Years ago, I built a system for a friend of mine. It's actually still running OK, except that the Video Card is dying a slow death. I won't go into details about the card's problems, but suffice it to say it's on its last legs and needs to be replaced. There are a couple of things, though, that I need to address.
First off, my friend cannot afford a new build or a rebuild involving a new motherboard, ram, GPU, and CPU. He really only wants to replace the graphics card. He isn't a power user, and the computer's still doing what he needs, except for the graphics card problems. Which is fine, but I'm a little concerned about the motherboard.
The motherboard's an Epox MF570SLI, a fairly nice mainboard for its time. Unfortunately, though, Epox went out of business shortly after I built the computer, and I don't know of a BIOS update newer than December of 2006.
Anyway, the mobo has PCIe 1.1 slots. I know that you can use a PCIe 2.0 card in a PCIe 1.0 or 1.1 slot, and I know that it's not a good idea to try using a PCIe 2.1 card.
I was thinking of replacing the graphics card, an Asus EAX1950pro, with a Radeon HD 4670, since, like I said, he isn't a power user and doesn't want to spend much. But, since the 4670 is less powerful than the 1950pro, and since a 6570 is only around $10 more, I was thinking of going with that. AT least it's a card that more powerful, not less powerful, than the 1950pro.
(Of course, I know that the CPU, an AMD 64 X2 4800+, is going to be a bottleneck, but I figured why put in a card that weaker than the original 1950pro when, for $10 more, the system can at least be restored to it former, though outdated, capability.)
My concern, after all that, is that the lack of bios updates for the motherboard since the end of 2006 might cause some sort of problem with either the 4670 or the 6570. I mean, it's not as if the motherboard isn't capable of PCIe or anything like that, but I've certainly heard of problems with newish graphics cards and old bios.
Anyway, I'm no expert on combining newer graphics cards and older hardware, so I figured I'd ask if people thought I should go ahead and try the aforementioned graphics cards in his older system, or there will be some likely problems.
I'll order from Newegg, and will be able to return the card if it doesn't work, but I'd rather avoid the bother and expense if it really isn't going to work for some reason.
I'd appreciate any input.
First off, my friend cannot afford a new build or a rebuild involving a new motherboard, ram, GPU, and CPU. He really only wants to replace the graphics card. He isn't a power user, and the computer's still doing what he needs, except for the graphics card problems. Which is fine, but I'm a little concerned about the motherboard.
The motherboard's an Epox MF570SLI, a fairly nice mainboard for its time. Unfortunately, though, Epox went out of business shortly after I built the computer, and I don't know of a BIOS update newer than December of 2006.
Anyway, the mobo has PCIe 1.1 slots. I know that you can use a PCIe 2.0 card in a PCIe 1.0 or 1.1 slot, and I know that it's not a good idea to try using a PCIe 2.1 card.
I was thinking of replacing the graphics card, an Asus EAX1950pro, with a Radeon HD 4670, since, like I said, he isn't a power user and doesn't want to spend much. But, since the 4670 is less powerful than the 1950pro, and since a 6570 is only around $10 more, I was thinking of going with that. AT least it's a card that more powerful, not less powerful, than the 1950pro.
(Of course, I know that the CPU, an AMD 64 X2 4800+, is going to be a bottleneck, but I figured why put in a card that weaker than the original 1950pro when, for $10 more, the system can at least be restored to it former, though outdated, capability.)
My concern, after all that, is that the lack of bios updates for the motherboard since the end of 2006 might cause some sort of problem with either the 4670 or the 6570. I mean, it's not as if the motherboard isn't capable of PCIe or anything like that, but I've certainly heard of problems with newish graphics cards and old bios.
Anyway, I'm no expert on combining newer graphics cards and older hardware, so I figured I'd ask if people thought I should go ahead and try the aforementioned graphics cards in his older system, or there will be some likely problems.
I'll order from Newegg, and will be able to return the card if it doesn't work, but I'd rather avoid the bother and expense if it really isn't going to work for some reason.
I'd appreciate any input.