I have a Dell Inspiron 580 (2010 model). Not a high end computer by any means. It has a Dell motherboard, core I5 750 2.66 Ghz cpu and a 300 watt power supply. I researched this graphics card and was impressed by the performance vs amount of power used. I was just about to order it and then I started reading the 1 and 2 star reviews. I kept seeing that the card might not be compatible with an older computer and that you have to have a UEFI enabled bios. I also read that this was due to the new Maxwell architecture the graphics card uses. I called EVGA and asked them about compatibility and they said it probably wouldn't work on my computer. They said I would have to use a 6 series card or older and that none of the 7 series would work. I asked the IT guy at my work and he sent me home with a GT 730 to try. It worked perfectly but I found out that the GT 730 does not use Maxwell architecture so it wasn't a perfect test but at least I knew a 7 series card would work. I decided to order the GTX 750 TI SC and try it. I installed the card and found the following. It does take up two slots in your pc case. After screwing the support bracket at the back of the case back on I realized the display ports were at the very top edge of the opening rather than being centered in the opening. Not a big deal since I was able to connect my DVI cable. I downloaded the drivers straight from Nvidia website rather than using the CD. While loading the drivers it checked for compatibility with my system and I got the green checkmark. Everything seemed to be working great. Later that night I noticed my monitor wouldn't wake with the mouse or keyboard. I had to hold down the power button to do a hard restart. The next morning I heard my motherboard beeping an error code and again the monitor wouldn't wake up. I have researched this extensively and it seems lots of people have this issue with graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. There is no apparent solution. I did update my BIOS and also tried switching to the HDMI port instead of the DVI port but neither helped with this issue.
Here is the fix that I am using
Instead of letting the display turn off after x amount of time I have it now set to turn off never. I then simply press the power button on my display to turn it off. My theory is that something is powering down after a certain amount of time and the monitor doesn't receive a signal to wake. By being set to never turn off it is constantly receiving a signal. Not a perfect solution but so far the computer has been running perfectly with no further issues. Also I am not referring to waking the computer. My computer is set to never sleep or hibernate. The hard disk runs 24/7. I am only referring to waking the monitor itself.
Amazon has the minimum power supply requirement at 400 watts. EVGA's website has the minimum at 300 watts. From what I have read the card only uses 60 watts maximum. I also believe that a graphics card that draws all of its power from the pci-e slot can only get a maximum of 75 watts from the pci-e.
I have been keeping track of the temperature of the graphics card with speedfan and at idle it runs about 82 degrees F. The card that came with my computer was a crappy AMD Radeon HD 5450. Pretty much bottom of the barrel. The fan started making noise and the temp on that card was 112 degrees F at idle and creeping up to 130 or more just viewing web pages.
One thing to note is that the higher end graphics cards seem to have a tendency to make whining noises while the card is working. I can hear mine making a very annoying noise when I play chess titans every time a piece is moved.
With my original HD 5450 the windows experience index gave the graphics a 5.1. The GT 730 that I tried bumped it up to a 6.9. The GTX 750 TI SC bumped it all the way up to a 7.7 out of 7.9 maximum score. Pretty impressive for a card that will run on a crappy Dell with 300 watt power supply.
I don't currently play any video games so I can't say anything about the gaming performance. I have an excuse now to buy a joystick and some video games.
Due to the low power supply requirement this gave me the option to breathe a little life back into a computer that should probably be replaced. If you have a basic computer that is limited on graphics cards due to power supply requirements this is probably the best card you can get. I am very happy with it.
*Update* 3-23-16
I have solved the issue of the card making a whining noise. Some games like chess titans are not limited in the frame rate. I downloaded MSI afterburner and it allows you to limit the frames per second. I read it is recommended to limit the fps to the refresh rate of your monitor. In my case that is 60. I set the onscreen display to show fps and chess titans runs at around 1100 fps. By limiting the fps to 60 the whine is completely gone. You can also adjust your fan speed, monitor gpu temperature and a ton of other things with this software.
*Update* 10-15-16
This card still amazes me. At this point I have played Wolfenstein New Order, Skyrim Elder Scrolls and Witcher 3. According to the minimum requirements I shouldn't be able to play these games with this card or my CPU. Witcher 3 was the only one that I noticed some stutter on. I was getting 40 to 50 FPS. I do play with a screen resolution of 1280x768 so I'm sure that makes a huge difference in allowing me to play these games.
| Max Screen Resolution | 4096 x 2160 |
|---|---|
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Memory Speed | 5400 MHz |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Nvidia GeForce |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | GeForce GTX 750 Ti |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 GB |
