Will the Video Card fit the MOBO without much performance loss?

Dragim

Hey guys, I had purchased my computer about 4 or 5 years ago.  I am currently eying a new Video Card, as my current 570 gtx is a little under powered for what I want.

I really don't want to have to buy a new MOBO.  I am a little iffy with messing with my processor again and taking everything apart, as I had some issues prior with things of that nature.  This is why I am simply wanting to get a higher powered Video Card and plug and play.

Here is my current set-up.  I think if I understand right that if I put a PCI 3.0 in a PCI 2.0, there will be a performance drop.  However, I imagine it still should be a bit better than my current set up.

I will name the parts and make em link through newegg if you want to see exact specs.

MOBO: Biostar TZ68A+ LGA115 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel

Video Card:   EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W

Case: Cooler Master HAF X - High Air Flow Full Tower

Power Supply: Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 650W ATX12V SLI

Windows 7 64 bit

2 TB HD

128 GB SSD

Disk Drive

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This may sound overkill but this is what I am after - EVGA 04G-P4-2983-KR GeForce GTX 980 Superclocked ACX 2.0 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card

If I need to purchase a new power supply I would be willing to do that.

If this would be of "no use" or very underpowered in my current PC, then please tell me.  If you could direct me to something that would give me a better boost, that would be great.

I am playing GTA5 and it registers I have "1280 mb" of video to work with, even though my DXDIAG "4gb". But after some searching I understand that there is "dedicated" memory and "shared" memory? So mine only has 1280 dedicated?

If I had 2500 mb, or of course if I can get 3 or 4,000 that would be ideal.  I understand my MOBO may be outdated and not useful with the video card I chose, and if that is the case I may delay my purchase until i feel like upgrading it all around.

However I was reading around on the internet and see that sometimes PCI 3.0 16x cards will work fine for the most part in PCI 2.0 16x slots without losing too much juice.

Also - One last question, looking at my MOBO could I get another SSD if I wanted?  And if so how many? or Hard Drives in general whether SSD or not? --- I understand a bit of computer stuff, but some things I have a more difficult time with.

Thank you all in advance.  Please try not to bash my "price selection" too bad on the Video Card.  I enjoy my hobby and invest in it when I feel I want to.

 

Edit: I want the 980 over the 970 as well because I read some things online about issues with the 970 not putting out it's "marketed potential" and coil whine and such. I figure if I am spending a bit of money I might as well spend a little more and get one that is of better quality/performance.

Kilrane

That video card will be a nice upgrade to your rig. Because of the age of your PSU, it might be time to consider replacing that as well. 

 

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I will be along with some solid answers, but in all honesty that's a perfectly reasonable upgrade for your rig.

Vrika

PCI-E 2.0 will mean a bit slower performance than if you had PCI-E 3.0, but with most games the difference will be very small. Your processor is also nearly fast enough for GTX 980.

Purchasing GTX 980 for your current system might be a bit overkill, but if you have extra money it's not so much overpowered that buying it would be stupid. You'll definitely see some nice speed increases.

Your current video card only has 1 280MB of memory. The "shared" memory comes because video cards are also capable of using the computer's RAM, but a video card using the computer's RAM is always slower solution than video card using their own RAM. You normally don't need to worry about how much your video card has memory, though, normally video card speed is the limiting factor not how much memory it has.

According to specs posted on newegg, you have 2x SATA 6GB ports and 4x SATA 3GB ports. You could get as many hard drives/SSDs as you can until they're all filled up (6x). Your disk drive likely takes one of the ports, if you have one HD and one SSD they'll take one each. That would mean 3 ports used and still 3 empty ports left. I'd check the motherboard connectors and count them + read the motherboard manual to verify that you can actually connect a device to all the SATA ports (which is not always possible) before trying to purchase a total of 6 SATA devices, but if you have 3 SATA devices now you will be able to add 4th no problem.

Even if the device says SATA 6GB you can use it with SATA 3GB port and the performance loss will be only minimal.

EDIT: I didn't try to look at whether your PSU is good enough. /EDIT

Kabaal

I'd buy a new PSU anyway, from a quick google the one you have apparently has a habit of exploding.

Dragim

Thanks for all the help so far :-) ------

I am going to spring for a new PSU too. Looking at EVGA SuperNOVA 750 (or 850) G2 220-G2 (ect ect) ATX12V/EPS12V. SLI 80 PLUS Gold cert full modular intel 4th gen compatible 10 year warranty --- for either $124 or $155 respectively for 750w/850w. (I would make a newegg link but am on my phone at the moment) --------

I am going to delay purchase another day or two just to see if any other feedback comes in! -------

Thanks again!----

Edit: put in dash marks to help "break up" my post for easier reading because my phone doesn't want to put in paragraph breaks/spaces for some reason.

Quizzical

A GTX 980 will use substantially less power than a GTX 570, in spite of the massively superior performance.  Fermi was a power hog and Maxwell isn't.

As others have said, I'd get a new power supply just on general principle.  They don't last forever, and your current power supply is already very old.  There's no need to spend a fortune on a power supply; this will get the job done pretty well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182068

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Your CPU is still plenty fast.  If you're comparing overclock versus overclock, it's just shy of today's top of the line, unless you need more than four cores.  The performance loss of using PCI Express 2.0 versus 3.0 will vary by program; in many games, it will be a rounding error so small that you won't be able to measure a difference even if you try.  A double digit percentage loss of performance would be quite an outlier as games go.

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Your video card has 1.25 GB of dedicated memory on the card.  The "shared" video memory basically means that it can borrow system memory when it runs out of GDDR5 on the card in order to continue working.  You know above where I said the difference between PCI Express 2.0 and 3.0 mostly doesn't matter?  The exception among games is if you run out of video memory and have to extensively use system memory as extra space.  Modern gaming cards have somewhere in the ballpark of 200 GB/s of memory bandwidth, while a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot offers 8 GB/s and PCI Express 3.0 x16 offers 16 GB/s.  So that can be a big bottleneck very fast if you run out of memory, just like paging to disk can bring things to a crawl if you run out of system memory.  More PCI Express bandwidth would help some with your current card, but the real fix is getting a new card with more video memory.  Such as the one you're looking at.

Do be warned that the upcoming launch of AMD's next flagship GPU is likely to force prices downward on the GTX 980, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they're selling for $400 in a couple of months.  But it remains to be seen how big of an effect that will have, and I wouldn't be surprised either if it's hard to find a GTX 980 under $500 in a couple of months.

Quizzical

Also, good job on posting your specs in the original post.  Far too many people come in asking for help but are so vague about what they need that it's not really possible to give good advice other than to ask what else they have.

Dragim

Thanks Quizz, I was wondering if you would stop by.  I very much appreciate everyone's input.

I actually came to this forum those years ago when I started building my current PC and you helped me numerous times throughout the process (as well as others who chimed into the thread back then).

But I definitely have learned over the years to properly input my computer "specs" to the best of my ability and even go so far as link every "spec" to make it easier for people to help me.

People wanting help have to remember: you all (the people who are helping) are going out of your way to provide feedback and look into things for us.  It is our job to provide the information the best of our ability in order to receive quality feedback in a timely manner.

Thanks :-) and I appreciate all of you!

I think I will be moving forward with my purchase.  I will give it another day or two to think about.  That PSU you linked definitely is a good deal right now.  Thank you/you all for going out of your way to do a little research for me/("us").