XPS 8930, replacement GTX 1060 video card?

The first thing you need to know is what size PSU is in your XPS 8930.  Do you have the 460W PSU or the 850W PSU? 

Whatever card you choose shouldn't have a "recommended" PSU wattage exceeding your PSU size, unless you are willing to upgrade the PSU to get a card requiring a larger PSU.

Video cards use the standard PCI-e x16 slot on the motherboard. So the other variable may be the number of pins in the PCI-e power connector that comes directly from the PSU to the card.  So check to see how many pins that connector has and check the exact card you may want too. There are some adapters if that connector doesn't match the card you want.

You can see what GPUs (and their performance) that others use in the XPS 8930 at userbenchmark.  Just keep in mind that site doesn't say what size PSU is installed in any of the PCs listed. So be sure to check the PSU requirements for the exact card you may want.  Cards with the same GTX or RTX model number from different manufacturers can have different PSU requirements. 

BTW: How do you know the current GPU has failed? 

These are good recommendations and also good idea to confirm current 1060 is indeed bad before embarking on upgrade.

If your XPS8930 has the basic 460w psu it is still good enough to drive RTX4070 which is just about USD 499 now and a huge upgrade from 1060 in speed, architecture and gpu generation.

4070 has TDP of 200w. Online psu calculator is more accurate than general psu recommendation. For 8930 + 4070

Load Wattage: 385 W
Recommended PSU Wattage: 435 W

a 200w card is just about max gpu TDP you should install in 8930 chassis which has cramped space and poor air flow. A blower type card is recommended over free air for 8930.  Don’t bother with higher power gpu for it will be cooked in that case.

https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-4070-blower

 If upgrade is truly desired and if current 1060 indeed died this could be good moment to do so. Tech advances fast so upgrade to 4000 series will last longer than 3000 or lower gpu. The other option is to go budget upgrade. In that regard choose 1070 or 1080/1080Ti is better than getting another 1060.  Local market price of 1070 has dropped below 100 USD.  Downside is 1070 also older card. You get what you willing to pay for.

This user reported :

I just installed RTX 4070 (Asus Dual) into my XPS 8930 with 460W PSU and i7 9700. Works like butter and no CPU bottleneck running at 1440p ultrawide.

4070 is 240% faster than 1060 6gb

@RoHe​ hi thanks for your advice I'l keep that in mind when searching for a GPU. although im having problems with the Pc iv got it working again i had some spare parts on standby in case emergency like this. I thought it was a GPU Issue it was a ram issue in the end 3/4 ram sticks died (1 -16 GB Crucial still works) every time try to add the other 3 sticks i get the HDMI signal not found error on starting up it's very strange that's what made me think GPU main cos it seems Visual/Monitor/Graphics related fault so followed that logic (the clues) and it turned out to be Ram related by the looks of it lol. everything i searched into said check wires, GPU, RAM and Re-seat them and it could be possible GPU, PSU, Ram or Motherboard failing.

my XPS went Brrrrrrrr screen Froze and i had to switch it off at the mains n restart it. upon restarting it froze again (i should have left it for 10-15 mins it might have been repairing in the background and gonna restart automatically) so i switch it off and on again and started getting and HDMI Signal not found so checked all the wires, opened the Pc re-seated the GPU and Ram, checked all wires and connections still go the error HDMI error couldn't fix it thought if it is Ram il need to order new sticks.

so while i wait for the new ram I thought it's a good time to replace the motherboard (i had a spare one) and the PSU i had a Corsair TX750M (750 Watt) i was gonna install a while back so i could support a better GPU) so upgraded and replaced the motherboard and PSU. 

I also grabbed some cheap ram in the sales I scored 64 GB for £81.58 it had a good discount over on Crucial.

https://uk.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/cp16g4dfra32a/ct25233573?_gl=1*wb42ub*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjQ1MTgyOTU3LjE3MzI2OTMzMTg.*_ga_TRH736VMJG*MTczMjY5MzMxNy4xLjEuMTczMjY5MzMzOC4wLjAuMTExNDM4MjEwOA..

I'm upgrading from from 48GB (2x 8GB +2X 16GB sticks in the pic above) to 64GB (4x 16GB Cards) so I'm hoping that will fix the HDMI thing as well then i can hopefully get a better GPU and get a few more years out this old machine till i can consider a 50 series Pc.

My XPS currently has

Core I7-8700

Corsair TX750M (750 Watt)

64 GB Crucial Pro 4x 16GB DDR4-3200 UDIMM (soon)

Dell XPS OEM Motherboard (a spare replacement board I had)

i feel the only thing holding it back is the old 1060 GPU I feel it struggles a bit. a 4090 would have been a fantastic consideration but that would require a whole new build and with 50 series on the way it might be best to hold out see what they have to offer before considering a whole new build but that could still be some time off.

Iv been reading the 4070 could work good with a my CPU l have to check if the board can take it. i was considering a 20, 30 series but don't see any for about £100 and feel old cards probly aint worth paying much over £100 for. cos to pay £150-£200 for an older 20, 30 series card it would be worth putting the extra 2 or 3 in and going 40 series if possible if I can even get a cheap CPU upgrade id also consider trying to max that out.

Thanks for your help

@redxps630​ hello thanks for the good advice too there's certainly a lot to consider and weigh up.

that's pretty good deal for a card the Zotac iv never heard of them. i checked out this review checking out a few others too it's certainly card id consider buying id love to be able to buy and play Cyber punk at a good FPS rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8KDQIVCOFk

that's the main reason for considering an upgrade just to get better FPS in general over the 1060 i feel the machine is under powered to what it could be with a bit reasonable investment into it i feel i could still get a good few years outta it. I'm not to bothered about 4k, etc, but if i can get away with 4k il take it il take a dip in visuals for performance. 

i seen this a Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GAMING OC Graphics Card -11% - £265.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GeForce-GAMING-Graphics/dp/B0C8ZS7N73/ref=asc_df_B0C8ZS7N73?mcid=3daaf1f5e97839f08eb859be5130ec77&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696386561224&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3153949238190729689&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046887&hvtargid=pla-2194699788386&psc=1&gad_source=1

don't get me wrong i don't how good a 4060 that particular card will or if could use it but considering anyone could get an old 20 or 30 series for like £150 used anyone would be as well saving that extra £100 buy that 4060 if it would work if the 4070 was that price id have snapped one up. if they are this low for a 4060 hopefully the 4070's will get a price cut between now Christmas and January.

it's been good replacing the motherboard (iv only done that 2 or 3 times with Pc's) and PSU it's givin me little bit more more confidence with Pc building and think i could do a custom build sometime it's something id really like to do.

Thanks for your help

Strange saga. 

Hard to believe 3 of your 4 RAM modules all failed at same time.  Did you have a power surge? 

Did you try clearing BIOS and installing a fresh motherboard battery to see if you could clear/resolve those problems? 

Dell PCs can be very fussy about RAM, so keep that in mind if the new module doesn't work either with the Crucial module also installed or new one alone in 2nd slot from CPU (DIMM1). 

@RoHe​ im not having any luck i wrote outta a post and just lost it and my new ram was stolen by the FedEx delivery guy last week and he's claiming I signed for the package and I didn't and im still trying to sort that out and waiting on replacement ram.

Crucial Customer Support have been fantastic throughout it so Shout out the Crucial but FedEx have had 1 week to sort it out and are taking the P or are having the P taken from them by the delivery driver. hopefully he'll be spending Christmas in jail for his "Theft & Fraud" signing for packages and stealing them, the only consolation is he probably thought it was expensive jewellery like a gold chain or something only to have opened it and found 3 worthless sticks of Ram cos good luck using them or finding someone with a Pc he can sell them to.

I might call some local charity and Pawn shops see if they just so happened to have 3 sticks crucial of ram and inform them they are sitting with stolen goods, it's about his only other option to sell them, he's risked his job for this. I could run a simple Ebay search see if any listings have been made within the last week or so and see if the seller is close to my location, there's two ways to find stolen goods.

I don't know what the cause was of the Pc ram failure Pc just froze one night made a loud Brrr noise I shut it down at the wall restarted it and kept getting HDMI not found error and could not get rid of it, I replaced the mother board battery nothing, i never really thought for a min it was ram tbh i thought GPU. I spent so much time frustrated trying to fix the HDMI Bs I had spare parts in storage and just replaced mother and PSU knowing that would most likely sort it well so i thought it didn't. when i put 1 ram stick in the new mother board Pc didn't work, I tried the 2nd it didn't work, 3rd or 4th stick worked and i thought ?? 3 outta 4 Ram sticks have failed? in over 25 years of computing iv never seen this i think it's rare idk for sure. iv seen all the installed Ram fail but never 3 outta 4 sticks it was a completely new one on me. with it being a HDMI i was thinking GPU, Monitor, HDMI, Cable following the logical line of inquiry, ram cross my mind but was written of as doubtful cos im not getting beeps or Bios, or boot up, errors etc just a HDMI Error an the monitor going into sleep mode or something so at that point im thinking hardware failure rather than corrupt BIOS or computer /Windows 10 system.

I thought it could be a number of thing's and it could be one of 4 Main failing parts GPU, PSU, Motherboard even Ram. at lest replacing the motherboard and PSU and ram should make sure it gets resolved and doesn't happen again and replacing the GPU might also ensure i don't have that issue and give me a few more years outta this machine.

I'm still looking to buy that Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 GPU upgrade cash flow is stopping that at the mo and the bottle necking might be an issue though but I might be able to avoid having to upgrade the CPU by playing games on a lower graphics setting in game i want a big a FPS increase from the current 30/60 FPS. trivial graphics visual don't mean anything to me 1080 is fine if i can get about solid 60+ FPS i don't need 1440p for example.

hopefully new ram will arrive this week and i can get the thief dealt with too and if i get a new GPU il come back and update the thread with news and results.

Thanks again @RoHe​

Your saga gets even stranger...

Hope the new RAM solves the problems!

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