

04G-P4-1962-KR

 

or

 

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 - 4Go EVGA-04G-P4-2974-KR

GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 2.0 - 4Go

or

 

GeForce GTX 750 Ti WindForce 2 OC - 4 Go

 

Any thoughts or alternative propositions ?

 

Thanks in advance

Think my machine is older than yours. Just upgraded awhile back. I run much better, good enough for me currently. 2.0 Multiplayer runs much better. :

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=170461&highlight=DieHard

I did some reading on Dell's Alienware forums to see just how far I could reasonably go with my existing motherboard. Found a guy with almost the same setup as me, I followed his lead.

You might think about getting a more powerful powerpack. I usually get my stuff from Newegg.com

My current nVidia driver is 368.81 . I just run one monitor 1920 x 1080 . I don't lock my frame rates , Vsynch is unchecked.

Next machine don't know what I will do just yet.

You should take care of not overdoing the wattage drawn from the PSU.

330W may sound enough if you do the theoretical math but if you look at the stableness it needs to deliver whatever wattage you need you should never ever exceed 75-80% of the rated max output. if you do so, expect wrong voltages, lots of heat building up and you also may experience random errors due to failing voltages.

500-750W is more recommendable but I am not sure what kind of form factor your PSU has since it's genuine Dell.

You should take care of not overdoing the wattage drawn from the PSU.

 

330W may sound enough if you do the theoretical math but if you look at the stableness it needs to deliver whatever wattage you need you should never ever exceed 75-80% of the rated max output. if you do so, expect wrong voltages, lots of heat building up and you also may experience random errors due to failing voltages.

 

500-750W is more recommendable but I am not sure what kind of form factor your PSU has since it's genuine Dell.

When I got my x51 it had a GTX 645 (64w) and a 240w PSU, so when i upgraded I got a 330w PSU, which adds 90w to the ceiling (100%). the GTX 1060 is 120w so its only 56w higher so i actually am using less percentage of my PSU. And my 330w PSU seems cooler to the touch also. :)

sounds ok then, just dont attempt any oc as that will shoot the wattage through the roof, I use like twice when in oc.