Question GPUs not working in old motherboard

[marktwayne]

I have an MSI H77MA-G43 motherboard with an Intel i7-3770, 32GB of RAM, and a 1000-watt power supply. Years ago, I was running two Radeon RX 580 GPUs in crossfire mode. At one point, I started experiencing crashes and the computer stopped detecting the RX 580s. However, it did recognize an RX 460, and I was able to use the computer for a couple of years until it also stopped detecting the RX 460.

As a result, I replaced the motherboard with a used one. At that time, I had already sold the RX 580s and was using the RX 460 in my computer. Recently, I decided to upgrade my graphics card. Initially, I tried installing an NVidia RTX 2070. Although the card was detected in the device manager and displayed video, the device manager showed an exclamation point in a yellow triangle and the display only worked with the Microsoft Basic Adapter. GPU-Z identified the card as having 0 memory. I then attempted to install an RX 5700xt, which also encountered similar problems. Unfortunately, I do not have another system to test these GPUs, but I suspect it may be possible that the graphics cards are functioning correctly and the issue lies elsewhere.

The board operates on PCIE 3.0 and I have the latest BIOS, version 1.D, dated October 2013. To the best of my knowledge, there should not be any compatibility issues between this board and these cards. Is it more likely that both GPUs are faulty, or could there be another issue? The RX 460 is still functioning properly.

 

[rgd1101]

brand and model of the 1000w psu?

 

[marktwayne]

Rosewill Glacier 80 Plus Bronze

I have a few other power supplies, such as a Thermaltake 1500w Toughpower Gold as well as a 650-watt PSU if you think that's a likely culprit.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Rosewill Glacier 80 Plus Bronze

I have a few other power supplies, such as a Thermaltake 1500w Toughpower Gold as well as a 650-watt PSU if you think that's a likely culprit.

Never heard of Rosewill Glacier 80 Plus Bronze PSU before and seems like this PSU is cheap. I think you shoud try 1500W PSU out with those GPU

 

[marktwayne]

I tested the 1500W power supply and obtained the same results. I have seen many people with older computers successfully run new graphics cards; however, the only recent card that my motherboard has recognized is the Intel Arc 770. In GPU tests, this GPU performed in the bottom 11% among other cards of the same make and model, and it caused my computer to crash when I used video editing software. These issues, along with the failure to recognize other new cards, make me wonder: is it possible that my motherboard is simply not compatible with most newer cards? I am using the latest BIOS (1.D), but that is from 2013.

 

[awake283]

I tested the 1500W power supply and obtained the same results. I have seen many people with older computers successfully run new graphics cards; however, the only recent card that my motherboard has recognized is the Intel Arc 770. In GPU tests, this GPU performed in the bottom 11% among other cards of the same make and model, and it caused my computer to crash when I used video editing software. These issues, along with the failure to recognize other new cards, make me wonder: is it possible that my motherboard is simply not compatible with most newer cards? I am using the latest BIOS (1.D), but that is from 2013.

Does your mobo have rebar?

 

[awake283]

I think its less likely its your PSU and much more likely its your motherboard. Hard to say what the specific issue is, but my guess would be one of your PCI lanes has an issue. Rosewill PSU's are fine.

 

[stonecarver]

It's always hit and miss with newer AMD GPU's past the RX 470 and the RX 480. I have had good results using legacy setting in older bios but still it's a roll of the dice. Some work and some just flat out refuse to work.

What's odd is your old motherboard could use the RX 580. What mode was BIOS in on the old motherboard UEFI or Legacy. On those early UEFI board I have better luck getting the RX 580 working in Legacy.

 

[awake283]

RX480 specifically has some issues with motherboard compatibility. Ran into that problem myself. Its definitely weird that the 480 was the one card that DID work.

 

[marktwayne]

Does your mobo have rebar?

No. That was the main problem with the ARC card. Intel cards need rebar to function well, but will function without it. As could be predicted, it did function, but at the bottom of the curve.

I may have seen a modded BIOS with Rebar support, but I didn't want to risk installing it.

It's always hit and miss with newer AMD GPU's past the RX 470 and the RX 480. I have had good results using legacy setting in older bios but still it's a roll of the dice. Some work and some just flat out refuse to work.

What's odd is your old motherboard could use the RX 580. What mode was BIOS in on the old motherboard UEFI or Legacy. On those early UEFI board I have better luck getting the RX 580 working in Legacy.

I have found threads that say the 1.D update solves this issue. This update adds ME8 (Intel's management engine) support. I do have a 1.D BIOS. This thread explains it:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/msi-h77ma-g43-unable-to-boot-with-rx-580.297279/

RX480 specifically has some issues with motherboard compatibility. Ran into that problem myself. Its definitely weird that the 480 was the one card that DID work.

This may have been related to issues with ME7/ME8.

I might try an NVIDIA GTX 1070 Ti, although I wish there were a way to predict which cards will work. It was encouraging that the Intel card functioned, even if not at full potential without rebar. I've been very meticulous about my drivers and have identified the newest drivers that are compatible. The BIOS is limited to version 1.D unless I want to risk trying a newer modified BIOS.

Interestingly, the RX 5700XT is now recognized as a 2070 Super by the NVIDIA software. However, I am sure it will crash under any kind of load.

 

[awake283]

This is all interesting lol. Report back!

Also its interesting the Arc card still worked with no rebar. I thought that made it unusable completely.

 

[marktwayne]

The strange aspect for me is that there are few threads indicating incompatibilities between older systems and new video cards. "PCIe 3.0 is backward compatible," they claim, suggesting that you could run new video cards on any system from the last twenty years. Processor speeds have not increased significantly in the past decade; manufacturers are primarily adding more cores. Consequently, there are numerous videos on YouTube demonstrating older computers running new titles with just a GPU upgrade. I am uncertain why I am experiencing so many issues.

 

[stonecarver]

It really falls into a issue between the GPU's BIOS and the motherboards BIOS. Nvidia seems to be more friendly with older systems as far as there GPU's up to the 1000 and 2000 series cards.

The only GPU I had to flash it's BIOS to work on a Dell was an Nvidia GTX 670. Beside that I never had an issue where Nvidia would not work on older stuff. AMD side not so lucky.

 

[marktwayne]

I recently bought a Radeon RX 5700 XT from a seller on eBay for $135. A few days later, I received what I thought was a 5700 XT in its original box, clearly labeled "Gigabyte RADEON RX 5700 XT." I installed it in my system and attempted to load the AMD drivers, but it wasn't working as expected.

After some troubleshooting and using DDU to clear out all previous drivers, I booted up my system again. To my surprise, the system detected the GPU as an NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 Super. Initially, I thought I might have somehow managed to run a 5700 XT on NVIDIA drivers. However, the games were running smoothly and quickly, and I started to suspect something was off.

That's when it hit me: the seller had sent me the wrong card. Instead of the 5700 XT, I had received a Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super. Then I noticed "GEFORCE RTX" etched black on black, barely noticeable. Despite the mix-up, the card was performing great, and I was enjoying the improved gaming experience.

Ethically, I feel I should inform the seller about the mistake. However, since the card is working so well, I'm inclined to keep it. While the 5700 XT and the 2070 Super offer similar performance, the 2070 Super has a slightly higher resale value, making this unexpected upgrade a bit of a win.