Question Will my OLD motherboard be compatible with newer Video Cards? How can I tell?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Baladaum

Commendable
Oct 25, 2020
20
0
1,510
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?
 
As your systems are quite old, the best GPUs you can put in, appearing to be the GTX 750ti, will be woefully underpowered in a new PC, even a basic one. If you do plan to build a newer PC at some point in the near future, it might be best to start working at that instead. At least for most people, the kind of power they would hope to get out of a new PC would require another new GPU, which you seem to already be planning. Unless you are thinking about waiting over a year before getting a new PC, I would just wait and skip putting a GPU in the old system.

While a GTX 750ti will work in a new PC just fine, it wont perform as the new computer should. Even the cheapest, most basic, new GPU will perform over twice as well.

Go for the 750ti if your power supply can handle it, and you plan to keep and use this computer for a while to come, otherwise it might just be a waste of money to upgrade it now.
 

Baladaum

Commendable
Oct 25, 2020
20
0
1,510
As your systems are quite old, the best GPUs you can put in, appearing to be the GTX 750ti, will be woefully underpowered in a new PC, even a basic one. If you do plan to build a newer PC at some point in the near future, it might be best to start working at that instead. At least for most people, the kind of power they would hope to get out of a new PC would require another new GPU, which you seem to already be planning. Unless you are thinking about waiting over a year before getting a new PC, I would just wait and skip putting a GPU in the old system.

While a GTX 750ti will work in a new PC just fine, it wont perform as the new computer should. Even the cheapest, most basic, new GPU will perform over twice as well.

Go for the 750ti if your power supply can handle it, and you plan to keep and use this computer for a while to come, otherwise it might just be a waste of money to upgrade it now.

Yeah I kinda figured that although 750GTX Ti might be the best video card for my old motherboards, it is a very lame video card for modern motherboards, but the problem is: where I live PCs are very expensive, so I'll have to take it real slow, I probably will try to use these old PCs for a few years more. I do not plan to play modern games in these old PCs, their intended use is internet browsing, youtube and Excel basically, and MAYBE some old game like Battlefield 3 in low res?
 
DSzymborski makes some very good points.

750ti is about as good as you can do.
Your power supply likely isn't up for it given it's age
750ti is very old speed wise
750ti is in legacy status meaning Nvidia won't support it with driver updates any more.

I know you really want to save money here and do it on a piecewise fashion over time. You'll be throwing bad money after bad this way.

Save up. Get a 12100 Intel and a 6600 or 6600xt which is good enough for 1080p. You're looking about $700 give or take.
 

Tac 25

Estimable
Jul 25, 2021
1,391
421
3,890
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.

my potato pc also has a Q9500 Core 2 Quad.
for the GPU, it's using a GTX 1650 .

do note that I have changed the power supply of my pc to a new one. The stock psu died a few years ago.

here's 2 videos from my pc, so you can see what the Q9500 can do with a 1650. :)

View: https://youtu.be/k2jMHaJggG4


0:00 - 0:19 CPU-Z to show Q9500, GPU-Z to show the 1650, and HWMonitor to show that temps are normal.
1:33 - Street Fighter V - playable at 900p
4:55 - Xenon Racer - playable at 1080p. Sorry for my horrible driving skills. lol
13:36 - Guilty Gear Strive - playable at 900p high
18:29 - Black Tail - barely playable at 720p medium

View: https://youtu.be/X101Nn-y8aQ


0:00 - CPU-Z to show Q9500, GPU-Z to show the 1650, and HWMonitor to show that temps are normal.
1:50 - Need for Speed
9:58 - King of Fighters XV
14:55 - Attacker-chan!
21:12 - DNF Duel