I recently received a 'donated' from my in-laws Dell XPS PC (that I'd help them configure and buy new back in late 2013, MAN how time flies...), when they were moving and downsizing a couple months ago, having decided that they no longer needed a PC any longer. It's a XPS 8700 I believe, and I had a few years back upgraded the CPU to a 4770 from whatever it'd came with. It's in decent shape, runs ok though obviously not the fastest out there.

After I got it, I was thinking about upgrading it as best as I could to whatever the top of the line CPU that would fit into it, but after looking around I realized that the quite small performance upgrade that it would be from what it currently has, was going to cost at least $150 for the CPU, plus the cost of the memory upgrade, as I wanted to take it up to 32 gig. All in, I'd have well over $400 into it, which made no sense compared to what is available for that amount of money in a new lower(ish) end AMD CPU and MB/memory combo with all the modern technology.

So, I reset my thoughts on it, and decided I would keep the CPU as being good enough, and found a $100 32 gig memory upgrade kit for it, and then bought a Samsung 860 Pro 1TB SSD for it, for about $200. I bought that one, because I felt that if/when I wanted to get rid of the system, I could remove that SSD and move it over to a different system, and plug back in the current 3 1/2" HD, wipe the drive and reload windows, and send it on it's way.

So, now I am looking at upgrading the GPU. I don't remember exactly what it came with (it was some single slot card is all I remember) but as I used to run SETI on my computers, (before they put the project on hiatus, and the fact that they left the machine on all the time), I decided that I would upgrade their GPU to the best reasonably priced one I could find at the time that had the dual 6 pin power connectors (stock Dell PSU limitation), a GTX670. It worked fine for them, crunched SETI ok as well, but it's now 2020, and I was thinking that hopefully there must be an upgraded card that has been made since then that uses this power connection setup.

I know I could read thru the current options available, but for some reason for years now, EVGA has decided that once they no longer make a card, they nuke all the useful info off the site, unless it's hiding somewhere that I hadn't found it. So my question is this, what would be the latest (or at least later, say 9xx series and above) and best card that EVGA made that uses this power setup. I know the xx80's all take dual 8 pins, but are 70 series an option? Again, if this system eventually goes away, I'd be also repurposing this card into another system, so price is less of a concern. Thanks for any suggestions!

alha
I recently received a 'donated' from my in-laws Dell XPS PC (that I'd help them configure and buy new back in late 2013, MAN how time flies...), when they were moving and downsizing a couple months ago, having decided that they no longer needed a PC any longer. It's a XPS 8700 I believe, and I had a few years back upgraded the CPU to a 4770 from whatever it'd came with. It's in decent shape, runs ok though obviously not the fastest out there.

After I got it, I was thinking about upgrading it as best as I could to whatever the top of the line CPU that would fit into it, but after looking around I realized that the quite small performance upgrade that it would be from what it currently has, was going to cost at least $150 for the CPU, plus the cost of the memory upgrade, as I wanted to take it up to 32 gig. All in, I'd have well over $400 into it, which made no sense compared to what is available for that amount of money in a new lower(ish) end AMD CPU and MB/memory combo with all the modern technology.

So, I reset my thoughts on it, and decided I would keep the CPU as being good enough, and found a $100 32 gig memory upgrade kit for it, and then bought a Samsung 860 Pro 1TB SSD for it, for about $200. I bought that one, because I felt that if/when I wanted to get rid of the system, I could remove that SSD and move it over to a different system, and plug back in the current 3 1/2" HD, wipe the drive and reload windows, and send it on it's way.

So, now I am looking at upgrading the GPU. I don't remember exactly what it came with (it was some single slot card is all I remember) but as I used to run SETI on my computers, (before they put the project on hiatus, and the fact that they left the machine on all the time), I decided that I would upgrade their GPU to the best reasonably priced one I could find at the time that had the dual 6 pin power connectors (stock Dell PSU limitation), a GTX670. It worked fine for them, crunched SETI ok as well, but it's now 2020, and I was thinking that hopefully there must be an upgraded card that has been made since then that uses this power connection setup.

I know I could read thru the current options available, but for some reason for years now, EVGA has decided that once they no longer make a card, they nuke all the useful info off the site, unless it's hiding somewhere that I hadn't found it. So my question is this, what would be the latest (or at least later, say 9xx series and above) and best card that EVGA made that uses this power setup. I know the xx80's all take dual 8 pins, but are 70 series an option? Again, if this system eventually goes away, I'd be also repurposing this card into another system, so price is less of a concern. Thanks for any suggestions!

The EVGA GTX 980 Gaming uses  two six pin PCIe. 
 
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=79503721-FB70-42D3-A68E-4C3C206B2ABA
 

Here's a link for the product pages with the specs https://www.evga.com/support/specs/

You can get all kinds of adapters though to fit what you need  - , so it's slightly more important to know how much juice you got for a power supply. 

alha
Just took a quick peek, the tag says it's 460 watts.

No offense but your power setup sounds kinda sketchy.
but as the 2 6's are double jumpered off of one lead off of the PSU, that might possibly be a little sketchy. Though supposedly the 6's are rated for 75w each, and the 8 is 150w, so theoretically, the 2 would be 150 anyways from that one wire, so I'd be good to go.
 
Might wanna rectify that. Also, while a 'quick peek' is convenient for you, it sure makes it hard for us. How many amps does the PSU have on the +12 volt rails? Is this the OEM Dell power supply?

alha
Yes, OEM Dell. Per the label, which I found surprisingly informative for an OEM PSU, 142w total on the 3.3 and 5v rails, and a total of 385w max on the 12v. 18 amps on 12v A, 16 amps on 12v B and 8 amps on 12v C. I personally prefer single rail PSU's, but beggars can't be choosers, unless I want to pony up more money for an upgraded PSU, which I'm really not planning on doing.

Okay...so between rails A and B you have about 400 watts which should be fine for a 980 level GPU for power draw. The issue you might run into with going with a higher 10 series is motherboard compatibility. You might want do a search around the net to see if your Dell motherboard will work with the 10 series. It should but it's hit and miss.

alha
Thanks for the reply, and one quick question. I've built computers off and on for a couple decades, and you mentioned that the MB itself might not support the 10 series GPU's. Other than I'd think physical size, I wasn't aware that there could be incompatibilities with it. I'm certain it's got a PCI-e 1.0 slot being the age it is, but I thought that spec called for backwards compatibility, so I am confused as to what might be the issue. Is it a "Dell Thing"? I'm always learning new things, that's for certain. Thanks!

They are supposed to be backwards compatible. But older non UEFI BIOS (even new UEFI BIOS) sometimes do not recognize hardware correctly and update the ESCD or do not assign motherboard resources correctly. It's not a Dell thing, it is an OEM thing where the BIOS are usually more limited or even locked and tailored to specific hardware and not for compatibility.

You can use a 1660Ti (or cheaper 16xx, but it's only ~$270 new w/warranty) for sure if you can't find another card around. You'll get 980Ti performance for 120W. It's a single 8-pin and will work fine with a Dell using a dual 6 to single 8 adapter like this: .
 
Not an affiliate, I just bought the same in this past week.