Worth it for gaming in 2017? - Dell XPS8910-10420BLK w/ i7-6700 & GTX 750 Ti

Looking for a ~$900 PC for gaming? Ok, lets have a look at this black minimalist looking Dell XPS desktop computer. It has a pretty good Skylake i7 processor, but the graphics card released in early 2014 and it is 2 generations old (launch price was 149 USD, dropped to around 99 USD, around same price as faster and newer GTX 1050). If you plan to buy this PC for gaming then I suggest something else, because this build is not balanced for playing games, graphics card is less than 10 percent of the total cost of this system. 16GB is nice to have in 2017 and 2TB HDD is sufficient for most, although an SSD would be a nice upgrade for this computer. If you think of upgrading the graphics card and adding an SSD right away, then I recommend buying a computer that already have the wanted part, you can save money this way. For normal work it is still good, the processor is from previous generation, but that doesn't matter. Going from Skylake to Kaby Lake didn't give any performance boost, only higher clockspeed and few special features.






  • Intel Core i7-6700 3.40 GHz, up to 4.0 GHz (4 cores, 8 threads)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
  • 16GB DDR4 memory; 64GB supported
  • 2TB mechanical hard drive for storage
  • Windows 10 Professional



  • Positive:

    Good processor with plenty of power for any task
    Good amount of RAM and hard drive space
    Windows 10 Professional instead of Home version


    Negative:

    Not the best graphics card, not VR ready
    There are better deals if you want a PCpurely for gaming 


    Neutral

    This isn't the newest generation XPS series computer
    The modest looking case can be a postitive for some people who don't like flashy gaming cases, for others the office pc look can be a big minus. Those people should look for something from CyberPowerPC or iBUYPOWER

    Overpriced or not? EVGA GeForce GT 730 4GB DDR3 04G-P3-2739-KR





    If you are an active computer gamer then you have almost certainly compared your PC specs to system requirements of dozens of games that interest you. Unless if you buy the highest end computer every two years to not worry about game minimum requirements. But when your video card falls short and needs replacing you may check what GPU's are popular at the moment. By browsing Amazon bestseller list for graphics cards you can find many $400+ cards there and may think "There must be a better deals for less". And there is this 4GB GT 730 in TOP 100... "It costs much less than some other 4GB video cards and this game I'd like to play only requires a 2GB GTX 660, so it should be good enough" - this is what some people may think when they see this "gaming" graphics card. Unfortunately it is not good enough for games that require 2GB GTX 660 or GTX 670 by far.
     There are 3 types of GT 730, the slowest DDR3 128-bit based on Fermi, DDR3 64-bit based on Kepler and the best one - GDDR5 64-bit Kepler variant. This EVGA 4GB 128-bit GT 730 is based on the old and slower Fermi GPU verison that was originally launched in 2010 as GT 430, then renamed to GT 530, GT 630 and now GT 730. So this card is basically a renamed GT 430 with 4GB of slow 1400 MHz DDR3 video memory. If you have bought a midrange card in past 5 years, then buying this one will most likely be a downgrade. Keep in mind, the amount of video memory tells nothing about the performance of the graphics card. The price for performance in gaming with this video card is really awful, for 10-15 dollars more you can get a card that is multiple times faster in games.

    Specs:
    Fermi architecture
    96 shaders
    Core Clock 700 MHz
    Memory Size 4GB
    Memory interface 128-Bit
    Memory type DDR3
    Memory speed: 1400 MHz (effective)
    DVI-I, DVI-I, Mini-HDMI


    EVGA GeForce GT 730 4GB DDR3 128bit Dual DVI mHDMI Graphics Cards 04G-P3-2739-KR


    Positive:
    No need for extra power connector, low power consumption
    OK if you only play old games and can get it cheap

    Negative:
    Priced too high to make sense, cost more than GT 1030
    Poor price to performance
    Not suitable for new and upcoming games
    4GB of video memory is useless for gaming on this card




    The best graphics card for under $80
    AMD Radeon RX 550 is a massive improvement over any GT 730 and it costs about the same.

    If you really need a 4GB graphics card

    Get a 4GB AMD Radeon RX 560 or 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

    If you really need a 4GB graphics card for under $80
    Get something from used market, even the GDDR5 version of 4GB GT 730 is useless compared to 2GB GT 1030.

    Used graphics card 
    You can buy a used 2GB GeForce GTX 760 or even GTX 770 for less than cost of new GT 730 4GB. Both of these are massive upgrade from 4GB GT 730 and even 2GB GT 1030. You need a good power supply and roomy case for those cards though.

     
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