Question Will the ECS G31T-M7 motherboard support Geforce GT 610-2D3 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card ?

[hulkbuster]

I have a Elitegroup G31T-M7 and it does have a PCI 1-2 32bit add-on card slots, so there are really reasonable Graphic card that i can afford like:
1)NVIDIA Geforce GT610-2D3 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card
2)MSI NVIDIA GT 1030 AERO 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card
3)Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB DDR3 Memory Graphics Card
4)ASUS GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5 Low Profile Graphics Card
But all i mentioned above are a 64-bit, 2 GB DDR3 Memory with 1000 MHz.

So there is a difference i have a 32-bit add-on support, so can it support a 64 bit with 2 GB DDR3 memory ?
My spec is very old:
Processor: Dual Core
Motherboard:Elitegroup G31T-M7
OS: XP/WIN 7
TYPE: 32-BIT
RAM:4 GB
Will it support the above card with 64 bit memory architecture ?
Cause i need to make videos and play games like NFS Shift and such.

 

[Aeacus]

In your MoBo specs page, it doesn't say that PCI-E slots are 32-bit,
specs: https://www.ecs.com.tw/id/Product/Motherboard/G31T-M7_V1.0/specification

Heck, none of the PCI-E slots (from 1.0 to 6.0) are 32-bit or 64-bit. 32/64-bit is OS restriction and not PCI-E slot restriction.

OS: XP/WIN 7

Dual boot? If so, why?
Also, are you connected to internet when booting into Win XP?

Processor: Dual Core

It's your CPU that defines if you can run 32-bit or 64-bit OS. Since you didn't specify what CPU you exactly have, here is example of compatible CPU;
Pentium Dual-core E2180 is 64-bit CPU, meaning that you can run 64-bit OS on it.

Regarding GPUs, the "64-bit" you see listed, is GPU memory bandwidth and it isn't a restriction running it on any machine. Heck you can even run 128-bit memory bandwidth GPU with 32-bit OS.

--

TLDR: All 4 listed GPUs work on your system. But you may not be able to install GT 1030 GPU drivers on Win XP since that OS is way too old.

 

[hulkbuster]

Dual boot? If so, why?
Also, are you connected to internet when booting into Win XP?

Just for the heck of it.

It's your CPU that defines if you can run 32-bit or 64-bit OS. Since you didn't specify what CPU you exactly have, here is example of compatible CPU;
Pentium Dual-core E2180 is 64-bit CPU, meaning that you can run 64-bit OS on it.

My CPU : Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5700 @ 3.00GHz
M.B: Elitegroup G31T-M7

Regarding GPUs, the "64-bit" you see listed, is GPU memory bandwidth and it isn't a restriction running it on any machine. Heck you can even run 128-bit memory bandwidth GPU with 32-bit OS.

Thats quite a lot u said there. I didn't knew there was no such restriction on the PCI slots, so it had to be on the CPU level. But i do like to say, the PCI slot has changed over the years.
PCI 1-2.0-3.0-4.0 and not to mention 5.0 is also established.
Anyways i already purchased a ZOTAC GeForce GT 730 ZONE Edition from Amazon India:
Anyways thank u for taking out the time.
Anyways will report if the GPU is compatible with Elitegroup G31T-M7.

 

[Aeacus]

My CPU : Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5700 @ 3.00GHz

Your CPU is 64-bit,
specs: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...ssor-e5700-2m-cache-3-00-ghz-800-mhz-fsb.html

Meaning that you can either install 32-bit OS on the machine (like Win XP), or 64-bit (like Win7).

Anyways i already purchased a ZOTAC GeForce GT 730 ZONE Edition

That GPU runs on PCI-E 2.0 x8. So, when you plug it into PCI-E 1.0 slot, what you can get is about half of GPU's performance, since that's how much slower PCI-E 1.0 is, compared to PCI-E 2.0. Essentially, every revision of PCI-E doubles the bandwidth.

But i do like to say, the PCI slot has changed over the years.
PCI 1-2.0-3.0-4.0 and not to mention 5.0 is also established.

PCI-E slot has remained same, physically. What has changed, is the bandwidth throughput.

The latest PCI-E revision is 6.0 (released this year), while 7.0 is also already planned, for 2025.

 

[hulkbuster]

Your CPU is 64-bit,
specs: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...ssor-e5700-2m-cache-3-00-ghz-800-mhz-fsb.html
Meaning that you can either install 32-bit OS on the machine (like Win XP), or 64-bit (like Win7).

I can't believe today the whole day i installed Win 10 (64-bit) ver and u know what! It did install on my pc. My friend it seems u h' some in depth knowledge about hardware. Or else to advice someone from a distance and to work here in my hardware was amazing to witness.
I could install all the latest and greatest goodies available right now for 64-bit ver.
To begin with Python 3.10.6 and Pycharm Community 2022 ver.
Also i use a Recovery Application called Raxco Instant Recovery Download page, kind a expensive (69.99$). But u could ask for a discount , they would be able to offer u that.
But look at this:

Win 10 Activated with a digital license and its a 64-bit machine.Wonderful.
But the thing is its a tad little slow at finding and indexing file when i try to find files from a search application, or whenever i switch between explorer which has a Ext HDD connected.
Other than that its a wonderful offer. And also with my Zotac Geforce GT 730 on its way, i hope Win 10 will not show signs of lag. But i have a DDR 2 and with a limit of 4 GB.
So now, that i have upgraded, do u think i can also increase the RAM to 8 GB if possible.
I don't know how to read all the motherboard and CPU details and what means what limitation. But it was interesting to know that, i could install a 64-bit OS on my lost thought to be a 32-bit system. What a surprise.
GT 730 is only for video creating and image editing, i don't expect to play a high end game with a limited and also a limited hardware. But something like 2019 and before games are playable.

Again thank u for ur time and feedback, i would be glad to know the DDR 2 limitation from ur side.
Cheers.

 

[Aeacus]

My friend it seems u h' some in depth knowledge about hardware. Or else to advice someone from a distance and to work here in my hardware was amazing to witness.

Well, there is a reason why i have "Ambassador" tag here in TH forums.

Ambassadors (we were known as "Herald" previously) are users who have exceptional knowledge in their field of specialization. Mine is hardware, both the consultation (e.g which part to buy) and tech support (e.g my PC won't power on). And while i can do software tech support as well, i don't like dealing with software issues.

I don't know how to read all the motherboard and CPU details and what means what limitation.

Yeah, reading the specs and knowing which is which is quite a handful for normal people.

For example; how to learn that your CPU is 64-bit from the specs i linked;
Advanced Technologies
Intel® 64 - Yes
Instruction Set - 64-bit

This above is quite clear that your CPU is 64-bit chip.

But the thing is its a tad little slow at finding and indexing file when i try to find files from a search application, or whenever i switch between explorer which has a Ext HDD connected.

It's the HDD that makes it slow, especially when using external HDD. Now, if you would have 2.5" SATA SSD in there, it would be A LOT faster.

But i have a DDR 2 and with a limit of 4 GB.
So now, that i have upgraded, do u think i can also increase the RAM to 8 GB if possible.

According to MoBo specs, yes.

Your MoBo has 2 RAM slots, max what you can put into one RAM slot is 4GB stick of DDR2, at 667 Mhz or 800 Mhz speeds.

Now, finding working DDR2 RAM may be difficult, since DDR2, compared to today, is really old. My 2nd rig (Haswell), uses DDR3 and even i had trouble finding DDR3 RAM for it, when i did RAM upgrade for that machine, and DDR3 isn't "that" old. Much newer than DDR2.

Oh, one more thing about RAM;
If you currently have 1x 4GB stick in your MoBo, then while it may sound good idea to buy 2nd 4GB RAM stick, to get total of 8GB, but it would be mixing memory and chances of both sticks working together are 50:50.
Here's further reading about mixing memory: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq...y-ram-and-xmp-profile-configurations.3398926/

While above article talks about DDR4, same applies to all DDR versions: DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4 and DDR5 too.

But if you have 2x 2GB sticks in there, then look towards a DDR2 RAM set, where two 4GB DDR2 RAM sticks are sold and come together. <- This is also talked about in the link i gave.

DDR 2 limitation

Only "limitation" of DDR2 would be it's speed.

Your MoBo supports either 667 Mhz or 800 Mhz DDR2 RAM sticks.
DDR3 operates at 1066/1333/1600 Mhz (i have 1866 Mhz overclocked DDR3 RAM in my Haswell build) and
DDR4 operates at 2133/2400/2666 Mhz (i have 3000 Mhz overclocked DDR4 RAM in my main, Skylake, build. Full specs with pics in my sig.)
Now, the latest, DDR5, starts off with speeds of 4800 Mhz (with overclock, up to 6600 Mhz).

Slow-ish RAM speed means longer RAM access time, but with that old build of yours, and unless you have modern PC next to you to compare, i don't think you can tell much (if any) difference in application loading. Your HDD would be far more restrictive to loading times than you using DDR2 RAM.

And 8 GB of RAM is actually pretty good. It gets most of the tasks done, including gaming. And with GT 730, you won't be able to play games that would need more than 8 GB of total RAM in the system.

But it was interesting to know that, i could install a 64-bit OS on my lost thought to be a 32-bit system. What a surprise.

Nice to hear that you were able to "resurrect" your PC and bring it to modern times, software wise at least.

 

[spentshells]

yes your motherboard will run that video card
your experience is going to be poor for video games

 

[Aeacus]

your experience is going to be poor for video games

Not everyone are using PC to play games. And OP also said that this PC is for image/video editing. Still, depending on a game, experience can be actually good. E.g games pre-2005. Or modern, small indie games, that doesn't require much GPU power.

GT 730 is essentially equal to HD 630 integrated GPU, inside 7th gen Kaby Lake CPUs. So, games that can run off from iGPU, can run off from GT 730.

 

[BFG-9000]

I have used all of those cards on similar Elitegroup G31T-LM2 boards. The 610 is Fermi so driver support ended in 2018, and the listed 710 and 730 are Kepler so driver support ended in 2021. 1030 is the only one still supported with new drivers but never had an XP driver, plus can only hardware decode, not encode. The DDR3 GT730 you ordered is only about 2/3 as fast as the GDDR5 version.

When the manual says 32-bit PCI they are referring to the white expansion slots which you wouldn't plug a graphics card into anymore. Back in the olden days before PCI-e there were indeed 64-bit PCI slots that were twice as long, as well as PCI-x which ran at twice the speed. Width of PCI-e is of course described in terms of lanes rather than bits.

While even Win 11 installs and runs fine (if you use an installer that bypasses the UEFI ,TPM and Secure Boot requirements), a very serious limitation is the chipset is unable to remap addresses to over 4GB so even in a 64-bit OS you cannot even use all of the 4GB you already have installed--go look in Resource Monitor and you will see 3/4 of a gigabyte is "Hardware Reserved" and therefore unusable whether or not you are using the IGP. If you have 32-bit versions of your programs, then a 32-bit OS would actually take less memory for itself and allow more free memory for them. Otherwise in 64-bit Win 10 or 11 you are only going to want to do one thing at a time since memory at 3.25GB is so limiting nowadays. This is just one of the buttons and levers Intel restricted G31 to for market segmentation reasons, in order to steer manufacturers toward the $5 more expensive G35 chipset--but those manufacturers obviously thought the $5 was more important back in 2007.

The other thing G31 has is the ICH7 southbridge which natively supports IDE (!), but not AHCI on SATA. Which makes it surprising that it does indeed support TRIM on SSDs! If you are going to do image editing then you are surely going to want to put at least the pagefile and scratch disk onto a SATA SSD (the fact that it's only a SATA300 controller and IDE mode doesn't matter--it will still be way faster than HDD). If I had to use such a platform for image or video editing, I would forego any cheap GPU and put all of my money into SSD disks and perhaps a cheap used quadcore CPU. You could always use SSDs in a newer machine, but the newer machine's IGP may well be faster than the GPU.

The 3100 IGP is really not that bad, except for games. Sure it's fixed-function DX9 where the only vertex shader is emulated in software, so cannot accelerate Flash (or layers acceleration as only 2k x 2k textures), but what kind of hardware acceleration are you expecting an image editing program to get out of an old, low-end Kepler GPU? The only useful thing I can see it has is NVENC to hardware encode H.264 video in YUV 4:2:0 mode only, so encoding video in any other format is no faster than the IGP.

 

[hulkbuster]

I have used all of those cards on similar Elitegroup G31T-LM2 boards.
The 3100 IGP is really not that bad, except for games. Sure it's fixed-function DX9 where the only vertex shader is emulated in software, so cannot accelerate Flash (or layers acceleration as only 2k x 2k textures), but what kind of hardware acceleration are you expecting an image editing program to get out of an old, low-end Kepler GPU? The only useful thing I can see it has is NVENC to hardware encode H.264 video in YUV 4:2:0 mode only, so encoding video in any other format is no faster than the IGP.

Well u too seem to know a lot about hardware and what whats! Very impressive
Well u see i needed to install Photshop CC 2021 and Adobe Premiere Pro 2021 (64-bit) for creating video. Games are really not in the equation, i know i am an old guy and what do i do with games. May be some old games like Splinter Cell , NFS Shift etc etc all at lowest resolution.
Although i plan to get a machine which cost (US)$4,391.81. That one will only be solely for video games. But that maybe after 2years. hahaha With my current rig, i know i can't expect speed, that is not the concern as long as i can create prestine 1080p video. That might take time, but if i can achieve that, then my purchase and goal is fulfilled for time being.

Anyways guys thank u for u time and knowledge. U people are immensely talented people, keep sharpeing ur knife's and cut through question like u cut a butter.

 

[USAFRet]

Well u see i needed to install Photshop CC 2021 and Adobe Premiere Pro 2021 (64-bit) for creating video.

None of those GPU, nor your current system, are good for those Adobe tools.
Far too underpowered.

What is the specific use for PS and Premier?
There are other tools that are not as hardware intensive. And a LOT cheaper.