Neko91 Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 I could use some help from those more knowledgeable about hardware than me! I have an ASUS P8Z77-V LX motherboard which has HD 4000 graphics built in. My Skyrim graphics look ok most of the time but since this card isn't supported by Bethesda, the graphics aren't as spectacular as I'd like them to be, so I'd like to install an EVGA GeForce GTX 680+ 4GB card. I'd use only the GeForce 680 card and would disable the HD 4000 (I can do that by just disabling the driver, right?). As far as I can tell from the research I've done, there shouldn't be any compatability problems but then again, when it comes to hardware, I'm living proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I think my power supply is good enough but at the moment, that's just a guess -- I'm not sure what I have but am checking. I have a free PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 slot and I think the new card would be able to go into that? Any comments, suggestions, red flags from you hardware gurus would be very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemesisTheWarlock Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 You should be fine with the new card and it should definitely improve your game experience. Simply adding it to your PCIe slot should disable your built in card, I would only remove the drivers if they're causing a problem (unfortunately, ATI drivers can be problematic) You are right to check the power supply though, if you're using a a store bought PC, the power supply unit may not be up to the new load that the graphics card will add. You can either check the power load your current system is using against the PSU your using and then take account of your new cards power rating, or just play it safe and get a new PSU which is as much larger (at least for safety) again as the extra power drain your new card will add to your system. The GTX 680 is very power efficient and will probably only require 200W. The recommended minimum PSU for the GTX680 is 600W, 750W for the SLI version.Hope that helps :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neko91 Posted April 16, 2013 Author Share Posted April 16, 2013 Thanks -- that helps a lot! I found out that my power supply is 400w so I need to do some thinking about what to do about that ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemesisTheWarlock Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Investing in a quality PSU is well worth it and you're definitely going to need a new one which means a fair bit of work in your machine. If you're not confident in your abilities, there are a number of quality instruction videos out there showing you how to do it yourself or you can pay a technician in a shop to do it for you, check out reviews of any PSU you think about buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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