Need some help on upgrading my GPU

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So I've had a HP Pavilion p6-2489ea for almost two years now. I know it's not great (especially the GPU) but it was fine for the games that I wanted to run on it. However recently I've been looking at some new PC games such as Rust, Cities: Skylines and GTA 5 when it's available to download. Do you have advice on any GPUs that would be happy running these games. Not at amazing settings, but I would like something more than just the bare minimum at 60+ FPS. My budget would be well over £300 but I'd like to spend as little as possible.

PC specs:
Motherboard: Joshua-H61-uATX
Processor: Intel i5 3350P
Graphics: Nvidia GT 630 (2GB)
RAM: 8GB

My other question is that I have actually been looking at a few cards and I wasn't completely sure if they would actually be compatible with my motherboard (Joshua-H61-uATX) as it only has PCI-E 2.0. Could someone give me some details on this?

Thanks.
 
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coozie7
You'll need to open the case and see exactly what power supply is installed, the more powerful cards will need at least one, sometimes two 6 pin PCI-E power leads to operate and even the power sipping GTX750 really wants at least a good, solid 250 Watt unit.

GTX750: Decent medium/high settings performance at 1080 rez, none I know of need an extra power lead, safe minimum would be 250Watts, but a good quality 300Watt is preferable.

GTX750Ti as the non Ti but a fair bit faster, some, but not all, need a 6 pin PCI-E lead to operate, power requirements slightly higher at 350Watts.

GTX960: Very good high/max settings performance (if you turn the AA down that is) at 1080 rez, needs at least one, some two 6 pin PCI-E leads and a good 500...
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gytisxp

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PCI-E 3.0 Cards are compatible with 2.0 - its the same connector. The graphics card will even work at the same speed and you wont be limited by it. The main problem with your pc is the power supply, will it be able to power the new graphics card?

I recommend getting a quality power supply be it from corsair, evga or seasonic. Just make sure its 450+ W
 
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Thanks a lot for your reply. So just to get this completely clear.. even though my motherboard will run only at 5GT/s, this still won't bottleneck something between a 650 Ti and a 970? I'll keep the PSU that will be needed in mind too.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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You'll need to open the case and see exactly what power supply is installed, the more powerful cards will need at least one, sometimes two 6 pin PCI-E power leads to operate and even the power sipping GTX750 really wants at least a good, solid 250 Watt unit.

GTX750: Decent medium/high settings performance at 1080 rez, none I know of need an extra power lead, safe minimum would be 250Watts, but a good quality 300Watt is preferable.

GTX750Ti as the non Ti but a fair bit faster, some, but not all, need a 6 pin PCI-E lead to operate, power requirements slightly higher at 350Watts.

GTX960: Very good high/max settings performance (if you turn the AA down that is) at 1080 rez, needs at least one, some two 6 pin PCI-E leads and a good 500 Watt PSU. Neither the GTX750 cards produce much heat, this one does., If the system case has only one rear exhaust fan and no provision for a front intake fan I'll strongly suggest a card like this if you go for a GTX960: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-palit-gtx-960-oc-pcie-30-7200mhz-gddr5-gpu-1165mhz-boost-1228mhz-cores-1024-dvi-i-dl-dvi-d-dl-dp Not the best cooler out there but the design does exhaust all the heat outside, keeping the rest of your system nice an cool. If the case has, or can accept two fans a dual fan graphics card like this will do nicely: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-gtx-960-gaming-twin-frozrv-pcie-30-7010mhz-gddr5-gpu-1241mhz-boost-1304mhz-cores-1024-dvi-dp

EDIT: There is no single card out there that can use all the power of PCI-E 2.0, you'll be fine.
EDITED EDIT: Make sure the card you have in mind will fit, the case looks to be a fairly standard mid/compact tower but a little work with a tape measure won't hurt. ;)
PS EDIT: Novatech, Scan, Aria, Dabs, Overclockers, Maplins, CCL, Pixmania, Ebuyer and even a look at PC World-no, seriously, sometimes they have some good deals.
 
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Right. But I wouldn't have any clue where the PCI-E slot is located and which way the card would face once it's in. Also could you expand on the PCI-E leads thing? And how much power would I need for a 970? Otherwise, thanks for your answers.
 
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coozie7

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The PCI-E slot is the long black part above the three little ones: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=joshua+h61+&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=CA9DC6EA0934345BEE38225D946EE6113F12B58F&selectedIndex=6 The graphics card is always aligned with its outputs to the rear and the distance between the slot connector and the rear of the case is a standard dimension, the same regardless of the motherboard form factor.

There are two types of commonly use PCI-E lead: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pci-e+6+pin+plug&qpvt=pci-e+6+pin+plug&FORM=IGRE#view=detail&id=143BB9F3DD7C73116DA5F1C946769910D99B03A5&selectedIndex=122 the "6+2" in the photo and the "6", which is basically the 6+2 minus the little two pin bit on the side.
Stronger graphics cards use one or more of these plugs to provide extra power. The actual PCI-E slot itself can provide 75 Watts through its connections, not enough for strong cards, hence the need for extra leads from the power supply.
A GTX970 needs two leads, usually two 6 pin, but some need one 6 pin and one 8 pin (both parts of a 6+2 are inserted together).

Any good quality 600Watt power supply will easily run your system with a GTX970 installed, although the pair will exceed your £300 budget.
 
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madmatt30

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does this look like the internal of your pc when you take the side panel off??



if so you need to measure across the 2 arrow line Ive marked from the rear backplate to the silver internal drive cage.

if this is your case I think you're going to be restriced quite badly on size,there are small gtx 970's that will fit but they come at a premium price with a slight performance loss.
 
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coozie7

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^ Which just reinforced my earlier post, it looks very cramped in there.

Personally, would not suggest a GTX970, the short, single fan coolers really are only just up to the job with plenty saying they're hot running and noisy, even in well ventilated cases.

Although it's a step down, the GTX960 is a brilliant card at 1080 rez, easily able to run AAA titles at high/max settings and there is a few short cards out there (170-180mm long, single fan) its lower heat output over the GTX970 means the compact single fan cards do actually run fairly cool and quiet.

If you opt for a GTX960/970 over the less powerful but cheaper GTX750/750Ti you will have to upgrade the power supply and again, there's not much space in there, so be extremely careful to ensure the one you choose will actually fit. The case has a standard width and the installed unit looks to be standard height, so the fixing screws will be in standard locations, no problems actually mounting it but it looks to be quite short, more work with the tape measure, mate.

A card suggestion: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-360-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379
A power supply: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-cooler-master-vs-series-80plus-gold-1x120mm-quiet-fan-atx-psu

There is obviously other places to shop, I've just picked the first two off my Favourites list to show examples.
The power supply is a good one, tier two: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html it's also semi modular, which will limit the number of spare cables you'll need to tidy away, and it's also compact, expect to pay closer to £60 for a full modular design.
 
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Alright so I measured the stuff I thought would need measuring:

PSU
Length: 140mm
Width: 150mm
Depth: about 90mm - Pretty sure all of that means that the PSU you suggested should fit just about perfectly(?)

GPU
Current GPU:
Length: 170-180mm
Width: about 100mm

From the rear of the case to the internal drive: 210mm but there is much more space.. the silver bit in the picture is actually hollow.

I also noticed that if there won't be enough space for the MSI card you suggested, the ASUS one is even shorter than that and I think it should fit. Anyway, tell me what you think - thanks.
 
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coozie7

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I'd say that CM power supply power supply will fit like a finely tailored pair of gloves.
According to the Asus website the little card I linked to is 170x122x41 mm in size so it'll fit with room to spare.
Gigabyte and EVGA offer similar compact GTX960 cards as well BTW.
A Few Good Names: Overclockers, Scan, Aria, Novatech, CCL, Ebuyer, Maplins, Dabs, Pixmania and the omnipotent, all seeing and mighty Amazon.
 
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Right. I think Asus is the way to go since all of their cards are significantly smaller. I just don't know which to go with, I mean you said it yourself.. it will get pretty hot due to the lack of fans so I'm not entirely sure on that mini version (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-360-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379&campaign=affiliate/tag). Here's the other options:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gtx-960-strix-directcu-ii-oc-pcie-30-7200mhz-gpu-1228mhz-boost-1317mhz-cores-1024-dvi-i-dl-
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-asus-gtx-960-strix-directcu-ii-oc-pcie-30-7010mhz-gddr5-gpu-1228mhz-boost-1317mhz-cores-1024-3xd

Considering the 4GB version for more flexibility with filters in games and stuff.. they'd all be ok with that 450W PSU, right?

Also I noticed this in the specification of the 2GB version: To have the best cooling performance, ASUS STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-2GD5 extends the fansink to 2 slots. Please double check you Chassis and Motherboard dimension prior to purchase to make sure it fits in your system!

What does it mean?
 
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coozie7

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Whichever one you get you're going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place because they all vent their heat into the case, only the reference coolers like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-070-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379 vent outside the case, and they may not fit.

They mean that the cooler is two slots high, in your case it'll extend over the next PCI-E slot, but the little Asus compact will do that as well, but it's much shorter.
I wouldn't be hugely bothered about the heat anyway, the GTX960 doesn't produce THAT much and it'll all be pulled out by the top mounted power supply, but it's an inherent problem with tiny OEM cases, they're just not intended to hold high end hardware.
 
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Alright well I guess I'll just go with the Asus 2GB version and the CM PSU.



Likely not, I have limited experience in taking apart and putting together computer parts.

Thanks a lot everyone for your help.
 
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