Backward Compatibility (PCI-E) + advice :)

Clifford Callistus

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Feb 13, 2014
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10,510
Vision: to modify my desktop PC so that everything is wireless (sound, graphic, net and keyboard+mouse) with the exception of power supply (don't think I can have a wireless one).

What I have:
- mobo: ASUS P5B-E
- GPU: GeForce 7950GT

I'm wanting to replace the 7950GT with either
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Dual-X OC HDMI DisplayPort Dual DVI 2GB
(or)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC HDMI Dual-DVI 2GB

What I've gathered so far is that both of them have PCI e v3.0 but my mobo has only PCI e v1.0 connector. Even with this, I'm not really sure which version my mobo has as it is not clarified in ASUS website (I think it's because back then no one even think of making a v2.0). Can anyone clarify this please?

How much do I lose in performance if I put the new GPU to this old mobo? (% would be nice)

I would pick the Gigabyte one instead of the Sapphire as the OS requirement for the Sapphire one is win7+ and I use win XP (conflicting issues with device drivers for older parts). Would this be correct to pick the Gigabyte one due to this?

Is there any conflicting issues with putting this newer graphic card on my current mobo?

Any other recommendation that you guys can give me? Again, my objective is to put both sound and graphic into one HDMI connector and with this, I would buy an HDMI Wireless adapter to be connected to my TV.

Thank you for taking your time in responding to this and have a great day.
 
Solution
I started this kind of thread before. The answers i got was not what i expected. They told me to sell everything off and build a new rig.
Now, i came across this kind of thread, i am gonna ask you to do the same thing. Replace everything.
Here's why.
You wanna get a new GPU? You need a new PSU.
You wanna get the maximum performance out of your GPU? You need new CPU, MOBO, and RAM.
Yeah thats pretty much it. A whole new rig.

That Asus Radeon EAH6450 Silent/DI/1GD3(LP) 1GB won't bottleneck since it is a low-end GPU.
if you intend to get this card, don't bother to buy a new PSU. You don't need it.
Cards that will be heavily bottlenecked starts from:
According to your rig
Nvidia : GTX 650Ti and above
AMD: HD 7770 and above

If you need a...

Steven Stuu

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Feb 3, 2014
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10,710
Yes they are backward compatible and the main problem is not your PCIe slot. It is your motherboard,CPU and RAM. You need to upgrade your motherboard to support DDR3 RAM. Your ASUS mobo only supports DDR2 RAM and Core 2 Duo. Both cards will be bottleneck by your CPU and RAM.

Do you have enough power supply? What is your current PSU?

And it is really funny to ask people about two VERY different GPU. The R9 270x will kick GTX 650 Ti's ass. If you want to ask people about their opinion about 2 GPUs, state your budget.

My suggestion (since you didn't state your budget) is to build a whole new rig.
Starts from CPU, MOBO, and RAM.
I recently bought FX-6300, Corsair vengeance 1600MHz CL9 and AsRock 970 Pro3 R2 for $300.
Upgrade your PSU. (i assume you have pretty old PSU since you use ancient GPU)
500W PSU will be enough for either of both cards and it cost around $70
Then go for GPU according to your budget.

 

Clifford Callistus

Honorable
Feb 13, 2014
2
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10,510


Yeah, as soon as I click the submit button, I realized that my PSU might be too low (came along with the case that I bought). I did build my PC a long time ago. It's just one of those ideas that instead of throwing it away, I could re-use it but having the feature of being wireless. The GPUs were being compared because of the price range. The difference was about $50 between the two. The budget for the GPUs is "as cheap as possible", in which it should have the HDMI + audio capability.

I also found another one, which is Asus Radeon EAH6450 Silent/DI/1GD3(LP) 1GB. Do you think this will bottleneck as well? What I know, with this is that there is a possibility of a problem with the PCIe v2.1 being compatible with PCIe v1.0 slot.

Oh, and this is the website where I check the specs. I use this one to buy all my parts.
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?j=876732,1282910

Any other suggestions of the cheapest and compatible GPU (with hdmi+audio) capability is very much welcomed.

Again, Thank you.
 

Steven Stuu

Honorable
Feb 3, 2014
106
0
10,710
I started this kind of thread before. The answers i got was not what i expected. They told me to sell everything off and build a new rig.
Now, i came across this kind of thread, i am gonna ask you to do the same thing. Replace everything.
Here's why.
You wanna get a new GPU? You need a new PSU.
You wanna get the maximum performance out of your GPU? You need new CPU, MOBO, and RAM.
Yeah thats pretty much it. A whole new rig.

That Asus Radeon EAH6450 Silent/DI/1GD3(LP) 1GB won't bottleneck since it is a low-end GPU.
if you intend to get this card, don't bother to buy a new PSU. You don't need it.
Cards that will be heavily bottlenecked starts from:
According to your rig
Nvidia : GTX 650Ti and above
AMD: HD 7770 and above

If you need a new GPU just for wireless stuff then a low-end GPU with HDMI port will suits you best.
Low-end GPU with HDMI ports really depends on the OEM. Low-end GPUs with HDMI ports are kinda difficult to find because they launched them years ago. Most of them comes with DVI ports. You could buy DVI to HDMI adapter and plug your "wireless thing" into it
But if you intend to play games, low-end GPU won't satisfy you (in other words, upgrade your whole rig).
 
Solution
When adding a new card on such old system, chances of incompatibility are quite high. And if the video works it will be restricted by the CPU.
I also think that full upgrade is better variant.
Currently even the basic CPU integrated gpu's are better than 7950GT. If you do not play games, or play old ones - you can go with an Intel Haswell Celeron G1820, G1830 with integrated graphics, there are a lot of MBs with hdmi.
If you play games rarely you can go with AMD's new A10-7850K - the most powerful integrated video currently available.
IF you want more power - new CPU (Intel I3 at least) + dedicated Video.
You have to say what your budget is and what is the expected system use if you want more detailed advises.