Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Graphics card upgrade

May 6, 2019 4:19PM PDT

I recently tried to upgrade my GPU from a gigabyte GTX 660 to an ASUS GTX 950-2G and ran into the problem that the new card wouldnt diplay.
I deleted the old drivers and installed the new ones for my card and nothing worked. ive also cleaned the pins on the GPU and updated my BIOS just in case something was conflicting.

To my knoledge the card pulls its power from the PCI slot so it doesnt need/have an 6-8 pin cable. i know my power supple is more than enough to power it and everything esle. and thats were in stuck at.

heres some relavent info:
motherboard- ASRock 970 Pro3
CPU- AMD FX-8320E
GPU- old: gigabyte gtx660/ new: asus gtx950-2G

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Did you make sure the BIOS was current before the change?
May 6, 2019 4:25PM PDT
- Collapse -
PS. As to power, the PSU appears to not be here.
May 6, 2019 4:35PM PDT
- Collapse -
Answer
Gtx 950
May 6, 2019 9:20PM PDT

Post a link to this gpu you bought.

- Collapse -
Seems OK.
May 7, 2019 1:37PM PDT

Let's find out what PSU you have since it and this GPU are the prime suspects.

That is you'll have to share if the GPU works in another PC and the make+model of the PSU so I can check out rail power specs. The CPU is nearly 100W on its own so we need to check the PSU too. I'm going to derate the PSU by 50% unless it's under 2 years old.

- Collapse -
Power
May 7, 2019 1:41PM PDT

Are you sure that gpu does not need an aux power cable?

Looks like a 90w card with a 6 pin connector.

- Collapse -
Update
May 7, 2019 2:01PM PDT

i currently have an Apower ak series 680W. this was used when i got it and ive held it for roughly 6-7 months. from what ive read and seen the card doesnt have a 6-pin connector. i can link more detailed pics of the GPU if need be.

- Collapse -
The Apower is a SPLIT RAIL DESIGN
May 7, 2019 2:34PM PDT

So right off the bat the +12V rail is 24A and since your GPU pulls off the motherboard this means all +12V power is from one rail and can push motherboard power over the edge on some boards.

So the CPU looks to peak at over 120 Watts.


Let's call it 140.

The GPU appears to indeed be close to 110W as noted in tests like https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-geforce-gtx-950-strix,4270.html#p7

That's inside the PCIe limit of 150 Watts.

So even if I add that up I'm at 230 Watts and the 24A rail would be 288 Watts and this is only under peak loads. The fact there is no video or beeps seems to point to a bad GPU.

Time to get that GPU tested.

- Collapse -
feedback
May 7, 2019 5:41PM PDT

ok. i was kinda hoping that wasn't the issue. ill have it tested and relay the info here. thanks for the help and time.