Graphic Card Help Please

Swampus · 19 Aug 2015

Hi, I’mhoping that someone on the forum will be able to give me some much neededadvice regarding a Graphics Card Upgrade.

I will tryto be as short and accurate as possible but basically a then new PC and cardwere recommended to us but when the new card was fitted it failed to work, wewere told after that, the new card was to powerful for the motherboard so wefitted a different card, which worked but as any PC gamer will know this is nownot up to what is needed for today’s games.

My son isnow desperate to upgrade his card once again but we don’t want to be in thesame situation again.

His currentPC is as follows,

DellInspiron.660 (bought in 2012)

i5-3330 CPU3.00 GHZ

Motherboard084J0R

Windows 8.1

We upgradedthe PSU to a XFX 650W

The cardthat he had bought but failed to work was a VTX3D BlackEdition Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card [VX78702GBD5-2DHV3E]

The card that he currently has is Radeon 6870

The card that he would like to fit into his PC is EVGAGTX 970 SSC

Can anyone see any problems that we may come up againstfitting the EVGA card.

Regards Swamps

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2015

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
The evga card requires a 500watt power supply
If you have a 750 you should be fine like most gpu's you need some over head to power the rest of the machine/ monitor/...

So if you look at the power supply/ psu it will have a tag on it which will state what wattage it is
Post that info you might have to upgrade it as well to get a better gpu/ graphic's card to work properly

That is the first time I've heard that a card is too powerful for the mother board
Usually it would be too powerful for the psu.

For the record you're better off with a NVidia card than a AMD anyway

Which the AMD also requires a 500watt psu as well but the evga card will perform better

So yes you'll need to look into modular power supplies I would look at evga psu's in the above stated 750-1000w range and a P2
EVGA - Products - Power Supplies - Power Supplies - 850 Watts

Swampus · 19 Aug 2015

Many thanks for a quick reply, The PSU is a XFX 650W, so assuming that it is 650 watt, should I double check ?

Pic should be attached.

Swamps

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2015

Hi,
Well that isn't much over head to power the rest of the system 750 would be a minimum but the prices for 850P2 evga are pretty cheap well worth the investment
I wouldn't go more than 400w gpu with that psu

Heck you can get a evga 980 card if you have the power to push it and yes kids will push/ push/ push it

If you wiring to that psu has removable connections you're all set to hook it up with a new
If not the case would have to be rewired

Show a new picture of the wiring to the psu

Swampus · 19 Aug 2015

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Well that isn't much over head to power the rest of the system 750 would be a minimum but the prices for 850P2 evga are pretty cheap well worth the investment
I wouldn't go more than 400w gpu with that psu

Heck you can get a evga 980 card if you have the power to push it and yes kids will push/ push/ push it

If you wiring to that psu has removable connections you're all set to hook it up with a new
If not the case would have to be rewired

Show a new picture of the wiring to the psu

Hi again,
Am I correct in saying that you think that the PSU is under powered and I should have a minimum of 750 watt.

Regards :)

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2015

Yes
I might be missing something on the mother board I'm not finding much info on it as far as how much power to the main rail is 12volts minimum is required for these cards.

So who ever said the amd card was too powerful might be correct ?
Wattage wise they are the same 500w

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2015

I guess this is the psu you have now,
XFX P1-650X-XXB9 650W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com

12volts to the main rail but it only is a single so just upgrading it to a 850P2 will be better it will have 2
Deal might be you need 2 power connections to the new card instead of just 1 that this 650 psu has.

Swampus · 19 Aug 2015

ThrashZone said:

I guess this is the psu you have now,
XFX P1-650X-XXB9 650W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com

12volts to the main rail but it only is a single so just upgrading it to a 850P2 will be better it will have 2
Deal might be you need 2 power connections to the new card instead of just 1 that this 650 psu has.

Hi and thanks for all your help, sorry for the late reply but it was time for work

The link above looks like his PSU and I shall see if we can find out anymore info on his motherboard.
I think the best we can do is to purschase both card and a new more powerful PSU and to take it from there.

Once again thanks for your advice and I shall post details as I said about his board & how we get on.

Regards Swamps :)

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2015

No problem :)
I'm guess that is what the other fellow was referring to as not powerful enough,
He just said mother board and not psu
These cards have external plugs that go directly to the power supply so the mother board really doesn't supply much power to them
Cheers.

Boozad · 20 Aug 2015

Two more things to take into account. First is the case size, you must make sure that the card you're going ot buy will fit into the case. 970s are big cards and a manufacturer's aftermarket card may well be substantially bigger than the reference card.

Also it would be worth checking whether the CPU will bottleneck a high end card or not. I'm not sure of the performance of the 3330 but I'll look into it.