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Will a 3870XT work on an old S939 board?

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nade

Soldato
Joined
6 Dec 2003
Posts
2,809
I'm really wanting to upgrade my old X800 XL card and looking at getting a 3870XT card. I'd prefer a X2, but my case won't allow it.

I've got a Gigabyte S939 (GA-K8N51GMF-9) motherboard, it ain't got PCI-Express 2.0, so i'm just wondering if the 3870XT will work OK or not?

Or will this just mean it'll draw more power direct from my PSU rather than being able to draw more from the mobo slot?
 
You shouldnt have a problem running a HD 3870 off a s939 mobo, my cousin is running a 3850 off his NF4 s939 mobo. And the Akasa PSU should be fine as well.
 
Speaking of the devil, the card I was looking at has just appeared on the weekly specials....
Powercolor 3870XT

It's about £25 quid cheaper.... perfect saving to put towards 2GB of OCZ Ram! :D
 
Nice! Cheers for the replies guys :D

Should hopefully finally let me run TF2 at my 2007wfp's native res with some decent detail settings :)

However, i'm now thinking my A64 3700+ will be a bit of a bottleneck.
 
yeah, if you can, get a dual on the cheap, and one of the TWO cards, save yourself a bundle... Just be aware, ATI recommend 500 Watts for a HD3870, and you'll need the dedicated PCI-E connector...
 
PCIe 2.0 is designed so cards are backward compatible with PCIe 1.0 mboards ... i.e. they are requried to start up in 1.x signalling mode and only switch to the double rate 2.0 signalling *if* the mboard requests it ... since a PCIe 1.x mboard BIOS is unlikely to ask the PCIe cards to use 2.0 signalling then its not a problem.

PCIe 2.0 also has different power supply requirements ... but I think most mid/hi-end gfx cards will still require the extra PCIe power socket and in any case I doubt card manufacturers will be stupid enough to produce cards that wont work on PCIe 1.x board for power reasons ... only exception might be for the low end cards made specifically for the big system builders (HP, Dell etc) where the saving in cost in removing a socket, a cable and the time in assembly required to connect the two may be justified when multiplied by a few 100k units!
 
XanderThal said:
Same here, on a 480W Antec PSU. not a problem. yet further proof that LOTS of people are buying PSU`s way above their needs.
Click to expand...

All stems back to PSU's like the Hiper where you bought a 580W PSU that only had a 360W 12V output hence the GPU companys say you need 500W+ to ensure the PSU has sufficient power at 12V

Modern PSU's deliver near there full rating at 12V.

Compare PSU's on the 12V output for any PC from the past few years. The overall wattage is largely marketing BS.

Older PC's didn't use the +12v as much but I the didn't have PCI-E either..

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