Old motherboard with newish graphic card?

ttreaders · 16 Apr 2018 at 22:52

Hi,

I have an old system gathering dust:

Gigabyte H55M-UD2H
Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz
XFX EasyRail Pro 550W
4GB DDR 3 RAM
500gb HDD

I'd like to add either a 970 or a 1050 into it, from googling I get mixed results as to whether it would work...if it did, do you think it would run okay? It's going to be for my young son to use at 1920x1080 playing fairly new games. At the moment he's using an old i3 laptop with intel hd 3000 integrated graphics, it plays Warframe but at 20-30 fps with all settings on the lowest possible.

I know it's not going to be amazing but am right in thinking that it would be a noticeable upgrade from what he is currently using?

Thanks

mrbazmondo · 16 Apr 2018 at 23:22

It might depend on the CPU in the laptop, I don't know what it is so can't compare.

The i3-530 is pretty low spec and might limit what the card can achieve.
I've compared it here against the old popular Q6600 and the currently popular i7-8700 to put it into perspective:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...2-Quad-Q6600-vs-Intel-i7-8700/737vs1038vs3099

As for the HD6000 vs 1050 vs 970:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=3120&cmp[]=3596&cmp[]=2954
Compared to the HD6000 the 1050 is 5 times faster and the 970 is 10 times faster.

Either card will be a significant improvement. It just might not be able to achieve its potential as the CPU may hold it back.

ttreaders · 16 Apr 2018 at 23:46

Thanks Mrbazmondo, I didn't know such an easy-to-use comparison site existed, that's very helpful. The cpu in the laptop is this comparison https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-530-vs-Intel-i3-2370M/737vs761 so pretty much the same. Are there any sites to check how much the CPU is likely to hold back a GPU?

ttreaders · 16 Apr 2018 at 23:54

I googled and came across this site http://thebottlenecker.com/#calculator don't know how accurate it is but it calculates that it will create a 19% bottleneck which I guess isn't too bad considering..

Pocah · 17 Apr 2018 at 08:58

Well I have an old Clarkdale i5 660 in a box here that used to run with a GTX 750ti. I have no doubt it would work with later stuff as well. It's in a Gigabyte P55A motherboard. I think there is a good chance that yours will work too although you always take a risk buying new hardware for old pc's. It would be a noticeable upgrade, but I would also consider replacing the CPU for a used 660 or even 680. And if you are feeling really flash then add another 4GB of RAM. Final upgrade would be a cheap SSD to put the operating system on. That would speed things up. But bear in mind that a new SSD will not run at full speed on that board, but it will run a lot faster than a mechanical drive.

pastymuncher · 17 Apr 2018 at 09:42

That cpu can be overclocked in that motherboard so there is performance in the cpu to free up. Techspot reviewed your board and three others and in their overclocking test easily overclocked a i3 540 to 4.6Ghz so you should manage 4-4.2Ghz easily enough with half decent cooling.

As for a new gpu, it should work fine but you will probably need to update the motherboard bios to the latest revision (F11). CPU-z will tell you the current bios version that you are running under the motherboard tab.

ttreaders · 18 Apr 2018 at 00:07

Thanks for the replies, they are really helpful

I'm going to give it a go in the next week or so, I'll report back how I get on

ExoMale · 18 Apr 2018 at 09:43

Well I have the 540 version i3 and a 1050ti and it’s a good mid-range setup, obviously if you read my post in the graphic card section the i3 does bottleneck in pretty demanding games if they anything like ghost recon wildlands at 768 res, but then it depends on the actual game being played as fortnite ran much better on epic for example where as widlands was very playable, just being held back at the same time.

I’d definitely get 8gb ram unless you board takes higher than mine otherwise you will struggle, another recent experience of mine lol.

ttreaders · 18 Apr 2018 at 10:16

Thanks ExoMale, I'd ideally like to add some more ram but with the prices these days, I'd rather not if I can help it, I'm trying to keep the cost down as much as possible

ttreaders · 19 Apr 2018 at 14:11

Update:

System is up and running, getting 50-60 fps in Warframe on low settings - cpu oc'ed to 4ghz but just using a very old gtx 260 at the moment.

I forgot that my aftermarket CPU fan/heatsink kinda sucks, it's never properly 'clicked' into place on the motherboard, (I've tried many times) and as such, if I don't have the system on it's side, temps start reaching 80 odd degrees.. on it's side, it's around 65 degrees under full load.

A few things:

1. Can I have some recommendations on a cheap, decent, easy-to-install heatsink/fan?

2. I'm currently using a 970 in my current rig, my dilemma is either purchase a better card for myself, (1060 or above) and then put the 970 in my sons rig or just buy him a 1050 and keep my current 970.. the problem is I was trying to hang on to see what happens with the new cards that are on the horizon - hoping that the current 1070 series onwards would drop in price.

I'm stuck between 2 thoughts; It's just £100 and his system will run fine but I could spend an extra £100 and have myself a small upgrade with the 1060..

Any advice welcome,

Thanks!

pastymuncher · 19 Apr 2018 at 19:16

What case do you have? We need to know how much clearance there is for a heatsink.

The Raijintek Themis is on offer at the moment is a decent 120mm budget cooler. It's only 157mm tall so should fit most cases but double check first.

A GTX1060 is not much of a upgrade from a GTX970. More of a sidegrade really. Do you have legacy Members Market access from when the original rules where in place? If so have a look in there for a cheap second hand card for your son to tide him over until you are ready to replace your 970.

Habakkuk · 19 Apr 2018 at 19:44

Agreed, you'll want 8GB RAM minimum for that target resolution.

Unless it's already maxed out at 4GB, at which point it'll limit the system.

ttreaders · 19 Apr 2018 at 20:00

pastymuncher said:
What case do you have? We need to know how much clearance there is for a heatsink.

To be honest I have no idea what case it is, it's a big one though. The fan currently in use is the Freezer pro 7 rev 2 which is pretty big so I'd imagine the one you linked would fit okay.

pastymuncher said:
GTX1060 is not much of a upgrade from a GTX970. More of a sidegrade really. Do you have legacy Members Market access from when the original rules where in place? If so have a look in there for a cheap second hand card for your son to tide him over until you are ready to replace your 970.

I do yeah, I'll take a look

Habakkuk said:
Agreed, you'll want 8GB RAM minimum for that target resolution.

Yeah I'd like to put 8gb of ram into it. My system takes 32gb of ram (P8Z68-V/GEN 3) and I currently only have 8gb (2x4gb) in that.. so I guess I could purchase 16gb of ram for my system and put my current 8gb into my sons. Any reasons this wouldn't be a good idea?

Thanks for the replies

Habakkuk · 19 Apr 2018 at 20:04

so long as it's all the right DDR (I'm assuming DDR3?) and non EEC, AND you have enough sockets on everything, you'll want to check the motherboards can cope with the frequency of the ram (I'm expecting it to be 1600 or below, but even if it's 1333 then the ram should just run at a lower speed.)

TL;DR - should work yes with enough sockets.