[SOLVED] NVIDIA not recognizing my GTX 1660ti

[vtPrimaL]

SO i recently bought an EVGA Gtx 1660ti and was psyched to plug it in and start playing! I run a 460w default power supply from dell that came with it when i bought my pc. My pc is current 5 or 6 years old, but i have updated every drivers with driver easy. Anywho the problem is this... nvidia doesnt recognize my card so therefore i cant download the drivers for the card. I went through forums and other related stuff and i just have no clue whats wrong. I updated my motherboard and all my drivers, check if it was plugged right etc, uninstalled all past drivers for my gt 730 etc. and still showed up as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. It did say i needed to install the latest version of windows, but alas my computer cant even do that anymore sadly. All hope was lost until i called evga and asked them for help and the person there told me there was no need to update windows, that my computer should recognize it. He then asked if it was connected right, and i knew i pushed that sucker perfectly in but...i was using a 6 pin to 8 pin adapter. And whenever i did start my computer... the fans wouldnt normally start up real quick to test if its working so i started to think it was time to upgrade my psu and see if that was the problem. Anybody know if its actually my psu that i need to upgrade? or if its something else im missing

 

[hang-the-9]

First thing, if you are using an adapter from 6 pins to 8 pins that can certainly be an issue, power supply cables are setup for a certain power rating, 8 pin on the card is there because it needs more than a 6 pin can provide. Using an adapter on a cable won't magically make it produce more power.

If you need to use some sort of adapters to run a video card that is a good sign you should not be. The support guy from EVGA should have focused on your power supply first thing, as soon as you mention an "adapter" I would have stopped there and told you to get a power supply recommended for that video card.

Second, older systems, especially pre-builts like a Dell can have issues with newer video cards. Are you on the latest BIOS version for the motherboard? If you are then it may be a power supply issue, or it may end that the motherboard simply does not work with that card.

Third, don't use 3rd party utilities to update drivers, go directly to the vendor site and download from there. Dell may have an automatic driver download utility for your system, using some 3rd party one can end up causing new issues.

 

[vtPrimaL]

Thank you, Im hoping it is a power supply issue and when I get this new one everything should go back to normal, Im also planning to update the bios then now

 

[King_V]

What exact model of Dell is this computer? Does the PSU have only one 6-pin connector, or two?

If two, then a dual-6-pin-to-single-8-pin is perfectly safe. An 8-pin is designed to carry up to 150W, and a 6-pin is designed to carry up to 75W, so 2x6-pin into a single 8-pin is fine. I am doing this on a Dell XPS 8700 with a GTX 1080 card, and the original 460W Dell PSU. The 460W Dell PSUs are generally stated by Dell to be able to support up to a 225W video card, and the 1660Ti only pulls about 130W max, so you're easily within the safe zone there.

HOWEVER - as @hang-the-9 mentioned, some older Dell PCs tend to be incredibly finicky about newer video cards, which is why I'm wondering which exact Dell you have (ie: XPS 8300, XPS 8700, XPS 8930, or whatever).

 

[kiriakos-gr]

Thank you, Im hoping it is a power supply issue and when I get this new one everything should go back to normal, Im also planning to update the bios then now

GOLDEN advice ... do not touch anything, except if you do not care about the warranty period.
It is advisable to RMA the card so even the Bios update to become by authorized technician.

Your job this is playing games at one trouble free PC.