Question Graphics card memory ?

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Aug 19, 2021
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Does the compatibility of the other components of the PC with the graphics card vary with the amount of memory the graphics card has ?

I've been told that I should get a 1 GB Graphics card for my PC due to the fact that it's very old. But lately it's been rather hard to find a 1 GB Graphics card around my area, since most of them varies from 2 - 4 GB Graphics cards. Which lead me to the question "can my pc not run other graphics card that has over 2 GB or more?". I know I've been told to get a 1 GB Graphics card but I wanna know if I can or why can't I get a 2GB (or more) Graphics Card.

My specs (If needed):
Motherboard:
NMF91-G41
Processor:
Pentium(R) Dual - Core CPU E5700 @3.00GHz
PSU model:
650W PSU (Cooler Master)

Note: I know that I should look for a graphics card that should be compatible with my PC. What I wanna know is about whether or not the amount of GB in Graphics cards affect the compatibility of the PC.
 
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I've been told that I should get a 1 GB Graphics card for my PC due to the fact that it's very old. But lately it's been rather hard to find a 1 GB Graphics card around my area, since most of them varies from 2 - 4 GB Graphics cards. Which lead me to the question My specs (If needed):
Motherboard:NMF91-G41
That's rather old pc ~ from 2008 - 2009.
GT730 or GTX 750/ti would be a good match for it.
 

Tac 25

Estimable
Jul 25, 2021
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@veroven

felt like joining the conversation since we both have very old board. On my sig, the backup pc is also G41 motherboard. The GPU it previously used is a GTX 460 which has 758 mb memory. Later upgraded the GTX 460 to a GT 1030 GDDR5 which has 2 GB memory, and did not encounter any problems. Believe it or not, even with just 4GB ram, the old G41 board can now run King of Fighters XIV and Dead or Alive V to a playable level - but I did upgrade the processor to a Q9500, before installing those games.
 

jasonf2

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Reading through the thread I don't really know if your question was actually answered so let me take a stab at it. While onboard memory on video cards has increased over time there really isn't a system cap. As long as you have a PSU that can feed power to it, a bus that can interface to the card and a driver set for your OS, your computer will generally run about anything. PCIe is pretty much backwards compatible (with performance dings of course) and that is about the only interface you will find on modern cards. If you are running AGP, PCI (not e) or ISA then the discussion changes pretty quickly. But no RAM doesn't cap anything.

On a side note though your framerate and playability in games is very tied to the CPU performance. So throwing a 3090 on a 15 year old machine may be plausible (and be better than the 15 year old card that came out), but don't expect playability or framerates to be that great (or online benchmarks for the card to mean much) in contrast with a brand new CPU.
 

JinxTheWorld

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Jan 10, 2021
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The GPU is reliant on the PSU that powers it. Generally you'll want a PSU that is at least 50w higher than the recommended for the specific GPU. Say a GPU recommends 500w, you would want a PSU that is atleast 550w or preferably 600w. In reverse if you have a 550w PSU, you would limit yourself to a GPU that has a recommended 500w PSU. You would look for a GPU that has a TDP of 130-150w IF you had a 550-600w PSU. More or less lol.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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The amount of VRAM on the GPU has no bearing on compatibility. What does is whether your PC supports UEFI boot or not as the newer GPUs do not support legacy boot. If your board supports UEFI, then you should be able to use anything that will come out for the foreseeable future.

1GB GPUs can be quite problematic for gaming as a good chunk of the VRAM may get consumed by the OS and GPU-accelerated background apps. I wouldn't consider anything below 2GB viable and even that is somewhat of a stretch. 4GB of VRAM is really the bare minimum for gaming these days with 6GB being significantly more preferable.

Of course, most GPUs with 4-6GB of VRAM would be grossly under-utilized most of the time on a C2D unless you run GPU-intensive extras like high-resolutions, super-sampling, FSAA, etc.
 
Aug 19, 2021
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What website are you considering to purchase a GPU? And, what is your budget?
Sorry for the late reply, my internet was down for 2 weeks.


The website would be either shopee or lazada, as these are the shopping websites I know.
I'd say around $50-100, since my PC is very old and I am fully aware that it would bottleneck the CPU.
 
Aug 19, 2021
39
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Reading through the thread I don't really know if your question was actually answered so let me take a stab at it. While onboard memory on video cards has increased over time there really isn't a system cap. As long as you have a PSU that can feed power to it, a bus that can interface to the card and a driver set for your OS, your computer will generally run about anything. PCIe is pretty much backwards compatible (with performance dings of course) and that is about the only interface you will find on modern cards. If you are running AGP, PCI (not e) or ISA then the discussion changes pretty quickly. But no RAM doesn't cap anything.

On a side note though your framerate and playability in games is very tied to the CPU performance. So throwing a 3090 on a 15 year old machine may be plausible (and be better than the 15 year old card that came out), but don't expect playability or framerates to be that great (or online benchmarks for the card to mean much) in contrast with a brand new CPU.
I have a 650W PSU, I'm pretty sure that the graphics cards that can run on my PC rn requires around 300W. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Aug 19, 2021
39
0
30
The GPU is reliant on the PSU that powers it. Generally you'll want a PSU that is at least 50w higher than the recommended for the specific GPU. Say a GPU recommends 500w, you would want a PSU that is atleast 550w or preferably 600w. In reverse if you have a 550w PSU, you would limit yourself to a GPU that has a recommended 500w PSU. You would look for a GPU that has a TDP of 130-150w IF you had a 550-600w PSU. More or less lol.
Thanks for the advice.
 
Aug 19, 2021
39
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The amount of VRAM on the GPU has no bearing on compatibility. What does is whether your PC supports UEFI boot or not as the newer GPUs do not support legacy boot. If your board supports UEFI, then you should be able to use anything that will come out for the foreseeable future.

1GB GPUs can be quite problematic for gaming as a good chunk of the VRAM may get consumed by the OS and GPU-accelerated background apps. I wouldn't consider anything below 2GB viable and even that is somewhat of a stretch. 4GB of VRAM is really the bare minimum for gaming these days with 6GB being significantly more preferable.

Of course, most GPUs with 4-6GB of VRAM would be grossly under-utilized most of the time on a C2D unless you run GPU-intensive extras like high-resolutions, super-sampling, FSAA, etc.
Thank you for the confirmation and advice.
 

jasonf2

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I have a 650W PSU, I'm pretty sure that the graphics cards that can run on my PC rn requires around 300W. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Power supply size is a calculated value based on the sum of power required by all of the components in your system. So it is completely relative what you throw in. If you put a 3090 in, which you could in theory, the 650 is probably going to be too small. In fact I recommend at least a 700-750 watt for any 3000 series card. But if you find something that isn't as power hungry the 650 should be just fine, if it is a good psu.
 
Aug 19, 2021
39
0
30
Power supply size is a calculated value based on the sum of power required by all of the components in your system. So it is completely relative what you throw in. If you put a 3090 in, which you could in theory, the 650 is probably going to be too small. In fact I recommend at least a 700-750 watt for any 3000 series card. But if you find something that isn't as power hungry the 650 should be just fine, if it is a good psu.
I understand, but as of now my pc can only take low-end graphics cards as it is very old. Thanks for the advice either way.
 
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