Graphics card question.

[Palehood]

If I’m not mistaken a graphics card can also be referred to as a GPU right? My current graphics card/GPU starts with the word ‘NVIDIA’. I’m thinking of getting a better graphics card/GPU. But the one I’m thinking of getting has a name that starts with ‘AMD Radeon’. If your graphics card is a NVIDIA one ,then must your new graphics card also be a NVIDIA type? Sorry if I sound ignorant about PC stuff.

[Pyro]

GPU is short for Graphics Processing Unit (or Graphics Card), it’s all dependent on what people prefer to call it.

You have two big names, NVIDIA who makes the GTX/RTX cards, and AMD who makes Radeon cards.

If you want to switch from NVIDIA to AMD or vice-versa that is completely okay, with a few caveats.

1. Make sure you run Display Driver Uninstaller. Failing to do so could result in your computer being confused about which card’s software you are trying to use.
2. Make sure all of your other components can support whatever card you plan on upgrading to. The first and foremost of these is the Motherboard and Power Supply (PSU).

These points is the equally as important even if you were to upgrade from a NVIDIA card to another NVIDIA card, or an AMD card to another AMD card.

Finally, make sure it’s worth upgrading. If you have a 2000’s Dell home computer, it might not be worth putting an expensive new GPU into (this of course loops back around to point #2)

[Bruce]

nicely summarised by Pyro.
his point 2 touched on it, but I’ll also add - make sure you have the right available cables that the new card may require.

[Palehood]

1. Make sure all of your other components can support whatever card you plan on upgrading to. The first and foremost of these is the Motherboard and Power Supply (PSU).

Ok. Thanks for answering guys. Just found out that I can use a new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 instead. Expanding on your second point,is there such thing as a new graphics card being too much for the PC to handle? My current graphics card is just a Nvidia GeForce GT 710. Don’t know if my PC can take more than that.

[Pyro]

As long as it’s in a proper PCIe 16x slot, the card won’t be “too much,” but it will be underutilized (a waste of money as far as I’m concerned).

It’s a delicate balancing act, if you plan on upgrading other things, going a bit overboard is okay (we call this future-proofing). But spending too much money on something you can’t/won’t fully utilize is not beneficial to you or your pocket book.

[Palehood]

Ok. Now do I need to edit the “prefix” as solved or will the mods do it?Sorry,still new haha.

[Bruce]

sorted. (y)