Question Old motherboard, new GPU ?

[NeedGPUhelpFred]

Hello all,

I need a bit of help regarding an upgrade to a now ancient computer.
I bought an old prebuilt desktop around 11 years ago, and have been meaning to upgrade for a while.

Specs
Motherboard: MSI Z87-45
CPU: i7-4790 @ 3.60 GHz
GPU: 2 x MSI GTX 770 TwinFrozr in SLI
RAM: 16GB originally, now 24GB
PSU: FSP 750W

I'm looking to upgrade to a Nvidia Gigabyte 3060 GPU, as my old gpu's don't support running DirectX 12. Initially I tried looking up specifications and compatibility between the old board and new GPU, a friend asked ChatGPT as well. Reading that PCIe is backwards compatible between 3.0 and 4.0 I thought it would work.
I tried installing the new GPU, and watching the machine turn on I see the GPU-fans move for the first couple of seconds, then slow down and completely stop again. My monitor also don't get a signal through HDMI.

I know with this old of a machine I was bound to get bottlenecks, but was it very naive to believe that the old board supports the new GPU?
Do I need to upgrade the board as well to get this system to work with the new bits? Do I need to upgrade other parts to get everything to work?

Anyways, thanks in advance. Hope you have a good day and thanks for reading.

Fred

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm looking to upgrade to a Nvidia Gigabyte 3060 GPU,
I tried installing the new GPU, and watching the machine turn on I see the GPU-fans move for the first couple of seconds, then slow down and completely stop again.
My monitor also don't get a signal through HDMI.

Is that a new or used card?
Are you sure, it is working?
What manufacturer/model card is that? Gigabyte has ~ 20 different RTX 3060 models.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-RTX™-3060

 

[NeedGPUhelpFred]

It’s a brand new card, nvidia GeForce rtx 3060 windforce oc 12 gb
I’ll be honest, I’ve no idea if it’s properly working. My old gpu needs two of the 8 pin connectors per card, and I tried all four of them in the new card with the same result. It’s like it’s kickstarting the card, then it shuts off again.

 

[tcsenter]

Make sure you installed to PCI_E2 slot, the full PCIe 16x slot closest to the CPU. You may need to reset CMOS/BIOS. Also toss in a fresh CR2032 battery while you're there, if the current one is any older than five years.

 

[drivinfast247]

Did you change the RAM at the same time?

 

[geofelt]

Is your bios in legacy mode?
It will look monochrome and simple text. Not like a color web page.
New graphics cards need uefi mode to be recognized.

Might be good to check if a motherboard bios update fixes the issue.

 

[williamjeremiah]

Oh am I familiar with these woes.
This is the issue I dealt with when trying to use a GTX 780 on an Asrock A785GM-LE (AM3).
(Dealt with = Bought a new motherboard)

UEFI & Legacy

View: https://youtu.be/ezubjTO7rRI


TECHPOWERUP lists the MSI Z87-45 as having an "AMI EFI BIOS with 64 Mb Flash ROM"

EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) was an early version of what eventually became UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

In my case (pun), after I switched the old ASRock out and the new 990FXA-UD3 (rev. 4) in, it booted right up.

In your case, Fred, you may need to find an Intel Z97 motherboard.
There are several potential candidates available on ebay selling (buy it now) for between $50 & 60.

 

[artk2219]

Oh am I familiar with these woes.
This is the issue I dealt with when trying to use a GTX 780 on an Asrock A785GM-LE (AM3).
(Dealt with = Bought a new motherboard)

UEFI & Legacy

View: https://youtu.be/ezubjTO7rRI


TECHPOWERUP lists the MSI Z87-45 as having an "AMI EFI BIOS with 64 Mb Flash ROM"

EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) was an early version of what eventually became UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

In my case (pun), after I switched the old ASRock out and the new 990FXA-UD3 (rev. 4) in, it booted right up.

In your case, Fred, you may need to find an Intel Z97 motherboard.
There are several potential candidates available on ebay selling (buy it now) for between $50 & 60.

I wouldn't suggest sticking on lga 1150 at this point, if you're going to switch out the board, you may as well see what else you can pickup. You may be able to find a pretty affordable AM4, lga 1200, or even lga 1700 setup. That said, i would definitely confirm that the computer is booting up in uefi mode and not legacy, since the RTX 3000 series and above does not support legacy boot. Alternatively you could pickup an RX 6600 or 7600 as they do support legacy boot.

 

[stonecarver]

If your willing to take a chance and roll up your sleeves being as you already have the parts you could add a Nvidia GT 710 and follow this video on how to make it work or another card just need it at a crutch to boot the new RTS 3060 in the legacy machine.

I keep a dozen or so of these old cards just for this workaround.

I know with this old of a machine I was bound to get bottlenecks, but was it very naive to believe that the old board supports the new GPU?
Do I need to upgrade the board as well to get this system to work with the new bits? Do I need to upgrade other parts to get everything to work?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF_SPcLL0Y

 

[stonecarver]

You could also use duet with refind that runs off a USB stick to emulate UEFI on computer start.

Google it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSPnRB1aVAE

 

[williamjeremiah]

I wouldn't suggest sticking on lga 1150 at this point, if you're going to switch out the board, you may as well see what else you can pickup. You may be able to find a pretty affordable AM4, lga 1200, or even lga 1700 setup. That said, i would definitely confirm that the computer is booting up in uefi mode and not legacy, since the RTX 3000 series and above does not support legacy boot. Alternatively you could pickup an RX 6600 or 7600 as they do support legacy boot.

I mean, If one is willing to go further, they might as well get the latest available.
My suggestion was for resolving the issue for the least amount of money. If you have to buy a new cpu, then you might as well replace the entire core system.