Question Any options for 4K Video Card with my current CPU & a modest 250W PSU ?

[Petros_K]

I apologise then, I somehow missed that (I'm at work and give tech advice in my down time so sometimes I miss the odd detail).

For you, I would recommend the GeForce GT 730. It's dirt-cheap, has a max resolution of 3840x2160 but only has a TDP of 49W. I think that for you, it would be ideal.

Thank you. I will keep it in mind if the Sparkle A380 Elf does not work out.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Thank you. I will keep it in mind if the Sparkle A380 Elf does not work out.

Ah Sparkle! Yeah, I remember the days when Sparkle was an nVidia AIB partner. As long as the drivers don't act up (and at this point, I'm pretty sure that they probably won't) it should work for you just fine. The other thing that I was going to suggest was an IGP because 2D graphics are a walk in the park for any GPU made in the last ten years.

 

[Petros_K]

Tried to install the Sparkle A380 Elf card today but ran into a problem. After seating it into the PCIe slot and turning the system back on I got nothing but a black screen.

Read somewhere that sometimes a BIOS update is necessary. I did successfully update the BIOS version for the PC from one that was from 2019 to one that is from June 2023 using the HP Support Assistant. Worked flawlessly. But this did not solve the video card issue.

I was able to switch back to the video card that came with the system (AMD Radeon R7 430) and still works fine.

I also noticed the fans for the new Sparkle A380 Elf are not spinning. Black screen, fan dead. This was purchased from Newegg. Think it's broken? Some other issue?

At Intel website: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000091128/graphics.html

it suggests this video card is supported from 10th generation intel core processors and up. My system has an 8th generation CPU. Would that make it not work at all? This article suggests the card should work anyway: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no...gen-cpu-or-newer-for-intel-arc-graphics-cards

 

[Lucky_SLS]

I dont know if the fans wont spin if its not configured or detected but it might be due to the card defaulting to pcie 4.0 ?

your mobo is pcie 3.0 and you will have to dig out in bios to see how to detect your gpu i guess.

Cuz similar cards were used to 'upgrade' these systems : https://www.hardware-corner.net/desktop-models/HP-EliteDesk-800-G4-SFF/

 

[Petros_K]

Sounds like a compatibility issue. I tried to email Sparkle tech support on this and all they said is:

"In your case, your M/B BIOS seems not recognize Intel ARC VGA card." Stating the obvious, unless it is true this card is just broken.

So my PC is from 2019, updated BIOS to June 2023, but there's something about the motherboard/BIOS that the card is just not compatible. What? If it's PCIe 4.0 I thought that was backward compatible with 3.0 but you just won't get full performance. Same with their recommendation to use a 10th generation Core CPU or better. It's not that the card will not work on systems with earlier CPU generations, again according to the article linked above.

But if I can't get the BIOS to recognize the card, is that a sign this video card will also be problematic to run? I've never encountered this before, and I have no clue how to troubleshoot it beyond making sure BIOS is updated.

 

[Petros_K]

I think I got this working now.

I may do a new thread on the topic of what I had to do to installed the ARC A380 after initially getting black screen and BIOS apparently not detecting the video card.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Tried to install the Sparkle A380 Elf card today but ran into a problem. After seating it into the PCIe slot and turning the system back on I got nothing but a black screen.

Read somewhere that sometimes a BIOS update is necessary. I did successfully update the BIOS version for the PC from one that was from 2019 to one that is from June 2023 using the HP Support Assistant. Worked flawlessly. But this did not solve the video card issue.

I was able to switch back to the video card that came with the system (AMD Radeon R7 430) and still works fine.

I also noticed the fans for the new Sparkle A380 Elf are not spinning. Black screen, fan dead. This was purchased from Newegg. Think it's broken? Some other issue?

At Intel website: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000091128/graphics.html

it suggests this video card is supported from 10th generation intel core processors and up. My system has an 8th generation CPU. Would that make it not work at all? This article suggests the card should work anyway: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no...gen-cpu-or-newer-for-intel-arc-graphics-cards

Sorry Petros, I have ZERO experience with Intel Graphics. I've never even owned an Intel IGP, let alone a discrete card.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

I think I got this working now.

I may do a new thread on the topic of what I had to do to installed the ARC A380 after initially getting black screen and BIOS apparently not detecting the video card.

i am more surprised abt sparkle not supporting you, but cheers to you figuring it out! what was the problem anyway?

 

[Petros_K]

i am more surprised abt sparkle not supporting you, but cheers to you figuring it out! what was the problem anyway?

Read here:

Question - Sparkle ARC A380 Elf Video Card: Difficult Installation

Video card: Sparkle ARC A380 Elf System: HP Elitedesk 800 G4 Workstation with Intel Core i7 8700 CPU OS: Windows 10 Pro The system above has a modest PSU (250W) so I wanted to go with this card not for gaming but to be able to stream 4K and hopefully do some video editing. No PCIe power adapter...

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