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Thread: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

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    Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    My excellent 3xs system is still going strong (i7 920 at 3.5ghz) however I'd like to replace my NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT. I think that will give me a boost in performance. My CPU isn't the best, but it's still pretty solid.

    I have a Gigabyte EX58 UD4 mobo - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=2988#ov

    What graphics card specs will work with this mobo? I don't have much clue about this sort of thing. I have swapped out lots of drives before, and added a wifi card to a motherboard slot, but have never dabbled with graphics cards before. Do I need PCIE 2 or 3?

    My PSU is Silverstone 500W, an ST50F I think. Will that be able to cope?

    I don't need top end, just something that will provide a major improvement increase.

    Sorry for the noob questions, any advice gratefully received. Cheers

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    Quote Originally Posted by jt256 View Post

    What graphics card specs will work with this mobo? I don't have much clue about this sort of thing. I have swapped out lots of drives before, and added a wifi card to a motherboard slot, but have never dabbled with graphics cards before. Do I need PCIE 2 or 3?
    You just need PCI-E (which is just about everything) - 2 or 3 doesn't matter because they're backwards compatible in both directions. So as long as you have the physical space for it, all gaming graphics cards are compatible with the motherboard.

    My PSU is Silverstone 500W, an ST50F I think. Will that be able to cope?
    It'll cope with the vast majority of graphics cards. Perhaps most important is how many PCI-E power connectors the PSU provides, and how many pins they have. Looking up the specs, it seems to have 2x 6pin PCI-E connectors. Ideally, choose a graphics card that requires 2x 6 pin as well

    However you've not provided the most important info: what's your budget?

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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    Thanks! It looks as though something like a GTX960 would deliver good value - I'd prefer not to spend more than £150. I imagine there must be loads kicking around on ebay, but haven't yet looked.

    Plenty space in my case, and slots on motherboard. Glad to hear that my power supply ought to be OK. If there are any GTX960 boards that are better for quietness or lower power consumption then I'd be keen to hear. Or if you think the GTX960 is a poor choice please let me know. Thanks for your input!

    (see value chart halfway down this page http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gp...TX+960&id=3114 )

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    The 960 is a great choice and would be a huge improvement on your current card. For longevity make sure to get the 4GB variant.

    There aren't any significant differences in power consumption between makes in my opinion - in general the higher the overclock the higher the consumption, so either stick to stock clocks (avoid factory overclocked models) or since such models can be quite hard to avoid sometimes, avoid the ones that shout about having the biggest, and/or consider down clocking back to stock speeds to reduce power consumption a tad.

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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    As a GTX960 owner I would get an R9 380 or R9 380X TBH. In more and more newer games the GTX960 is starting to fall behind the R9 380 and R9 380X. I first found this out to my chagrin when I tried to run the Nvidia sponsored ARK and my mates R9 280 seemed to do quite well in comparison.

    The same is happening with the Nvidia sponsored The Division - the GTX960 is slower than the R9 380 and R9 380X and even an R9 280 is doing quite well against it.

    In Hitman,which uses async compute and is DX12 the R9 380 and R9 380X are faster than massively pre-overclocked GTX960 cards and are within 15% to 20% of a GTX970!!

    In more and more graphical intensive newer games,the GTX960 is starting to fall behind.


    Second Edit!!

    Look at some of these benchmarks PCGamesHardware run. They are using the fastest GTX960 and GTX770 cards out there which have massive pre-overclocks and the AMD cards are at stock clocks for the most part. The GTX960 has a nominal 1127MHZ clockspeed and the EVGA GTX960 SSC is running at 1.43GHZ is around the same price as an R9 380X!!

    Hitman




    The Division



    Even if you add some of the Nvidia effects,the R9 380 and R9 380X cards which are running close to stock clocks are faster than some of most expensive GTX960 4GB cards running large core overclocks.

    Looking at the way things are going I don't think the GTX960 will last as long as the R9 380 or R9 380X IMHO.

    Pretty much the same thing happened with my GTX660 - the HD7870 has ended up being faster over time.

    Plus there might be an argument for lower driver overhead for Nvidia but since you have a 3.5GHZ Core i7 920 I don't think it will be an issue for a R9 380 or R9 380X IMHO,
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 14-03-2016 at 01:26 PM.

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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    Oops! Removed link to competitor.

    Scan has a Gigabyte R9 380 for £160:

    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...streams-dp-hdm

    It will have UK based RMA.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    Completely agree that the R380 is a better card overall, but if efficiency is a factor above and beyond purely monetary value then the 960 may be considered better.

    The card CTF links to will require an adaptor for the 8pin PCI-E connector - this will almost certainly be included in the box however, it's just a bit less neat to have to use them.

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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    I think if the OP is running an overclocked Core i7 920,efficiency might not have been their first choice!

    Saving a few pennies on electricity will probably not be cheaper if the card needs to be replaced first,and I suspect with the R9 380 starting to pull ahead,its efficiency is probably now improving against the overclocked GTX960 cards!!

    The Sapphire Nitro is also worth considering as it has two six-pin connectors.

    Since the OP is asking this question in the wrong section I can't really be free in listing the best deals for that card as this is the Scan subforum.

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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    Thanks for everyone's tips. I've found a MSI Geforce GTX 670 OC TwinFrozr IV Power Edition for £65 on gumtree. However it requires 2 x pcie power 6 pin. I have a spare 6 pin but it's attached to the existing one plugged into old GPU. Here's what I mean:



    Will this work? Do the separate power supplies for this GPU need to be on different rails? Thanks

    http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/silve...supply-review/

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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      • Memory:
      • 32GB DDR4 3200 CL16
      • Storage:
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      • Graphics card(s):
      • nVidia GTX 1060 6GB
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic 600W
      • Case:
      • Cooler Master HAF 912
      • Operating System:
      • Win 10 Pro x64
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      • Internet:
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    Re: Novice - GPU upgrade for 2009 3xs i7 920 system - Giga EX58UD4 mobo

    That's a fairly power hungry card.. I wouldn't recommend it for your PSU. Techpowerup show it peaking at 242W which is beyond the 18A your PSU can supply. You almost certainly won't reach that peak unless you deliberately run torture tests, but the 960 and 380* use far less power.

    *now with free Ashes of the singularity game
    http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/...y-game-bundle/
    Last edited by kalniel; 15-03-2016 at 10:20 AM.

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