GPU Upgrade

[ItsPuppy]

So later this year i'm buying a gpu i'm already going to upgrade my cpu/motherboard later this year as well, but is there such thing as a minimum motherboard requirement for GPUs

[Cheburek]

6 minutes ago, PuppyMC said:

So later this year i'm buying a gpu i'm already going to upgrade my cpu/motherboard later this year as well, but is there such thing as a minimum motherboard requirement for GPUs

For GPUs there are the following min req:

Space:What case do you have?

Maybe the GPU is too big,or it will not have enough air to cool itself.Take a measuring tape and measure how much space the GPU has.Manufacturers usually list its size in MM or inches.

 

PCIe slot:All recent motherboards have PCIe,bit yours is older,does it have PCI? PCIe is 10x faster and no matter what gen you have (Gen 1-2-3-4) any PCIe GPU will work either way.

 

Power supply:How many Watts does the GPU you want to buy have?

Low profile GPUs don't use any external power and only take up to 75W or less from the PCIe slot,and they are usually pretty small so they work in pretty much any computer,BUT those tend to be weaker and more expensive.

More power hungry GPU's have to take power from a cable situated in your power supply,some only take a 6 pin cable or some can take up to 3 8pin cables.

 

Low quality  power supplys will not have a PCIe connector,please check if your PSU has one.

But usually high quality power supplys,even with lower W(400w-550w) will have atleast a 6 pin,up to even 2 8pin connectors(which can also be split in 6+2 pins).

[WhitetailAni]

27 minutes ago, Cheburek said:

PCIe slot:All recent motherboards have PCIe,bit yours is older,does it have PCI?

All consumer motherboards since the PCIe-capable P4 boards have had PCIe.

I have an AM3 board and it has 2 PCIe x16 slots, 1 PCIe x1 slot, and 3 PCI slot.

[Cheburek]

6 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

All consumer motherboards since the PCIe-capable P4 boards have had PCIe.

I have an AM3 board and it has 2 PCIe x16 slots, 1 PCIe x1 slot, and 3 PCI slot.

I was too lazy to check when I wrote this but his motherboard does indeed have 2 gen 2 PCIe slots.