Upgrading GPU noob question.

[Drungan]

Right going into this kinda blind, so be gentle

a few years back i did buy a new PC ... my old one simply gave up and i went to the first store that was open and did buy whatever they had... yes it was a mistake.

what i ended up with was a machine with :

I7-4770 3.4Ghz
GTX-650

no clue about motherboard or how i find out what it is ..... or what power supply

now it runs .. but not very well tbh. and i figure that the weakest link in this junk of a PC is the GPU so i am looking into upgrading that as buying a new PC is not a option atm.

So have looked around and the best upgrade seems to be a Asus GeForce GTX960 4GB or a Asus GeForce GTX970 4GB both are within my price range.

I have limited experience in pulling things out of a computer, replaced a hard disk once and stuffed in some RAM but that was like 10 years ago, and pretty sure i only made it work due to blind luck.

So to the questions

1) what are the odds that a new GFX card will actually fit the motherboard ?

2) And if it should fit how much of a hassle is it to do the swap ? did some google search and seen several youtube videos by now and they are pretty much all like *LOL easy shit, but you might want to fiddle with x file and do y in BIOS* now .. that i really don't want to mess with ......

3) how big is the actual difference between the 960 card and the 970 ? the last cost around 100$ more here ( Denmark ) and if the difference is something like * you can have shadows on high instead of medium* i do not need that

Thanks in advance.

[Mythbredor]

Phew, right get ready to get educated.

Your cpu is perfectly fine that you don't need to worry about right now.

All gpus will fit all motherboard period your case may not fit it pretty simple to find out. Lookup the gpus physical spesifications and then get a tape meassure out and find out if it will fit.

It's super easy to swap graphics cards disconnect your display cables and then your power cables from your GPU, then there should be a little tab you need to push forward on the motherboard at the end of the PCI-e slot and pull the card out at the same time.

Depends on what you plan to play... if you're planning to play WoW a 960 will suit you fine, I'd personally go with the 970 unless you really need to save those bucks. Legion is going to hit the gpu a bit harder than previous expansions. My 970 is running wow perfectly fine at ultra settings and my dads 960 is running at around high I believe. But WoW hits the cpu harder than the gpu, still not a big issue to you the cpu you have is perfectly fine for just about everything.

If you are planning to play more graphically intensive games and you have the budget I would get the 1070 when it comes out for 380$. Otherwise yes, the 960-970 will do you perfectly fine.

[Drungan]

Thanks ! just what i needed, it is going to be the 970.... yes sure 1070 looks nice and all but the PC world is full of * but the next big thing is just around the corner !* i have no need for the cutting edge just want a upgrade that i can feel

[Mythbredor]

Thanks ! just what i needed, it is going to be the 970.... yes sure 1070 looks nice and all but the PC world is full of * but the next big thing is just around the corner !* i have no need for the cutting edge just want a upgrade that i can feel

Yes then a 970 will do the job and it will last you for quite awhile. It's personally what I'm using.

[the boar]

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

cpuz will tell you what your computer actually is, which is always just nice to know. your power supply will have a sticker on it somewhere.. well hopefully it will!

the amd rx 480 is looking very good for a cheap card with really good performance, if you don't mind waiting a little bit.

[Mythbredor]

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

cpuz will tell you what your computer actually is, which is always just nice to know. your power supply will have a sticker on it somewhere.. well hopefully it will!

the amd rx 480 is looking very good for a cheap card with really good performance, if you don't mind waiting a little bit.

Very good point, but for WoW nvidia preforms better than AMD. But yeah an RX 480 is a good idea slipped my mind.

[Stonecloak]

Gtx 970 is still a great card. I didn't even realize it, but it does well at 1440p. Was playing witcher 3 at 60 fps. Not sure if I hit the jackpot with this particular card, as I understand not all cards of the same edition are created equal in the manufacturing process, but it oc's to to 1380MHz with the pre-oc. I figure I can squeeze some more out if I cool it a bit more.