Vostro 460 i5-2400 Graphics card upgrade

Just seen a post made by a member yesterday on the same topic! This member bought a GT 730 and it appears it is not compatible with the Vostro 460. A reply stated that the following cards are tested and compatible:

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420

ATI® Radeon® HD 5450

ATI® Radeon® HD 5670

pci-e cards are tested by Dell and are compatible. GT730 is not tested.

If possible, please can somebody add a list of more modern cards that are tested as working with this desktop?

I might just have to bump my budget to £100 and get a GTX 750 ti (assuming this will actually work!?)

Hi S1mCo,
I'm the person from the other topic you're talking about. I'm not an expert on this field but I've been doing a little homework regarding this matter and we're pretty much on the same boat, except I've already spent (wasted) money on this board assuming it was gonna work with no issues.

I picked the GT 730 (GDDR5 model) based on the specifications: power 25W, minimum PSU 300W (factory fitted PSU is 350W), bus support PCI-e 2.0 (compatible??? with Vostro 460's motherboard). I've done many times the game of juggling with computer parts/boards and this is the first time in my life that I experience this sort of ludicrous results with a motherboard.

The GTX 750 Ti specifications: GDDR5 (great), power 60W (more power consumption, not sure if you need a bigger PSU), minimum PSU 300W (same as the GT 730), bus support PCI-e 3.0. So, I picked the GT 730 mostly because of the bus support. This one is PCI-e version 3.0 which should render incompatible since the motherboard has PCI-e 2.0. However, the graphics card should downgrade to version 2.0 if required, but this is not necessarily guaranteed.

Also, to keep in mind, the GTX 750/Ti's display connectors are DVI and mini-HDMI (mini-HDMI???) only.

Thanks S1mCo for sharing this information. Although, it's your own post, isn't it? :emotion-1:

I also read somewhere about UEFI compliance, but as far as I know the Vostro 460 didn't come out with UEFI, only legacy BIOS. And the Gygabyte GT 730 I bought doesn't state anywhere it's UEFI ready. So, as for UEFI matters, compatibility shouldn't be a problem.

I'm gonna put mine for sale. The seller refused to help or to accept return for it. Worst of all, it wasn't cheap here: AUD$110=US$83. Bugger!

I don't know if this is a Dell thing or all motherboards nowadays are delicate and sensible to hardware parts because I don't remember having this kind of problems before. I've even been considering in looking for motherboards, but again, obviously keeping in mind that it must fit in the case, screwholes, PSU, etc. Or buy a case with PSU and new motherboard; then use CPU, memory, HDDs and other stuff from the Vostro 460. I'm really frustrated because the graphics card was a present for my daughter who's been asking me to upgrade the graphics card.

By the way, the ATI  Radeon HD 5670's performance is not close to the nVidia GeForce GT 730. I'd say not even convenient for current mid-range games.

I'm looking forward to reading your updates on your post.

The Sapphire HD 5670 turned up today. Installation was easy and without any issues. Downloaded the most up to date Catalyst drivers for the card and am pleased with the results. This upgrade was not intended to turn the Vostro into a gaming pc. This episode has reminded me why I switched to consoles for gaming a few years ago but you still can't beat a of for certain types of games like Company of Heroes. I may still consider getting a GeForce 750 ti at some point when they are available for a bargain.

Thanks S1mCo for your update. I might have to consider this one myself as it is at least an improvement over the factory fitted one. However, it's quite frustrating already not being able to use a medium to low range graphics card like the GT 730 on a still decent PC which has an Intel i7 processor and 8GB RAM.

my graphis card:

onboard -> GT730 -> HD6850 -> GTX960.

all work OK.

sharljimhtsin,

They posted issues with the Nvidia GeForce GT 730 in their Vostro 460. Post a link to your specific Nvidia GeForce GT 730 that worked in your Vostro 460. Also, what BIOS version is installed on your Vostro 460?