How can I find out what graphics card upgrade is compatible with my system?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sem@piefed.blahaj.zone⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I have a PC that I got from someone else who built their PC and it is finally starting to show its age. Sometimes when I open applications, the frame rate drops.

I think it is using one of these currently, from 2014. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/900-series/

I know that gfx cards have to be compatible with your Power Supply, and your PCI-E slot, but not sure what else I should know??

I would like to get something very compatible with Linux, Firefox, and Wayland, with lots of hardware codecs. Intel ARC?

How do you learn all this stuff?

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Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Step 1. Create 2 reddit accounts

Step 2. Post the question in the builds sub

Step 3. Answer it yourself with whatever you think is best. Make sure you’re very confident it’s the best solution and nobody could come up with a better one

Step 4. Rejoice at the flock of tryhards that will down vote your reply to hell while fighting each other for the actual best answer

Step 5. Choose whichever comment wins.

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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Thanks, that would probably attract attention lol. I was looking at System Monitor when the stuttering happens and I didn’t see a big CPU spike, but I am at a loss.
  
  # System Details Report (Copied from Ubuntu System Information) --- ## Report details - **Date generated:** 2026-02-05 12:03:11 ## Hardware Information: - **Hardware Model:** Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z77X-UD3H - **Memory:** 16.0 GiB - **Processor:** Intel® Core™ i7-3770K × 8 - **Graphics:** Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) - **Graphics 1:** NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 - **Disk Capacity:** 128.0 GB ## Software Information: - **Firmware Version:** F20e - **OS Name:** Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS - **OS Build:** (null) - **OS Type:** 64-bit - **GNOME Version:** 46 - **Windowing System:** X11 - **Kernel Version:** Linux 6.14.0-37-generic
  
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  - Toes@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    3rd gen i7 platform will be your major bottleneck.
    
    If the prices for ram weren’t insane right now I’d suggest a whole new build depending on what games you’re hoping to play.
    
    Don’t go with ARC as it’s not compatible with that motherboard. You need resizable bar support and ideally an x8 pcie gen4 lane or better.
    
    Since you’re rocking Linux I would suggest sticking to AMD graphics.
    
    What PSU are you using and games/software would you like to run better?
    
    The 980 is pretty good for most purposes outside of modern games.
    
    I’d suggest a new SSD and redoing the thermal paste on the cpu. Clean up the dust too.
    
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  - Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    It’s not always the utilization percentage that tells the whole story.
    
    You’re a bit out of luck as far as upgrades go for that platform, but if you have 1 stick of RAM and get another one you’ll feel a difference.
    
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bryndos@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
If you can identify the specific model of your graphics card and motherboard as accurately as possible that'll help. I'd guess 900 series has a wide variation in power use and performance.

In linux you'd be able to go into shell and run
lspci |grep -i vga
or
lspci |grep -i nvidia

In this case lspci is a command to " list pci devices"
On it's own that might give you a long list of sound, usb, network etc devices, so we "pipe" the output using '|' into the grep command. grep will filter by text pattern.
the '-i' makes it case insensitive search and 'vga' or 'invidia' is the sequence of characters to filter by.

Alternatively most desktop environments will have a gui option like "info centre" in kde.
Windows will probably have something too if you only have that, unless the'yre replaced it with coprolite trying to guess the answer.

For motherboard and PSU (power supply unit) you might need to open it up and look for labels or text on manufacturer and model.
For the motherboard, you really just need to know what type of pci it has but getting the manual online will be best.

For the PSU you need to know power rating in Watts and maybe "efficiency rating" usually as some metallic rating like gold, silver, bronze. The manufacturer helps determine how reliable the ratings are.

If you go inside you may want a torch, a compressed air can, a dust mask, to be outside. and/or a gentle vacuum cleaner (with a mesh or filter or tissue over the end just in case). or duster or toothbrush or something. If you've a nice clean environment that may all be no big deal, but if you have household dust, there can be a lot of build up in there over 12 years. Best not to breathe too much of that in.

To learn more there are loads of webshites and videos. I'd search for terms like "diy build pc ".
try to focus on low power or low to mid price to avoid lots of crap top end bullshit.
Look at some from back in the day. they should go step by step through components, and how they are installed and connected.

I'd say try explainingcomputers.com - this is both webpage and links to youtube.

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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Thank you for the link to explaining computers – I’ll check it out!
  
  $ lspci |grep -i vga 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation IvyBridge GT2 [HD Graphics 4000] (rev 09) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 980] (rev a1)
  
  For motherboard, it appears to be this Gigabyte . I found this command online: dmidecode
  
  $ sudo dmidecode -t 2 # dmidecode 3.5 Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs. SMBIOS 2.7 present. Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes Base Board Information Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Product Name: Z77X-UD3H Version: x.x Serial Number: To be filled by O.E.M. Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M. Features: Board is a hosting board Board is replaceable Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M. Chassis Handle: 0x0003 Type: Motherboard Contained Object Handles: 0
  
  I will try to figure out the PSU soon.
  
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olosta@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I’m a bit surprised an Nvidia 9x0 would struggle for web browsing. On a PC this old I would first check other things before swapping the GPU:

Is it clean? Physically clean? Restricted air flow can make your CPU throttle down to avoid getting too hot.

Is the operating system on an SSD or a spinning disk? I’m sure prices are insane nowadays but a small data SSD just for the OS will dramatically improve performance.

How much RAM do you have? Again, prices are not good right now, but 8GiB is the minimum to run a modern desktop+browser.

Do you have the proprietary drivers installed? I haven’t touched an Nvidia GPU on Linux in a long time, but I would expect those to be basically mandatory for a smooth experience.

As for the GPU, if you are not gaming on big modern titles, anything released in the last ten years should be enough. I had a good experience with AMD over this era for out of the box Linux compatibility, but I can’t say much about codecs, I never had issues and never bothered to check.

Intel is probably good enough also.

Another thing to consider is maybe your CPU has a built-in GPU, I use low/mid-range Intel CPU from this era without a discrete GPU as an HTPC and it performs fine.
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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  It doesn’t struggle with web browsing per se., just with opening and closing windows mostly. I just experienced it – I open the file browser, the system hangs for a moment or two where I can’t move the mouse. Then the mouse jerks around for a bit. Then the system is smooth again. I looked in System Monitor right after this happened and didn’t see any big spikes in storage, CPU, or memory, so I am assuming GPU.
  
  It is probably not physically clean. I should address that first.
  
  It is running on a Samsung SSD 830 series. I tried enabling write cache. I ran into the system stuttering problem (described above) clicking ‘cancel’ on a random dialog.
  
  I have had a lot of problems with codecs, and video playback being choppy everywhere, which is why I am focused on getting good hardware codecs that are supported under linux.
  
  The CPU/motherboard definitely does have a built-in iGPU. I think I could try it out with prime-select. Maybe that is worth experimenting.
  
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lavacake1111@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Frame rate drops when opening applications.

This might be because your i7 is showing its age. Not entirely your gfx (or GPU) card. I suggest you clean your case and fans for dust and try cleaning the old thermal paste on the CPU as well.

For compatibility with your Power Supply and PCI-E slot.

There’s not much to worry about here. You are rocking a GTX 980 so I would assume that your current PC has a Power Supply of at least 450 watts. Now, you want an Intel Arc A310. Don’t do that. I mean, you can but I suggest you don’t do so for the simple reason that you are replacing a 4 GB card with another 4 GB card. Also the PCI-E slot will be just fine. My concern would shift to the PC case that you currently use (the new GPU card might be too big for it).

Compatible with Linux, Firefox, and Wayland, with lots of hardware codecs. Intel ARC?

You can go with Arc B580 (12 GB) if you want to go with the Intel route or

AMD RX 9060 XT (16 GB).

Both are compatible with Linux and mostly share the same dimensions with your GTX 980.

Stay away from Nvidia cards for Linux compatibility.

How do you learn all this stuff?

Let’s just say I had my fair share of making a smoke machine with my PC.

Try looking up videos on PC building guide. They usually explain things like compatibility, what do these numbers mean, etc.

Why go nuts with Arc B580 or RX 9060 XT?

Why not? These are fairly recent GPUs and should handle most of your needs daily driver-wise or gaming-wise. I wouldn’t worry much about your processor it will still do its job. And having a much bigger VRAM with your GPU is always always a priority over lanes or interfaces (entirely different issue - story for another time) or even your CPU.
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- Toes@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Just a heads up. I would strongly suggest you don’t recommend an ARC GPU on a motherboard missing rebar support. It’s critical for them to run correctly.
  
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  - sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    This motherboard does have bios. I am learning about Resizable Bar (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/what-is-resizable-bar-and-should-you-use-it) I thought it was metal for structural integrity at first. Those graphics cards are getting pretty big…
    
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dracs@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It’d help to know what motherboard you’ve got currently. CPU-Z (or CPU-X if you’re on Linux already) can give you that information.

AMD I find to be the best of out of the box Linux support. What are your use cases? Gaming, web browsing, etc.

As for your power supply, you should be able to find a model number on it to see if it’d support the new card. Some new cards require newer connectors (though adapters are available). The other consideration is power output. Can it supply enough power to the new card along side your other components. There’s a power supply calculator you can use to see if the demand will exceed the supply.

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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I posted the system specs here . Apologies if this is not the right way to link to something on the threadiverse. Fun thing, while I was typing this, the system hung for a sec, and then all the letters appeared really quick.
  
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philnelson@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
PCPartPicker is great for this. It will do a sanity check on your existing parts and show only compatible GPUs.

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FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Also check out your case’s size, not all GPUs have the same size and fit everywhere.

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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  That is a good point! I am thinking it is a regular full size ATX? But I’ll try to find a model name and search it.
  
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  - FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I’m talking about the max length of the card you can fit. Almost all modern cards are longer than an ATX board, that’s not standard AFAIK.
    
    Also some are too wide but that’s rare.
    
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sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
How does something like this compare to the geforce from 2014? https://www.microcenter.com/product/700093/sparkle-intel-arc-a310-omni-view-single-fan-4gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

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