Vga card for GA-M55SLI-S4

[renegade28]

I have a gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S$ motherboard. I want to upgrade my VGA card to the Sapphire HD5450 1GB DDR3.Is this supported on my motherboard?

 

[Maziar]

Yes it should work fine without any problems.However,update your BIOS(its recommended for old chipsets like nForce 4)

 

[renegade28]

thx

 

[RazberyBandit]

Actually, it might not...

Again we run into the "Will a PCI-E 2.1 card work in my PCI-E 1.x slot" issue. These cards work in some PCI-E 1.x boards, and in others they don't. It all depends on whether or not the manufacturer, Gigabyte in this case, updated to the BIOS to enable support. The most recent BIOS for that board is almost 2-years old, so support is questionable.

Unless Maziar has specific experience with that board he didn't mention, it may or it may not work. All I can suggest is try it and hope for the best, but don't be surprised if it simply doesn't work.

 

[Maziar]

I did a search and found some users running HD 5xxx cards on this motherboard without any problems
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1244432
However, i also found this
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035655832
Many people mention that PCI-E 2.0 cards won't work with this motherboard but it seems Gigabyte has released a Beta BIOS(Maybe its not Beta anymore) that adds support for PCI-E 2.0 cards
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035655832
"Well, Gigabyte got back to me again on Monday with another beta bios revision, and this time it actually worked. Looks like I'll be keeping the card after all. For sure my CPU is a big bottleneck, but it'll do for another 6 months or so until I can upgrade the motherboard/CPU/ram. Thanks for the help guys"

 

[RazberyBandit]

PCI-E 2.1 or 2.0 cards on that board? 2.0 cards shouldn't be a problem, but the majority of the 5000-series cards are 2.1, which could present a potential problem.

There may also be different PCI-E slots within the Rev 1.0 and Rev 2.0 versions of that motherboard. 1.0 could be PCI-E 1.0 or 1.0a, while Rev 2.0 is 1.0a or 1.1. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find those specifics with the manual.

 

[Maziar]

The links i found were about HD 5xxx(PCI-E 2.1 cards) and it seems Gigabyte has released a BIOS(maybe its Beta) and it lets users to install a PCI-E 2.1 card on that board;however, I'm not sure about the revision.

 

[RazberyBandit]

I just spoke with XFX, and they said despite Newegg showing some their cards as PCI-E 2.0, all 5000-series cards are in fact 2.1.

So to correct my last post, it not read "majority," but should in fact say "all 5000-series cards are PCI-E 2.1."

The mistake is being made when sellers are taking descriptions from manufacturers which state the cards are "2.0 compatible," which all 2.1 cards are. But the interface is actually 2.1, not 2.0. That means there's always a compatibility risk when attempting to use them with 1.x boards.

As for the beta BIOS, it's certainly not readily available on their website. Renegade would probably have to contact them for it, or that guy on the HardOCP forums.

 

[srinivas_pulukuru]

I have this board too (GA-M55SLI-S4) and i was wondering if the GFX cards are too long for it to fit on this board. I just got this board and I see that there is a bridge FAn right behind the PCI-e slots.

Please let me know if I can fit a HD4850 card on this board. This card seems to be awfully long. I have never built a PC before and I started my experiment with this one and am thinking of getting HD4850 card for gaming, but just wondering if it will fit or not. the card I am talking about is VisionTek Radeon HD4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card.

Let me know if this will fit and if someone has any experience with these boards.

 

[RazberyBandit]

Take a ruler and place it along the PCI-E slot, lining it up with the rear edge. If the ruler doesn't hit the heatsink/fan, you have nothing to worry about. If it does hit the heatsink/fan, mark the spot as that's the maximum length video card the board can support. Then compare that length to the dimensions of the video card.

 

[Maziar]

+1^
Also make sure you have a good air flow system in your case,because 4850 runs rather hot.