What are the things I need to know in order to make sure that the graphics card i'm buying is capable of being handled by my computer? I'm buying a GTX 550 ti.
Your motherboard has to have a matching slot with the graphics card's interface. And you also have to make sure that you have enough power on your power supply. You can check the power supply requirements on geforce's website (www.geforce.com).
For a GTX 550 Ti, you need to have a PCIe on your PC and at least a 500 watt power supply.
Make sure your motherboard has a pci-e slot , at least a 500 watt psu and a good one ,and the processor is at least a amd athlon x3 or phenomllx 4 series or a intel i5/i7 series , i suggest these processors which is good for the gtx 550 ti
Comments
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When posting any computer related question, always list all your system specs.
Processor model, motherboard model, memory (RAM), hard drive size and graphics card or solution.
If you don't know your specs, at least list your full model number.
Example:
HP Pavilion m8050n Desktop PC
or
Acer Aspire 5349-2592 Laptop
This would give people a better understanding, thus allowing them to help you better.
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For a GTX550 Ti you would need:
1. An available PCI-e x16 slot (preferably PCI-e 2.0 x16 for faster speed) on your motherboard
2. A power supply (PSU) with at least 500W total power and able to deliver power to the top of the card via one 6-pin PCI-e power cable / connector
3. The appropriate physical space in your box and on the motherboard (it is a double wide card and some 8.5 or 9 inches long)
4. A good enough dual core or quad core processor to keep up with the card and not create a bottleneck in your system.
At minimum an upper end Intel Core2Duo or Athlon II x4 is required.
The better the processor, the better the overall gaming performance.
Good luck with your upgrade.
Your motherboard has to have a matching slot with the graphics card's interface. And you also have to make sure that you have enough power on your power supply. You can check the power supply requirements on geforce's website (www.geforce.com).
For a GTX 550 Ti, you need to have a PCIe on your PC and at least a 500 watt power supply.
Make sure your motherboard has a pci-e slot , at least a 500 watt psu and a good one ,and the processor is at least a amd athlon x3 or phenomllx 4 series or a intel i5/i7 series , i suggest these processors which is good for the gtx 550 ti