How do I know ...

[djreedj]

Hello, I bought a prebuild PC couple years ago. I feel its time to upgrade my Radeon 270x and am unsure how to go about finding out which graphic cards are compatible. I can't find my order history in newegg, its just not there. But my specs are as follows.

Intel i7
16 GB ram
2 TB HDD
Radeon R9 270x

I need a graphics card compatible, and that MORE than capable of running high quality games such as Fallout 4 at a CONSTANT 60 FPS.

Thank you.

 

[GObonzo]

the 270X is a PCIe x16 card, like almost all GPUs out there now.
as long as your power supply has the power to run the card, and the case is big enough to fit it, you can replace with any PCIe x16 GPU.

to get Fallout 4 at it's highest settings at >=60fps you will need a decent card. lowest i would recommend is a R9 390 or GTX 970.

 

[djreedj]

So anything that is PCIe x 16 capable? And it must fit my case? How would I know if it fits my case?

 

[djreedj]

the 270X is a PCIe x16 card, like almost all GPUs out there now.
as long as your power supply has the power to run the card, and the case is big enough to fit it, you can replace with any PCIe x16 GPU.

to get Fallout 4 at it's highest settings at >=60fps you will need a decent card. lowest i would recommend is a R9 390 or GTX 970.

For example, this card..?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125806

 

[GObonzo]

So anything that is PCIe x 16 capable? And it must fit my case? How would I know if it fits my case?

you find the specifications for your case size and compare them to the specifications of the card length.

 

[djreedj]

So anything that is PCIe x 16 capable? And it must fit my case? How would I know if it fits my case?

you find the specifications for your case size and compare them to the specifications of the card length.

thats the problem im not sure the specifications of my case size..

say the graphics card i linked for example, that says power require 400 watts, but i also have to take into consideration the other components for power usage right? LIke motherboard, hdd, i need to know how much power those require to run?

 

[hang-the-9]

Open the case, measure the space you have. You also need to look at the power supply brand and model to make sure it's good enough. Usually pre-build systems use poor quality power supplies to offer a low price. The good news is that the 270x is not a small card, so very likely other cards will fit, and the GTX 970 is a fairly low power card, so if a 270x can run in your system, the GTX 970 should also. Only thing is that you need to uninstall the Radeon drivers before you install an nVidia card. Read the instructions it would come with.

 

[djreedj]

Open the case, measure the space you have. You also need to look at the power supply brand and model to make sure it's good enough. Usually pre-build systems use poor quality power supplies to offer a low price. The good news is that the 270x is not a small card, so very likely other cards will fit, and the GTX 970 is a fairly low power card, so if a 270x can run in your system, the GTX 970 should also. Only thing is that you need to uninstall the Radeon drivers before you install an nVidia card. Read the instructions it would come with.

Thanks for your response. Do you think getting the 980 will be a good one to get to guarentee at least 60 fps in fallout and most games for this year? I'm just worried that I will get the card and it won't fit and newegg replacement only return policy. Which btw is replacement policy for the same card I just bought, or is it store credit basically for another card?

 

[maxalge]

Open the case, measure the space you have. You also need to look at the power supply brand and model to make sure it's good enough. Usually pre-build systems use poor quality power supplies to offer a low price. The good news is that the 270x is not a small card, so very likely other cards will fit, and the GTX 970 is a fairly low power card, so if a 270x can run in your system, the GTX 970 should also. Only thing is that you need to uninstall the Radeon drivers before you install an nVidia card. Read the instructions it would come with.

Thanks for your response. Do you think getting the 980 will be a good one to get to guarentee at least 60 fps in fallout and most games for this year? I'm just worried that I will get the card and it won't fit and newegg replacement only return policy. Which btw is replacement policy for the same card I just bought, or is it store credit basically for another card?

open your case, measure this distance between the arrows


that will give you max length