Monday, April 18, 2016

Performance Comparison With New GPU

The old video was Intel HD Graphics 4600, built in to the motherboard. The free PerformanceTest 8.0 was run to determine rough graphics processing capabilities.

Onboard graphics card


PassMark rating 1825


Add-in graphics card


PassMark rating 2405



The benchmarks don't show everything, and in this case appeared to under-rate the new video card. In real usage, the AMD showed about double the 3D graphics performance compared with the onboard video.


GPU-Z is used to measure the new video card, including the temperature. Running a stress test, the fan is at 56% and the temperature is 71 C.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

GPU Video Card Upgrade

This PC had video built in to the motherboard. The motherboard has one PCI Express slot for expansion. After carefully measuring available height and width, and upgrading the power supply, an ATI R7 360 GPU was purchased.

ATI R7 360 box


ATI R7 360 card


ATI R7 360 power connector


ATI R7 360 installed


The installation of the GPU was tight, and took patience. Two metal slots were removed from the PC case. Note the additional power connector is on the right side of this picture.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Power Supply Upgrade

When adding power-hungry cards such as a GPU, check the power supply capacity. While researching a GPU upgrade, the desired GPU performance would require more power than the existing power supply. This PC is a ATX size.

The specifications of the existing power supply should be on a label. Open the PC case and read the label.
Determine what size power supply will be needed (add up motherboard, disk drives, existing peripherals, and new card) to find the required wattage. Research power supplies to find a power supply unit (PSU) size which will fit inside the PC case.
Measure, measure, measure. The existing power supply was about 5 1/2" long.
As the new power supply likely has a fan, carefully determine the fan position and if it will work with your PC case.

Old power supply length


Old power supply width



A Cougar DX500 was chosen as the new power supply. This new power supply has the same width and is about 1 1/2" longer. The power supply fan exits out the back of the unit, near the power cord.

Cougar DX500 power supply


Next, locate the motherboard connector. The existing motherboard connector was 24 pins. The new power supply is a 20 + 4 pin connector. This means the main connector is 20 pins with an additional 4 pin connector.

Mother board connector in top right corner (near the arrow)



If adding a GPU, the card will typically take additional power from a 4 pin power supply connector. Carefully determine what power is needed by the new card, and what is provided by the new power supply unit.

Old 24 pin connector beside new 20 + 4 pin connector



Remove old power supply and carefully install new power supply. Routing power cables may be tricky, so take your time.

New power supply installed, with old power supply in picture


Power on the new power supply and test the PC.