Is Nvidia GTX 260 compatible with my motherboard?

[Sketchie]

Hi all,

I am unsure to wether the GTX 260 is compatible with my mother board?

My motherboard is MS-7313 (945GCM7-F V2 (3 Audio Ports)

Help on telling me wether it is compatible would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dividebyzero]

Yes.
Any PCIe graphics card is a fit for your MSI board.

 

[Sketchie]

Ok, so it does not matter that the gtx 260 is pci-e gen 2????

The board only have gen 1 i think

 

[dividebyzero]

No difference.
PCIe 1 (or 1.1) has half the available bandwidth of PCIe 2.0. But most graphics cards don't come close to saturating the bandwidth of PCIe 1.1. Those that do are invariably dual-gpu graphics cards (HD5970, GTX295, HD4870X2).
A practical example would be Crossfire (2 graphics cards in 2 different PCIe x16 2.0 slots)....

On an X58 motherboard both cards run at full PCIe x16 , while...
on a P55 motherboard both cards run at PCIe x8 (each card running with half the bandwidth)

Yet for all practical purposes there is very little difference in performance with enthusiast grade graphics cards, even less so with mainstream graphics cards such as the GTX260.

 

[Sketchie]

Ok. Thanks for that...

I am now faced with the decision of buying a HD 5770 or the GTX 260....

Which one do think that be a good graphics card...since i play alot of games....and also the fact that i am upgrading in the first place is because i got a new 23" LG monitor and wish to play games higher resolutions....

My graphic card at the moment is Nvidia Geforce 8500 GT with 1.7GB on-board ram.


Thanks

 

[dividebyzero]

Personally I would go for the HD5770 -both cards are roughly in the same performance bracket, but the ATI card offers DirectX 11 (a little futureproofing) and has a lower power draw. Both are a huge step up from your 8500GT.
Either choice will allow you to game at 1680x1050 with a lot of eye-candy, and game dependant, are capable of rendering games at 1920x1080, although with a reduced level of Anti-aliasing in some cases.

 

[Sketchie]

Thank mate

 

[Sketchie]

Oh and another question...

What power supply is recommended for either those cards????

 

[dividebyzero]

Assuming that you have a fairly standard set-up then you'll be using no more than about 250-300 watts when you have the system cranking, in which case I would go for a GOOD psu in the 500-600watt bracket.
Corsair CMPSU-520HX (520w)
Corsair CMPSU-550VX (550w)
Gigabyte Odin Pro 550w
OCZ ModXstream Pro 600w
Antec TruePower New Series 550w
Zalman ZM600-ST 600w

All these are available at reasonable prices on this side of the ditch. The Corsair's probably represent the best value for money. You should be looking for a PSU with at least 38-40 amps on the 12 volt rail/s.

 

[Sketchie]

Ok, yeh i only have a 400W power supply at the moment.