GTX 680 on PCIe x16

nitint

Honorable
Dec 20, 2013
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10,510
My PC's specs are - AMD Phenom X2 545 CPU, Asus M2A74AM Mobo, 4 GB RAM, 9800 GT GPU. I am considering an upgrade by changing the GPU to GTX 680. However I am not sure if it will be possible on my current motherboard as it just has a PCIe x16 slot. Please advise if I can use this card on my mobo without any serious performance issues. If not, what is the best card that I can get for this board.
 
Solution
Agree with VincentP, the current processor is quite weak by current standards and only meets the minimum requirements for quite a few of the current games.
Obtaining an upgrade is possible, the motherboard supports a wide range of processors. Newegg, Frys and NCIX all show limited stock of suitable upgrades, but be aware, you'll probably need to flash the motherboard BIOS beforehand.
This list is from the Asus site and shows which processors the motherboard supports: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M2A74AM/#support
The current motherboard will support all available PCI-E cards, assuming they'll fit inside the case that is.
High end cards need plenty of power and will need at least dual 6 pin PCI-E leads to function, it is unwise to run...

GTX 650 Ti boost would be a huge upgrade from your current card and more appropriate for your CPU.
The CPU may still prevent you running some high end games.
 
Agree with VincentP, the current processor is quite weak by current standards and only meets the minimum requirements for quite a few of the current games.
Obtaining an upgrade is possible, the motherboard supports a wide range of processors. Newegg, Frys and NCIX all show limited stock of suitable upgrades, but be aware, you'll probably need to flash the motherboard BIOS beforehand.
This list is from the Asus site and shows which processors the motherboard supports: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M2A74AM/#support
The current motherboard will support all available PCI-E cards, assuming they'll fit inside the case that is.
High end cards need plenty of power and will need at least dual 6 pin PCI-E leads to function, it is unwise to run a powerful card by using molex/PCI-E adaptors to power it, so please provide the full make and model of the installed power supply.
Unless the 9800GT is one of the 'green' versions it'll need at least one 6 pin PCI-E power lead and, given the 'weak' CPU I'd suggest a GTX650Ti or HD7770 GHz Edition as upgrades if you can't afford a CPU upgrade just yet.
 
Solution

nitint

Honorable
Dec 20, 2013
2
0
10,510


Thanks.
My PSU is cooler master extreme power 600W. I just want a card to play games at 1080p. I recently had trouble while playing LA Noire(very slow) and COD Ghosts which I was not able to play at all. I think i hav pcie 1.1 not 2.0. So is 650ti still a good option considering the above?
 
Unless you upgrade the CPU the GTX650Ti would be the maximum graphics I'd recommend and it'll run comfortably off the existing powersupply.
Don't worry about the PCI-E version, although later revisions are faster the GTX650Ti is nowhere near fast enough to be restricted by a PCI-E 1.1 slot.
Don't expect too much from the current system, it's capable at low/medium settings but the dual core CPU is going to restrict performance in the current high end games quite a bit.
 

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