Will GeForce 550 Ti works with this old system?

tttcomrader

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Hi, guys, I was wondering if Geforce GTX 550 Ti will work on my machine... It is quite old, but what else would I have to change (motherboard, ram, etc.) in order, if at all, for it to work? Also, I'm currently running a GT 7800, I was wondering if it would be beneficial at all to dual run those two cards. Thank you!!!

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core
ASPIRE ATX-AS550W-BK ATX 550W
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM
 
That CPU will be a bottleneck.

The board has a PCIe slot so it should work. There is no benefit to "dual run" the two cards.
 
This comment is based on just a quick skim of your post, while I was watching King of the Hill:

Firstly, those two cards won't run simultaneously, as they're just not compatible. nVidia based GPUs, regarding SLI, are more restricted, whereas AMD (formally: ATI) GPUs can be mixed and matched a lot easier. I believe you won't be able to even use the older card for a dedicated PhysX card, as that card doesn't properly support PhysX, as far as I know - I'm told the earliest card by nVidia (of course) to support PhysX, is the 8800 or something along those lines.

In what I can only assume to be ALL cases, the amount of RAM or CPU power is redundant in order to run the graphics card, however, you will not see the full use of your GPU, if, for example, your CPU isn't capable of keeping up. As the adage goes: "A team is only as good as its weakest member." - or something to that effect.

As long as you have enough power, the correct connections, the correct operating system, and the correct port (in this case a PCI-E x16 port, for optimal use) then I see no problems.

I have a 550Ti kicking about somewhere, and it's a very good card, IMO.

Lastly, there are different types of graphics cards, as you likely are aware, but saying just "550Ti" isn't too helpful, I'm afraid, as there are various forms... such as PNY, MSI, ASUS, etc. When giving that sort of info, include the extra name, because the cards can vary a hell of a lot, such as my graphics card (MSI) currently needs 2 PCI-E 8-pin power cables, where-as other cards, of its model, need only 1.

Good luck, bud.
 
Thanks for your help! I just put the graphic card in but for reasons I got a black screen... I switch it back to the old GT 7800 card and still no screen :confused: I wonder if I did something wrong here?

BTW, the GTX 550 Ti is of the company MSI. Thanks!
 
theve done tests too iv seen, unless your using the same card, anything else paird to cards like the 550 as a dedicated physX card, will actualy hurt performance
 
terelljames91, yeah, some dedicated PhysX card setups are impractical and counter-productive, however, I have found a very small performance boost with using my 550Ti as a dedicated PhysX card, albeit with the extra heat and power consumption. I no longer use this, as the heat and power consumption wasn't worth the meager performance boost, but it was interesting to try it out and see for myself.

ttcomrader
, you likely got a black screen because either your card is faulty, underpowered (check the connections or something) or you've missed a vital BIOS option, such as telling the BIOS to utilise first the PCI-E port, not the onboard graphics chip.
 
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