This graphics card compatible with this motherboard?

[Douhnut77]

Allright so I had a ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series graphics card , (http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/mobility-radeon-5000/mobility-radeon-5700-5600/Pages/mobility-radeon-5700-5600.aspx#2) and it recently "burnt out" or died. Im looking to replace it and this card is on sale, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, (http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/mobility-radeon-5000/mobility-radeon-5800/Pages/mobility-radeon-5800.aspx#2). My mother board specs are here. (http://www.msi.com/product/mb/790XT-G45.html#?div=Detail). Are they compatible? (I imagine they would be as they are very similar, but I just want to make sure). Also is the graphics card I want to buy a step UP from my previous one? It looks like it to me as it has more transistors and stuff but again, im no expert. Thanks for your help!

[MrLAFLAFLAF]

Hi Douhnut77, it seems I am first to welcome you to this forum, so welcome.

 

The link to the Radeon HD 5800 page is broken, but I have found it anyway, and it says that the cards in the series use a 'PCI Express 2.1 x16 bus interface', and your motherboard site says it has 2 'PCI Express x16 slots (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant)'.

 

I am pretty sure that the 5800 series card will be compatible, because the motherboard says it is 'compliant' with an older version, V2.0, which suggests it is a later version, possibly V2.1, like the 5800 series cards.

 

Yahoo! Answers basically says the only difference is that is could be used as a sort of bridge from PCIE 2.0 to PCIE 3.0, which, most-likely, is a good thing. And the person's answer on there is from an extensive Wikipedia page on the very subject of PCIE. Also the page for 5700 series says the cards have a 'PCI Express 2.1 x16 bus interface', so I don't think the PCIE will be much of an issue.

 

However, you will probably look at my post count and think 'I think I'll wait for a professional to answer', but go ahead, I was about to suggest it anyway:cool:.

 

A useful bit of info would be the model of the card you are interested in, i.e. I am pretty sure that the whole series can't be on sale :p, or that you plan to buy them all.

 

And to answer yor question on whether it is 'a step up', most of the numbers on the GPU card pages are doubled, so I guess so.

Edited May 29, 2011 by MrLAFLAFLAF

[Douhnut77]

Good enough for me man! I too asked on yahoo and everyone said its fine, the only thing is the 5xxx series isnt the best with directx 11 but meh, its only $109 on newegg so, which is cheaper than my one that burnt out so, what the heck!

[MrLAFLAFLAF]

Glad I could be of service, enjoy your new GPU *ENVY* :p