Graphics Upgrading My Graphics Card

Evevning All.

I am upgrading my graphics card this week. I want to know what I should do first, any pit falls, best pratices and testing I should do as this is the first time I have done this.

Upgrading from

Nvidia Geforce 9800GT to Radeon PowerColor HD 5870 with a Asus Blitz Extreme Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard.

I am hoping I do not have to fiddle with the bios.

Many Thanks

 

might be worth removing the current nvidia forceware drivers before you do it, and make sure you have enough PCI-e power connectors.

 

Like Barndoor said, uninstall the GPU drivers, then go to safe mode and run Driver Sweeper to get rid of the driver fully. Then pop your new card in, power up and install your drivers!!

Oh, if you have anything like RivaTuner running on startup I would turn that off just incase it tries to OC your new GPU.

 

And make sure your power supply is powerful enough

 

9800 users nearly the same power so that should be irelivent

if you have a 500 watt decent branded psu you will be fine

 

Are you sure about that? http://www.hwcompare.com/graphics/compare.php?c=GeForce-9800-GT-512MB-vs-Radeon-HD-5870

 

Well considering one is a Nvidia and the other is a ATI you should definitely remove the drivers first.

 

Using psu calculate

If 4870 4890 5850 5870 all use the same ammount of power

 

Ok, first problemo!

Installed new card, waited ages for regular POST beeps, no action, no screen, then a very long beep followed by 2 short beeps. Any ideas whats a miss?

Put back the old card and no issues.

 

Check your board manual. POST beeps and BIOS codes can be found there.

 

Basically. Are these things fixable if I take it to an expert?

 

1 long and 2 short beeps usually indicate a GPU error, double check your PC is up to it. Also try the card in another machine.

 

It is quite possibly the GPU. Can these be fixed?

 

The 9800GT has just one 6-pin PCI-E connector, the HD 5870 has two. Have you connected both?

 

Yes, connected bothe 6pins. The fan does start spinning on the card. One possibility is that I may need a new bios for the mobo. Any ideas how I find this out?

 

You will definitely not need new bios. The issue probably lies with your PSU.

 

I wouldn't rely on something like that.

If one card has one PCI-E power connector and the other has two, then latter is bound to have a higher power consumption.

 

Can you confirm what type of power supply you have?

 

The other thing is, don't take it to some expert who will charge you £100 labour and £70 for another generic PSU which will suck in exactly the same way. Diagnose the problem logically and slowly using our help and you'll be fine. You've still got your old card to tide you over too. I suspect you just need a decent, modular PSU like a Corsair one.

 

This is my PSU
Thermaltake Toughpower Series Cable Management 1200w.

Is there a way I can test it to make sure its ok?