Hey there! So I have two old "dinosaurs" for PCs, and I've been thinking of upgrading them with better and more current video cards, I'm just afraid they might not work in my pcs. As far as I know, there's no such a problem, but really? Also, would my old processor be a problem for newer graphic cards?
Question Will my OLD motherboard be compatible with newer Video Cards? How can I tell?
- Thread starter Baladaum
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John Chesterfield
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- Mar 22, 2015
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No idea, I can't even start to guess what's in your 'dinosaur' PCs.
Maybe you could help us to help you by telling us that?
Maybe you could help us to help you by telling us that?
Oh terribly sorry matey.
One of them has a DG33BU Intel motherboard and the other has a P5Q-E Asus motherboard, both have Q9500 Intel Core 2 Quad Processors.
I know that the PSU is an important issue when choosing GPUs, but now I don't remember what they are and are beyond the scope of this thread, since what worries me are the other components (motherboard etc).
- Mar 16, 2013
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ALL the components are within scope for this.
Especially the PSU.
Also within scope....use case and budget.
What video cards are you even considering. Finding a video card that will work in the pcie slot likely is the simpler issue. Finding one that you can get drivers for whatever old OS you are running is going to be the challenge.
Many newer cards do not support older OS, maybe if you are running a linux version you might get something to work.
Many newer cards do not support older OS, maybe if you are running a linux version you might get something to work.
digitalgriffin
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This is a very complex question with no simple answer.
It all depends what your hardware is and what you play, your screen res and what you want to play.
For example: I have a RX580 with 16gigs running on a 4.4GHz 3770k ivy bridge (4/8 threads)
For my son, even on 1440p, that's awesome hardware. Hes playing Roblox and train simulator. The only thing that struggles is beam.ng
For my other son, he has a 3900X with 32gigs and a 5700xt. He plays Roblox, VR, planet coaster, world of warships, and war thunder on an ultra wide. 29:14 freesync premium pro display. His system staggers.
That said anything pre 10th gen Intel is going to have frame staggers. Anything pre Zen 2 series will stagger.
Oh I'm thinking of getting some low-to-mid-end video card that has some 4Gb VRAM and decent speed (like some NVidia 700 series or Radeon 500 series).
Both PCs have motherboards that have regular PCIe slots (I believe those should be compatible with modern video cards) and both PCs are running W10 (also, no old OS issue), so I think both the slots and the operational systems won't be a problem.
What worries me is specifically the motherboard telling me "whooooa from what planet did this futuristic video card came from? me no hablo alien tongue" sort of stuff (I mean in the same sense that modern processors arent compatible with old motherboards).
digitalgriffin
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That's over 10 years. You got your money out of these. Time to retire them. Your motherboard is likely to fail soon due to the nature of paste caps. If you have overclocked it or ran it hot you'll likely have electron migration issues also.
geofelt
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Both motherboards have a pcie x16 slot which is what all modern graphics cards use.
pcie 2/3/4 is not an issue, compatibility is both forward and backwards compatible.
The issue you may encounter is that modern graphics cards expect to see a uefi bios which your motherboards do not have.
Around the GTX750 time frame is when the transfer to uefi took place.
Some newer cards have both uefi and legacy support.
I would think that a simple GT730 card would do the job for you.
pcie 2/3/4 is not an issue, compatibility is both forward and backwards compatible.
The issue you may encounter is that modern graphics cards expect to see a uefi bios which your motherboards do not have.
Around the GTX750 time frame is when the transfer to uefi took place.
Some newer cards have both uefi and legacy support.
I would think that a simple GT730 card would do the job for you.
- Mar 16, 2013
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And we still do not know the PSU.
A 10 year old PSU from a janky office PC....your GPU options are limited.
geofelt
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Way back when , bios storage was limited in size so only simple display formatting was possible.
When you look at your bios display, is it simple lines and monochrome?
If yes, it is legacy.
More modern motherboards increased the storage available for the bios.
If you see a nicely formatted multi color image, it will be uefi.
The reason for the PSU question above is to determine how capable the psu is to manage a graphics card.
The GT730 I mentioned above takes only 25w and no aux 6 pin power.
It should be safe enough. If you want fast action gaming, you may need a psu with a 6pin pcie aux graphics connector.
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I'm not home at the moment, I can't check what is the PSU.
But I mean that the PSU is not an issue for me right now in the sense that I still don't know which GPU I'll get for them. Only when I choose the video card (based on necessity and COMPATIBILITY) will I be able to figure if my current PSU is adequate or if I'll need to change it to a better one.
I know my options are limited to a cheap and pre-Nvidia 700 series era (because of BIOS / UEFI issue) according to the fellow above.
- Nov 19, 2010
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GTX 750/GTX 750 Ti have long been a recommendation in this type of situation, in order to avoid crossing over that BIOS/UEFI threshold. And even if that wasn't an issue, given the CPUs, you probably would see limited benefits above a GTX 750 Ti in most cases.
Now, the PSU question is the key one. The 750 Ti, when it's not an overclocked model that requires supplementary power, can run on a lot of mediocre PSUs of the time. But whether these old PSUs are good, mediocre, or scary junk is something that has to be cleared up before any purchases are made. I will never recommend any GPU until knowing this information.
Now, the PSU question is the key one. The 750 Ti, when it's not an overclocked model that requires supplementary power, can run on a lot of mediocre PSUs of the time. But whether these old PSUs are good, mediocre, or scary junk is something that has to be cleared up before any purchases are made. I will never recommend any GPU until knowing this information.
Yeah definetely, I agree with you on that one. Now that we've stablished that these are the last supported video cards for legacy mobos, I need to check if my current PSUs are adequate or if I need to change them. I'll come back with both PSU specs as soon as I can.
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Please get the exact models, not just the wattage. This is very important.
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Just making sure! A lot of times people will just say "it's 500W" and then we inevitably have to then tell them to open up their PCs again which always feels kind jerky to do.
digitalgriffin
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Other than uefi issues no. But you are handicapping them to pcie2. You will hit performance penalties on two fronts (CPU and bus) if uefi isn't an issue. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a vw bug
Yeah no problem mate, I know there are is a lot to analyse about the quality of the wattage in regards to PSUs, they have all that bronze, silver and gold "Olympiads jazz" scoring going on for them, and that should be taken into consideration too.
True, but my intention is to (in due time, might take a good while) buy a new PC and migrate these videocards into the newer PCs and take further advantage of them, and in "DUERER" time buy new video cards for those new PCs.
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