Shocked by the low performance of a Q9550...

The GT 730 wouldn't fit, with or without the case top, because capacitors soldered to the MoBo wouldn't let it go all the way down.

Very strange... perhaps the card bracket? It can be removed. Anyway, try to use Enlabs PCIE3RISER10CM PCIE 3.0 x16 Shielded PCI Express Extender Riser Cable - GPU PCIe 16X Horizontal 180 Degree Socket Extension Card - 3.94“ - Newegg.com or something similar.

I don't plan to use the Dell 755 anymore, I just want to find out now what was the problem. I'm really bugged.

Consider this:

In the first setup, I had the Dell 755 with the PCIe weird adapter. Could not play 720p or higher videos fluently as it would start to lag, skip frames and the sound would pop a lot. The only solution was to cancel the VP9 codec and force H264 with an extension in chrome. Videogames from 2010, which are nothing for a GT 730, would all pop-sound in "high resource" periods. Even a 2004 video game with 2D graphics would pop sound. I'd swear the GPU was faulty, but I knew it wasn't. Nevertheless, the video, the images, FPS, were fine, you could play fluently and I'm sure I was getting the FPS the GT 730 would deliver.

In the second setup I removed the GT 730 and the weird adapter, and used the MoBo GPU Intel GMA 3000, way worse than the GT 730. I only tried videos in YT, but they all could play back perfectly fine, 1080, even 4K, with some frame skips but nothing important.

In both scenarios, same MoBo, same RAM models, same everything, except the GPU. I guess the last thing would be to check the performance of the Intel GMA 3000 and compare it against the GT 730.

Passive riser cable does not degrade PCI Express version number & speed. Time to try it.

Sorry, exactly what part of "I don't plan to use the Dell 755 anymore" and "the Dell 755 is out, I removed some components and stored in the attic" you didn't get?

I am not buying anything for that Dell anymore, but still someone can point out what's the problem to all of this without me testing again the 755.

Your choice, your own way, your refusal of testing. Nothing more to say, apologies.

May be you misunderstood...

I'm not planning to use it anymore means I'm not buying a cable specifically for that PC. It's logical. It's not that I refuse to test it. Would you spend any money on an old computer that you're gonna sell or toss, just for testing purposes?

I might do the passmark test with the Intel GMA, and see what happens.

Chill out.

Your snark is annoying.

Folks here are members volunteering their time to try to help you.

If you want definitive answers on hardware, take your rig to a shop, and have them do benchmarks.

Of course, you'll have to pay for that.

OldNavyGuy said:

Chill out.

Your snark is annoying.

Folks here are members volunteering their time to try to help you.

If you want definitive answers on hardware, take your rig to a shop, and have them do benchmarks.

Of course, you'll have to pay for that.

Excuse me.

First, I'm chill. Second, I'm respectful, didn't insult anyone. Third, what do you say to a user that tells you to buy things to test a PC you already said it's stored in the attic (not setup anymore), you answer again that the PC is "out", with components removed, and that you are not buying anything, and reply again "time to buy the cable"?

My direct answer was "exactly what you didn't get"?

There's help, and then there's no reading/reasoning.

Would you spend any money on an old computer that you're gonna sell or toss, just for testing purposes?

I usually test all reasonable tunings before tossing hardware. Yes, I enjoy using it at its maximum capability. However, not a way for everyone.

I might do the passmark test with the Intel GMA, and see what happens.

It has no sense. There was an unidentified performance issue which cannot be resolved without much deeper investigating.

Buying a new comp & forgetting the old one should be better option for you.

OK, let me get this right.

I have my main, powerful PC, from 2018 components. Then, I have my second PC, which I use for whatever, guests, etc...

I had the opportunity to upgrade the very old second one to a Dell Optiplex 755, so I did, like 1 year ago, and put there an SSD, the Q9550 and the GT 730. Been using that for almost 1 year. Couldn't play back 720p or more, audio popped in videogames or programs in general, etc... so I thought the Q9550 was just weak, although that kind of shocked me considering it was top top in 2008.

Then some months ago I upgraded the Dell, replaced it by an HP from 2013, GT 730 was plugged into the new replacement, SSD as well... So I had 0 interests in the Dell.

Then a few days ago I plugged an HDD and installed W10 in the Dell because I was going to give it away, and noticed how the videos wouldn't pop or lag even at 4K. The only thing that changed was the GT 730 (well, SSD as well but that's not important), now using the Intel GMA 3000. I made it clear that the Dell was stored in the attic, I literally said I wasn't going to use it anymore, but I wanted to know if someone could explain to me why it was so bad in performance with the GT 730, and then you told me to "buy?" a cable to test the GT 730? Several times?

That's why I ended up saying "exactly what you don't get about...". It's not that I refuse to test, it's not that I don't like to take advantage of old stuff (tell me about it, I have used a 2008 PC and maxed it out in 2020). So yeah, I'm not wasting any cent in the Dell, no cables, no adapters. Still someone that knows might guess what was the problem without me wasting money in a cable I'd use 4 minutes.

Hope all is clear now.