Advanced fire control could bring the dreadnought idea forward

How would advanced mechanical fire control change fleets of the 1890s and early 1900s?

It would make long-range gunnery usable and could bring about a dreadnought-style gun layout in the 1890s, even without dreadnought-style machinery.

Improved computation would let pre-dreadnought-era ships make practical use of their long-range guns. That capability could produce a vessel with a dreadnought-like gun arrangement during the 1890s, even if its machinery remained conventional. Effective fire control would change which armament layouts made sense. Propulsion was only one route toward the dreadnought concept.