Will a PCI-e 2 x16 graphics card work on a PCI-e x16 board?

ww dakota

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Dec 14, 2012
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I have a gateway motherboard mcp61pm-am rev 1.0 It has a pci x 16 video card slot. my video card is a ati 3870 pci 2.0 x 16
will this computer run this card.. Thanks don.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
That is the one. Folks sometimes forget to connect that. The HD38XX series is notorious for how finicky it can be in terms of power requirements. It also generates a ton of heat.

What make/model of power supply are you using?

Also, have you used any other video card successfully with this motherboard?
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
I suspect the power supply is not providing sufficient power to the video card. I would not recommend that model of power supply to anyone (not meaning to offend here).

I would be surprised if that power supply provided more than 350w of stable power.

Do you have access to another power supply that you could swap into the system? Same question for another video card.
 

ww dakota

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Dec 14, 2012
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No i don't but I will get a hold of one and also have the card check out. Becaus when there is any new hardware installed you think that the computer would pick up on that. Thanks Don. PS the card was bought on Ebay from someone that is 100% and said that the card was tested . Thanks again.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
The video card (GPU) could indeed be good. The power supply (PSU) is of dubious quality (at best) and it likely the issue. Without adequate power, that GPU will not even power up and will just present a blank display screen.

I had one of those several years ago, newer generation video cards are much more efficient and effective.

What do you plan to do with this GPU and system?
 

ww dakota

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Dec 14, 2012
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What size or what brand of power supply do you think I should have ? The system i want to use for world of tanks gameing. I'm retired and like this game. My old system which had a Ge force 7600 gs and was a AGP card .It was giving me 15 to 20 fps. and did alright for the game. The on board graphics on this motherboard is only giving me 2to 4 fpm. Which means i can't run the game. any good vice,on limited income.
 

ww dakota

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Dec 14, 2012
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Another question; shouldn't this computer at leastknow that there is new hardware when booted up ? I'm useing this computer right now useing the onboard video and the computer dosen't even know that there is any new hardware installed. Thanks Don.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
That indicates a problem with the GPU itself. If properly recognized, the on-board video would be disabled. You can check the BIOS to see if you can manually force the system to use the stand alone video card and disable the on-board.

For a better PSU, what is your budget?
 

ww dakota

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Dec 14, 2012
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Good morning; new video card fix the prolbem . But now I wanted to up grade the ram from 2gb of ddr2 566mhz to 4gb of ddr2 800 mhz duel core. The computer will not boot up with that installed. but if i take one ram chip it will boot up to 3gb of ram 64 bit single core. Now here is the catch. If I put two of the 800 mhz and two of the 566mhz the computer will boot up to 128 bit dual core of ram. so what think is happening is that the computer can't handel 4 gb of 800 mhz but the two 800 chips are running at 566mhz. I'm I right ?? is there a fix for this like a biose up grade ? Thanks Don.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Your are right, seems your PC doesn't like running at 800 (actually ay 400 in the BIOS), but will run at the slower speed. When you mix speeds and the BIOS memory settings are set to AUTO, the system will default to the lowest common denominator in terms of speed to a compatible level.

You can manually adjust the memory settings in your BIOS (with one of the new sticks installed adding the other one afterward) or you can just mix them and run at the lower speed. Performance differences are very negligible.