GT 720 for a 8+ year-old PC with 380W PSU?

nicologic

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Hi everyone, a novice calling.

A couple of days ago my GeForce 7950GT collapsed and i'm looking for a replacement. I barely use my old computer for graphic purpose (just a few Photoshop, a bit of non-rendered industrial 3D and no more games since a long ago...). After an intense quick learning research on the web, I am pretty sure that both nVidia GT 610 and GT 720 would perfectly work to me. I'd rather buy the newer 720 (a bit more powerful, more efficient, 4K UHD option, and pretty close to the oldie 610 in price). I have already ensured I should not have problems by (still) using WinXP, an Intel 945P based motherboard, and PCI-express 1.1.

The problem is that on EVGA's site (and only there) I've seen that the GT 720 requires a minimum of 20A at the +12v rail form the PSU, while the GT 610 just needs 16A (with an i7 @ 3.2 GHz refference PC). As my PSU tops at 380w it just gets 17A at +12v, but I don't know if my 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo can be compared to the i7. Both seem to have pretty similar TDP's at around 65w, but I'm not sure if that makes any point.

GT 610: EVGA - Products - Featured Products...

GT 720: EVGA - Products - Featured Products...

Question is: As I'm replacing a 82W TDP card (7950GT, which gave me ZERO problems in 8 years until now) with the 23W GT 720, does it defeat the Ampere shortage from the PSU? Would it work? Or should I go straight for the GT 610?

Thank you all!
 
I wouldn't bother considering 4k UHD on that card, even though the GPU it's self supports it, the PCB doesn't have the correct O/I to support 4k (Displayport 1.4 or HDMI 2.0)

What motherboard is in your PC? as long as the card and the board are both PCI-E 2.0 compliant then they should be fine - is the board PCI-E or PCI-E 2.0?
 
I wouldn't bother considering 4k UHD on that card, even though the GPU it's self supports it, the PCB doesn't have the correct O/I to support 4k (Displayport 1.4 or HDMI 2.0)

What motherboard is in your PC? as long as the card and the board are both PCI-E 2.0 compliant then they should be fine - is the board PCI-E or PCI-E 2.0?

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-945P-S3 and is loaded with PCI-e 1.1. I've read on different sites that nVidia PCI-e 2.0 & 3.0 cards have backward compatibility with PCI-e 1.1, so I assume I shouldn't have problems. Regarding the 4K UHD, MSI make cards with HDMI 1.4a, which they say it allows up to 4K @ 24Hz. Should I trust them?

Thanks.
 
HDMI 1.4 is 4K capable, but 24Hz means that it can only effectively display 24fps, which isn't that great of an experience for watching or creating content. If this is something that doesn't bother you, forget I said it ;)

PCI-E 3.0 cards are backwards compatible to PCI-E 2.0, but I'm not sure if PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with 1.1.

(a quick google later)

Some posts on Tom's hardware suggest that it's probably (disclaimer: PROBABLY!?!:3) fine, since the bandwidth of 1.1 still isn't really saturated compared even to 3.0.

I'd say bite the bullet, but I am a gambling man.
 
I wouldn't bother considering 4k UHD on that card, even though the GPU it's self supports it, the PCB doesn't have the correct O/I to support 4k (Displayport 1.4 or HDMI 2.0)

What motherboard is in your PC? as long as the card and the board are both PCI-E 2.0 compliant then they should be fine - is the board PCI-E or PCI-E 2.0?

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-945P-S3, whic is loaded with PCI-e 1.1. I have read on different sites that nVidia PCI-e 2.0 & 3.0 cards have backward compatibility with PCI-e 1.1, so I assume I shouldn't have any problem. Regarding the 4K UHD settings, MSI make their cards with HDMI 1.4a, which they say it allows up to 4k @ 24Hz. A later look at Wikipedia has confirmed that.

MSI: Graphics card - The world leader in display performance

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_1.4


Thanks!
 
HDMI 1.4 is 4K capable, but 24Hz means that it can only effectively display 24fps, which isn't that great of an experience for watching or creating content. If this is something that doesn't bother you, forget I said it ;)

PCI-E 3.0 cards are backwards compatible to PCI-E 2.0, but I'm not sure if PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with 1.1.

(a quick google later)

Some posts on Tom's hardware suggest that it's probably (disclaimer: PROBABLY!?!:3) fine, since the bandwidth of 1.1 still isn't really saturated compared even to 3.0.

I'd say bite the bullet, but I am a gambling man.


Ha,ha! Ok, I see. There might be some risk to take...

Cheers!
 
Ha,ha! Ok, I see. There might be some risk to take...

Cheers!

Well, the pins are the same in all PCI-E x8 and x16 standards, and they are pretty much the same across the board, the only real difference is the bandwith of the bus, which even on 1.1 is not going to be saturated (there is still a lot of headroom in terms of speed between PCI and CPU even on 1.1 I mean, the bus is faster than the components at each end)

There's always a bit of risk involved when putting newer stuff in an older system. If it was me doing this, I'd just go for it and see how I got on since after reading up a bit I'm pretty confident it would work.

do let us know how it goes if you bite the bullet, im always interested to see how things like this pan out :thumb:
 
Well, the pins are the same in all PCI-E x8 and x16 standards, and they are pretty much the same across the board, the only real difference is the bandwith of the bus, which even on 1.1 is not going to be saturated (there is still a lot of headroom in terms of speed between PCI and CPU even on 1.1 I mean, the bus is faster than the components at each end)

There's always a bit of risk involved when putting newer stuff in an older system. If it was me doing this, I'd just go for it and see how I got on since after reading up a bit I'm pretty confident it would work.

do let us know how it goes if you bite the bullet, im always interested to see how things like this pan out :thumb:

OK! I think I'll have the new card next week and I will let you know ;)

Thanks for all!
 
How about the GT650? It's GDDR5 instead of DDR3.

I can't find the GT720 from your links ??
 
How about the GT650? It's GDDR5 instead of DDR3.

I can't find the GT720 from your links ??


The GTX650 is too expensive for me right now, and for my needs the GT 720 is enough. It's also half the price, more or less. The link below takes you to the MSI site's GT 720 range, and there are a couple of versions loaded with GDDR5, so I'll keep an eye on them. Thanks!

MSI GT 720: Graphics card - The world leader in display performance
 
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