ASRock h55m-le Graphics Card Compatibility

[Aekiel]

Hi, I've come to a point where my current graphics card is unable to keep up with (or even play) some of the games I want it to, so I figured I would upgrade it. The thing is that the last time I upgraded, back when I was almost completely clueless rather than the mostly clueless I am now, I was basically told that my motherboard wouldn't be able to handle anything better than this.

I'm running:

Motherboard: ASRock h55m-le
CPU: Intel i7 Quadcore 2.93GHz
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 430
Memory: 8GB DDR3
PSU: Winpower atx-450

I bought this GPU because it could support 1080p resolution to go with my HD monitor, but that was a long while ago and it's time to move on.

What I need to know now is whether my motherboard would be able to support a more powerful graphics card, and if it isn't, would I be able to transfer my CPU over to a new one?

 

[Richard3rd]

I am pretty sure that this H55 motherboard can handle any PCI-e graphics card. It has a PCI-e 2.0 slot, so if you would use a fast PCI-e 3.0 card in it, it will run at PCI-e 2.0. That should not influence the performance too much now. Maybe with future faster graphics cards the PCI-e 2.0 limitation will have more effect.

And if you are going to use a graphics card with a high peak power consumption, then you probably should replace your PSU with something more powerful.

 

[Aekiel]

Thanks for the reply, it's really helped. I've got another newbie question though, if you don't mind answering.

I'm looking through potential graphics cards (specifically the GeForce GT 545/550) and I've noticed a jump from DDR3 to GDDR5 memory. Should I be aiming to buy DDR3 to go with my current RAM or would GDDR5 work?

 

[Richard3rd]

The memory on your motherboard is controlled by the CPU. The memory on the graphics card is controlled via the GPU. There is no direct link between these two. You can use any combination.

 

[Aekiel]

Thanks again, you learn something new every day.