What will happen to my PC if I put an old or worn out GPU?

[Master Vovo]

A friend gave me an old GPU, he told me that he still uses it for gaming, but it looks pretty old. I'm really afraid to place it in the motherboard because it may explode or something.

[LIGISTX]

Just now, Master Vovo said:

A friend gave me an old GPU, he told me that he still uses it for gaming, but it looks pretty old. I'm really afraid to place it in the motherboard because it may explode or something.

As long as you know its not for sure dead, itll work fine. If it was working for him, itll work for you.

 

But, if there a reason you need it? What is your current setup?

[Master Vovo]

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Edited December 12, 2021 by Master Vovo

[Master Vovo]

4 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

As long as you know its not for sure dead, itll work fine. If it was working for him, itll work for you.

 

But, if there a reason you need it? What is your current setup?

CPU: AMD A6-7480

GPU: AMD RADEON R5 Graphics (Integrated Graphics)

Motherboard: EMX-A70FM2+iCafe +

 

I currently have 8gb RAM

 

My friend told me that the brand of the GPU is Palit gts 430 

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, Master Vovo said:

CPU: AMD A6-7480

GPU: AMD RADEON R5 Graphics (Integrated Graphics)

Motherboard: EMX-A70FM2+iCafe +

 

I currently have 8gb RAM

 

My friend told me that the brand of the GPU is Palit gts 430 

I bet a 430 will be slower then your current integrated graphics. You can try it and see if FPS goes up, but I would almost bet it would go down. The 430 is very, very low tier; its almost 10 years old, and it was low tier when it came out. Its really only intended to be a device to drive more monitors.

[Master Vovo]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

I bet a 430 will be slower then your current integrated graphics. You can try it and see if FPS goes up, but I would almost bet it would go down. The 430 is very, very low tier; its almost 10 years old, and it was low tier when it came out. Its really only intended to be a device to drive more monitors.

If its broken or not compatible with my motherboard and pc and I plug it in, can it also damage other components?

[LIGISTX]

32 minutes ago, Master Vovo said:

If its broken or not compatible with my motherboard and pc and I plug it in, can it also damage other components?

Its compatible, every PCIe device will work in any PCIe slot. The PCIe standard is 100% backward and forward compatible

 

If it is broke, depending on exactly how it is broken, it can range from no GPU output, PC won't post, and if your really unlucky and its shorted in a really strange way, it could fry your PSU but that is extremely unlikely.

 

If your friend says its working, it'll almost certainly be fine to try. 

[Master Vovo]

33 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Its compatible, every PCIe device will work in any PCIe slot. The PCIe standard is 100% backward and forward compatible

 

If it is broke, depending on exactly how it is broken, it can range from no GPU output, PC won't post, and if your really unlucky and its shorted in a really strange way, it could fry your PSU but that is extremely unlikely.

 

If your friend says its working, it'll almost certainly be fine to try. 

Ok, Thank you very much for the information

[BiotechBen]

The graphics of an A6-7400K which is an older chip of the same class outperforms the

 GTS 430  by a significant margin. Would not recommend.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Master Vovo said:

I'm really afraid to place it in the motherboard because it may explode or something.

that depends on your motherboard condition and mostly on PSU, apparently the gt430 requires ~400w PSU... if you dont have that or have a low quality PSU it might blow something up - definitely not recommended unless you know your PC actually has the requirements to handle the GPU.

 

In addition to the card apparently being weaker than your iGPU i would  *not* recommend it either way, like what's the point,  its not going to improve anything and has a certain (to us unknown in extent) risk attached to it.

 

[LIGISTX]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

that depends on your motherboard condition and mostly on PSU, apparently the gt430 requires ~400w PSU... if you dont have that or have a low quality PSU it might blow something up - definitely not recommended unless you know your PC actually has the requirements to handle the GPU.

It won't blow anything up.... a gt430 doesn't even have PCIe power inputs; it only draws power from the PCIe slot. That means it can draw a max of 75 watts. So even if you had a 10900k OCed to the moon + a GTX 430, in literally max wattage draw your PC wouldn't draw more then 300 watts.

 

That said, I agree, it won't be a performance benefit so there really isn't much point in trying. But, a gt430 won't blow anything up.... 

[--SID--]

5 hours ago, Master Vovo said:

CPU: AMD A6-7480

GPU: AMD RADEON R5 Graphics (Integrated Graphics)

Motherboard: EMX-A70FM2+iCafe +

 

I currently have 8gb RAM

 

My friend told me that the brand of the GPU is Palit gts 430 

Brand and model of the PSU?

[Mark Kaine]

17 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

It won't blow anything up.... a gt430 doesn't even have PCIe power inputs; it only draws power from the PCIe slot. That means it can draw a max of 75 watts. So even if you had a 10900k OCed to the moon + a GTX 430, in literally max wattage draw your PC wouldn't draw more then 300 watts.

i didn't even know it has no pcie power - although not surprising,  i just looked it up, 300-400w is recommended,  so what if Op has some old 200w laying around... it *might* blow something up, even if unlikely

(to me no mention of a psu is always a red flag, so yeah...)

 

20 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

That said, I agree, it won't be a performance benefit

And that too. = )

 

 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i didn't even know it has no pcie power - although not surprising,  i just looked it up, 300-400w is recommended,  so what if Op has some old 200w laying around... it *might* blow something up, even if unlikely

(to me no mention of a psu is always a red flag, so yeah...)

 

And that too. = )

 

 

Theoretically…. Nothing should ever blow up. Over current protection should kick in and the PC would shut down. 
 

That said, really low tier PSU’s have iffy protection circuits. BUT, most PSU’s have 350 watt PSU’s, and that’s plenty for a gtx430. It literally can’t pull more than 75 watts, and just about every prebuilt that exists without a GPU in it will be a i5 or lower class CPU, which means the CPU likely won’t pull over 100 watts. So we are talking full system draw under synthetic CPU and GPU load will be ~200 watts max. 

[aDoomGuy]

57 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i didn't even know it has no pcie power - although not surprising,  i just looked it up, 300-400w is recommended,  so what if Op has some old 200w laying around... it *might* blow something up, even if unlikely

(to me no mention of a psu is always a red flag, so yeah...)

 

And that too. = )

 

 

Remember that when a manufacturer say a video card is recommended with 400W PSU, they take into consideration high wattage CPU and this and that, it doesn't mean the card will draw anywhere near that kind of wattage.

 

My card is recommended with 500W PSU but according to GPU-z it only draws a little over 200W at full load with highest stable OC. Even if his PSU is 200W, that card can't possibly get more than 75W due to the PCIe slot limitations and as long as his system don't need 100W which it most likely don't he should be fine even with a 200W PSU, if it is in working order that is. If a PSU is broken... then all bets are off no matter how much power the PSU can provide.. Not saying a 200W PSU is plenty by any stretch of the imagination but it should work ...for a while.  

[Mark Kaine]

30 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Remember that when a manufacturer say a video card is recommended with 400W PSU, they take into consideration high wattage CPU and this and that, it doesn't mean the card will draw anywhere near that kind of wattage.

yeah, but that's missing the point, op asks about possible damage (risks) and doesn't even say what psu they have. so i simply say that depends on condition of the motherboard and especially the psu. and yes, people like to "overprovision" the wattage and for good reason usually. 

 

Eh, my system doesn't draw more than 500w but thats with a 3600 and no oc's except ram, if id get an i7/i9 it were probably close to 650w which is recommended for a 3070...

 

oh and with 3080 etc theyre actually low balling,  recommended 750w, which often just doesn't cut it due to high transient spikes,  leaving confused customers with crashing gpus...