Upgrade GTX 460 to GTX 960: Is my motherboard compatible? Is it worth it?

asr913 · Jun 13, 2015

So I am looking to upgrade my Nvidia GTX 460 to the GTX 960. The 960 is at good price point for the performance I am looking for. Here are the specs of my system.

CPU: Intel i5 @ 2.8 GHZ Quad Core
4GB RAM
Motherboard: ASRock H55m/USB3.0 R.20 (PCI-E 2.0 GPU Port)
GPU: NIvidia GeForce GTX 460
600W Power Supply

I was going to purchase the 960 today, but the sales clerk said that my motherboard was too old to support it. He said that the BIOS did has not had any recent update and therefore the mobo would not recognize the card. I have searched online, and nowhere else has mentioned BIOS as a limiting factor for installing a new graphics card.

If I can install it, is it worth the upgrade? Is my PC strong enough to harness enough power from the new graphics card?

Thanks. Sorry if I don't know what I am talking about.

holyprof · Jun 13, 2015

Only problem might be the lack of UEFI BIOS on the motherboard. Some graphics cards have "legacy BIOS" switch on them for old motherboards, check this forum https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=182312.0

The EVGA GTX960 SSC ACX 2.0 i own has a BIOS switch but i'm afraid both of them are UEFI.
http://www.evga.com/articles/00895/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-960/ (click on the QSD BIOS link)

From what i see, some AMD based graphics card have BIOS switch for legacy mode but coudln't find any infromation about it on manufacturers webpages

Your best bet would be to ask for a graphics card with legacy BIOS switch but those aren't advertised on product pages, i've checked MSI, Gigabyte and ASUS. Only EVGA has BIOS switch information but as i already mentioned, both BIOS versions are UEFI so it won't work for you.

cin19 · Jun 13, 2015

I agree you and the sale clerk in some points. The i5 760 is old, and the MB has the pcie 2.0x16 so you should be able to use the gtx960, the pcie3.0 is backward compatible the pice 2.0, but even you use the new GPU, your i5 will bottleneck to the gtx960. For the PSU, you should be fine to use it for the gtx960, because the gtx460 draws more power than the gtx960. Also the 4GB RAM does not meet the requirement for some games now.
And you can always put the new gpu in the new pc, by the way you may think about to upgrade your pc in the future, because here is one old review " Is This Even Fair? Budget Ivy Bridge Takes On Core 2 Duo And Quad " http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-21.html

Here is the Best Gaming CPUs For The Money http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

asr913 · Jun 13, 2015

Thanks a lot! I think it may be best to wait until I can upgrade my whole machine. I have no pressing reason to upgrade immediately, I just wanted a little extra boost behind some of the games that I play now. But I think if I wait a bit, I can get a better deal on an entire system, since mine is getting old anyway.

asr913 · Jun 15, 2015

I just got a response from the manufacturer saying that they tested the motherboard on their p1.40 BIOS with a GTX 980, and it was able to boot up and display properly. So it seems that it would work. However, I will still be subject to the limitations of the PCI-E 2.0 slot (which I have been told is not that substantial) and my processor (probably more substantial of a limitation.

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