New GPU on old motherboard

[Daan Steeman]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I'm not sure that I'm posting this in the right thread. If not please say so, then I'll try to move it.

 

I want to update the hardware in my desktop. It all works just fine but with any loads like CAD software. Not even rendering, just looking around the model. It already shows signs of slowing down. When I bought the pc it was a "just above basic".

 

OS: W7 Home Premium 64bit

Motherboard: Asus P8H67-m

RAM: 4GB DDR3 @ 668MHz 

PSU: generic 330W 

CPU: Intel I3 2100 sandy bridge

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT

SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB

HDD: Western Digital 500GB

Optical: Bluray player/burner

 

As you can see nothing special. The GPU wasn't originaly in there. But I transferd it from my old pc. 

Right now I'd like to update at least the GPU and RAM. And in the near future (think a few months) maybe the CPU. 

 

A friend of mine gave the tip to look on marktplaats (basicly the Dutch version Ebay) for used GPU's. So I went looking around and found that one year old GPU's were sold for a fraction of the original price.

 

But than my question, will a modern semi-hiperformance GPU work well with a Motherboard that old? The same goes for the CPU?

 

I saw a Asus GeForce GTX 570 for 60 euro's. Wich is perfectly within my pricerange and fits in my case. From the research I did, I found that I'll probably have to switch the PSU out for a 500W version. But I couldn't find annyting about compatibility with older MB's and CPU's.

 

I hope that someone can help me. Thanks in advance.

 

Daan Steeman

 

PS: Sorry about my horrible english. Its not my first language so I hope it isn't to bad.

[Sprawlie]

There's going to be a lot of questions about compatibility due to the age.

 

Keep in mind the following:

 

PCI-E standards might have changed, but PCI-E is all compatible with each other. As long as your board has PCI-E slot (16x in width, not necessarily in lanes) you can in THEORY put in a modern card.

 

Where you're more likely going to run into a problem is with the PSU being able to power a modern GPU. you need to ensure that the PSU has enough power, and the proper cabling (PCI-E power will come in 6 or 8 pin variants, and most often these days, both)

 

in regards to CPU upgrade, you will be limited as your motherboard is likely a socket 1155. This means, if the board's BIOS supports it, the highest CPU tech you'll be able to install to this motherboard is a Ivy Bridge chip. 

 

RAM shouldn't pose too much of an issue. Just verify what the maximum amount of RAM your motherboard can support. Don't worry too much about speed. Even if you put faster RAM into the motherboard, it will only run as fast as the board will support.

 

overall, it's of my humble opinion that if this PC isn't able to keep up anymore with what you're doing, it's time for a full blown upgrade. just adding RAM and GPU is only going to delay the inevitable at this point. The motherboard and CPU you have are already old enough that the upgrade path is so small and will not get you up to today's performance no matter how much you dump into it

 

[Archeval]

i totally agree with Sprawlie in regards to the first problem you'll encounter is your PSU, then secondly you could be limited by the CPU in terms of memory bandwidth possibly, depending on what you use it for. 

 

one PSU should be compatible as any other, PSU cables haven't changed much except for the number of molex/SATA power cables that come with it, if your machine requires more molex than SATA i would look out for that

[Daan Steeman]

Hm thats what I was afraid of. To sum up: the hardware I'd keep (for now at least). Simply isn't realisticly compatible with the modern hardware. It might work, as in, I'd be able to use the computer. But the specs wouldn't be as good as the newer hardware is actually capable of. 

 

Currently I am a student so I don't have much in the money department. Would it be possible to change the GPU and RAM (and if necessary the PSU) now. And then saveup for a newer MB with CPU. Or would it be better to just suck it up and basicly rip everything out of the case and change all of the above in one go?

 

Thanks for the quick response! 

[asand1]

i7 2600, RX460, and 8Gb more RAM would run very well in that machine. I don't know if there is a BIOS update for your board to run Ivy bridge, but there probably is. Your machine is still very capable dont let people tell you its not. I was running an i7 2600 myself up untill a few months ago.

[Kc7vwc]

12 hours ago, Daan Steeman said:

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I'm not sure that I'm posting this in the right thread. If not please say so, then I'll try to move it.

 

I want to update the hardware in my desktop. It all works just fine but with any loads like CAD software. Not even rendering, just looking around the model. It already shows signs of slowing down. When I bought the pc it was a "just above basic".

 

OS: W7 Home Premium 64bit

Motherboard: Asus P8H67-m

RAM: 4GB DDR3 @ 668MHz 

PSU: generic 330W 

CPU: Intel I3 2100 sandy bridge

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT

SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB

HDD: Western Digital 500GB

Optical: Bluray player/burner

 

As you can see nothing special. The GPU wasn't originaly in there. But I transferd it from my old pc. 

Right now I'd like to update at least the GPU and RAM. And in the near future (think a few months) maybe the CPU. 

 

A friend of mine gave the tip to look on marktplaats (basicly the Dutch version Ebay) for used GPU's. So I went looking around and found that one year old GPU's were sold for a fraction of the original price.

 

But than my question, will a modern semi-hiperformance GPU work well with a Motherboard that old? The same goes for the CPU?

 

I saw a Asus GeForce GTX 570 for 60 euro's. Wich is perfectly within my pricerange and fits in my case. From the research I did, I found that I'll probably have to switch the PSU out for a 500W version. But I couldn't find annyting about compatibility with older MB's and CPU's.

 

I hope that someone can help me. Thanks in advance.

 

Daan Steeman

 

PS: Sorry about my horrible english. Its not my first language so I hope it isn't to bad.

 Funny enough did similar last night.

I put an Msi R9 390 in an old Phenom II x4 955 system with 8GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz. 

Unigen Heaven was the only thing I tested, but everything at stock speeds, 1080p@144Hz resulted:

FPS:	101.0
Score:	2544
Min FPS:	9.1
Max FPS:	198.6

System

Platform:	Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:	AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (3210MHz) x4
GPU model:	AMD Radeon (TM) R9 390 Series 15.200.1062.1004 (4095MB) x1

Also, 650w PSU with 2 HDD, 4 fans & Blu-ray drive. Think max GPU temp was 78C. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Kc7vwc
Heaven benchmark scores

[Daan Steeman]

I just bought a Geforce GTX760. For the moment I am going to run that in my current setup and see how it works out. I did some testing and as far as I can try and calculate even my 330w PSU should handle that just fine. When I was benchmarking my CPU the whole system was drawing about 90 watts on the mains cable so the losses of the CPU are included in that. With a max of 170watts that would be 260 watts in total with the new GPU. So I'll see how it works out and if necessary then I'll change the PSU.

 

And I'm looking for a good price on 8gigs of DDR3 because 4 is just not enough. I'll post again when I know how the new GPU scores in  Unigen Heaven. (@Kc7vwc: I've got the benchmark for the old cpu (score of 106 with a average framerate of 4.2 xD). Your benchmark is a hell of a lot better. If I get that I'm happy with the results. The specs on the MSI are a lot better. But even half that score would be fine.)

 

Thanks everybody for the input. I'll let you know how it works out!

[Daan Steeman]

Hi everyone,

 

The new GPU is in my system for about 2 weeks now and it runs great. So no complaints there. However I bought some ddr3 RAM to increase that because like I said, 4gb just wasn't enough.

 

The weird thing is the old ram was DDR3 10666 9-9-9-24 4GB

The new ram is two banks of DDR3 12800 11-12-e2-p2 8GB

 

As far as I know the second one is faster, (1600MHz vs 1333MHz) and ofcourse has more capacity per bank. But with every combination regarding banks of sockets that includes one (or both) of the new banks the system just refuses to post. I cant even get to the BIOS. My system can only handle 1333MHz but as far as I know that just means that the 1600MHz RAM will be downclocked to 1333.

 

After a hint from a local computerstore I did a BIOS update but that didn't help. The complete code on the new RAM is:

8GB 2Rx4 PC3L-12800R-11-12-E2-P2

SN: M393B1K70QB1-YK0

 

I checked the QVL list of my MB, the new ram isn't on there, but the old ram also isn't on the list. I was able to find multiple websites and youtube video's that had information about compatibility in regard to clockspeeds and timing. Some said that it did matter. But many others said that all DDR3 RAM should work in all DDR3 compatible motherboards.

 

Could anyone help me solve this? Unfortunately I haven't got another PC to try the RAM, but the seller told me that he had tested all the banks before sending them to costumers.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Daan Steeman

 

EDIT: When I search for the new memory I get a page form samsung where it says:

Errorcorrection: ECC

 

Wild guess, this is ecc memory, wich is for servers. NOT for desktops. Could someone confirm of deny this?

[SiriousArts]

1 hour ago, Daan Steeman said:

EDIT: When I search for the new memory I get a page form samsung where it says:

Errorcorrection: ECC

 

Wild guess, this is ecc memory, wich is for servers. NOT for desktops. Could someone confirm of deny this?

You are absolutely right. That is ECC Ram which wont work with your board. Try to return it and get non-ECC Ram. You always have to double check on ebay and similar sites as many people sell parts from older servers, so a lot of the ram is ECC.

[Daan Steeman]

Hi Siriousarts, 

 

Thanks, that explains it. I'm trying to contact the seller right now.

 

Thanks for the conformation.

 

Daan Steeman

 

PS: I'll let you know how it works out.

[BumBum]

How it come out now?!