Hardware Would my motherboard support a XFX Radeon Hd 7970 GHz Edition 3GB?

twindtrout9783 · Jun 3, 2020

I'm trying to upgrade my computer, but I first need to know if I need to upgrade my motherboard along with the GPU and CPU (my current amount of RAM is more than enough.)

Here are my current specs:

CPU: Intel XEON E5606 2.13 GHz (I have two of these)
RAM: 41GB [Physical], 36GB [Useable; Detected]
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 210 1GB Passive
MOTHERBOARD: Supermicro X8DTH-iF Intel i5520

Here are the specs that I'm trying to acheive:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770L 3.5Ghz
RAM: No change
GPU: XFX Radeon Hd 7970 GHz Edition 3GB
MOTHERBOARD: Either the same one, or a newer one if my current one isn't compatable with my desired GPU.

NOTE: If using older hardware WILL cause a bottlekneck, then I'll upgrade it. (I don't want anyone telling me "Well because it's old it might cause a bottlekneck. You should get a new motherboard just in case." If it doesn't cause any problems/bottleknecks, then I don't need to waste time and money buying a replacement for it.)

ANOTHER NOTE: I don't need to upgrade my PSU as long as it is compatible with my motherboard. My PSU when powered with 120VAC can output up to 1100W and 1400W when powered with 240VAC. My PSU is a Supermicro PWS-1K41P-1R redundent power supply.

raystriker · Jun 3, 2020

twindtrout9783 said:
I'm trying to upgrade my computer, but I first need to know if I need to upgrade my motherboard along with the GPU and CPU (my current amount of RAM is more than enough.)

Here are my current specs:

CPU: Intel XEON E5606 2.13 GHz (I have two of these)
RAM: 41GB [Physical], 36GB [Useable; Detected]
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 210 1GB Passive
MOTHERBOARD: Supermicro X8DTH-iF Intel i5520

Here are the specs that I'm trying to acheive:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770L 3.5Ghz
RAM: No change
GPU: XFX Radeon Hd 7970 GHz Edition 3GB
MOTHERBOARD: Either the same one, or a newer one if my current one isn't compatable with my desired GPU.

NOTE: If using older hardware WILL cause a bottlekneck, then I'll upgrade it. (I don't want anyone telling me "Well because it's old it might cause a bottlekneck. You should get a new motherboard just in case." If it doesn't cause any problems/bottleknecks, then I don't need to waste time and money buying a replacement for it.)

ANOTHER NOTE: I don't need to upgrade my PSU as long as it is compatible with my motherboard. My PSU when powered with 120VAC can output up to 1100W and 1400W when powered with 240VAC. My PSU is a Supermicro PWS-1K41P-1R redundent power supply.

Your intended upgrade isn't much of an upgrade by modern standards. Can't you spare some money for modern hardware?

FAST6191 · Jun 3, 2020

If you have that much RAM and a Xeon that means server board and overwhelmingly likely then ECC RAM (technically the current board does support non ECC but I seldom see servers built out without it) so account for that if you do switch, not to mention that CPU you picked as a replacement does not play with ECC and these days you need to have that as well.

Likewise https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTH-iF.cfm says a couple of gens of Xeon are the CPUs it supports. I don't know what the adapter crowd has got up to in recent years but as you did not mention such hobbies then yeah, not to mention it would probably also merit a hacked BIOS and those are even rarer in server world.

GPU wise then for the most part that is not a technical problem -- if you can power it and fit it in at least a 2x slot most GPUs will work on now ancient motherboards (or indeed see that fad a few years back for putting desktop cards into the PCIe wifi slot of laptops) but will probably slow as sin or operating way below their capacity.
In this case
"Expansion Slots PCI-Express 7 (x8) PCI-E 2.0 ( in x16 slot)." That presumably means 7 counts of x16 style slots but only at 8x speeds.
"PCI Express 3.0 x16" is what the GPU sports. Backwards compatibility is a thing and a lot of cards won't use the bandwidth 3.0 provides them, though if they are limited to 8x then you might see some limitations.

Short version. Seems you found yourself with either an ex server or ex workstation. Wonderful things for the right person (that being a person that cares to have a computer double as a room heater and pay the power bills for it and possibly also act as the sort of things servers and workstations are good for) but can be remarkably expensive to bring it into gamer territory or do much more than swap out for other server bits or replace GPU and hard drive. This is by design (server companies don't want people using cheap gamer bits or people to buy ex servers to use as a cheap gaming machine a few years later) and some measure of practicality (the level of redundancy in a server is nice for gamers (and workstations) but not something everybody wants to pay for).
You would probably be better off turning that server into a secondary machine (it is still a thing more than capable of doing a lot, and some of the prices of parts for that when looking them up still command a fair bit) and building out a new one at this point, or just upgrading the GPU and finding a fancy (compatible -- no M2 slot in that) SSD if you have not already got one. We are waiting on the launch of some new GPUs and CPUs at the moment, and while that is almost always the case this looks like a big one, rather than a token one, that will either see prices of older stuff drop a fair bit or make you kick yourself for getting the old stuff when the new is that much shinier.

Tom Bombadildo · Jun 3, 2020

That CPU doesn't have the LGA1155 socket the i7 3770k you picked out uses, nor does the 3770k support that chipset, so you would absolutely require a new motherboard period. And, in getting one, you'd also have to lose the RAM since consumer motherboards for that series of CPU will only have 4 slots max, for a total of 32GB (since DDR3 officially maxes out at 8GB DIMMs, and the few 16+GB DIMMs you'll find of DDR3 have massive incompatibility issues), and that RAM is ECC, which is also not supported by the CPU you chose....and the PSU, as well, since that server PSU doesn't have standard ATX leads, so you'd need to grab a new PSU as well.

The GPU is the only part you've chosen in the entire build that doesn't have major compatibility issues, funnily enough. As FAST above mentioned, so long as the motherboard has a full sized PCI-e slot and can get power, anything will work...but your motherboard will need to have adapters for the power connectors for the GPU, since your PSU is server grade and has none.

So quite frankly, none of what you want is easily possible with your build, and you 100% would need to build something else. Getting cheapo motherboards for that i7 3770k should be easy enough, but you're still going to have to buy RAM, a PSU, and a case at the very least as well.

twindtrout9783 · Jun 3, 2020

raystriker said:
Your intended upgrade isn't much of an upgrade by modern standards. Can't you spare some money for modern hardware?

Well, seeing as I only intend to upgrade so that I can play Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, not really.
I'll do a real upgrade further in the future when I can afford it.

FAST6191 said:
If you have that much RAM and a Xeon that means server board and overwhelmingly likely then ECC RAM (technically the current board does support non ECC but I seldom see servers built out without it) so account for that if you do switch, not to mention that CPU you picked as a replacement does not play with ECC and these days you need to have that as well.

I checked, and I do in fact have ECC Memory.

FAST6191 said:
You would probably be better off turning that server into a secondary machine (it is still a thing more than capable of doing a lot, and some of the prices of parts for that when looking them up still command a fair bit) and building out a new one at this point, or just upgrading the GPU and finding a fancy (compatible -- no M2 slot in that) SSD if you have not already got one. We are waiting on the launch of some new GPUs and CPUs at the moment, and while that is almost always the case this looks like a big one, rather than a token one, that will either see prices of older stuff drop a fair bit or make you kick yourself for getting the old stuff when the new is that much shinier.

I was already planning on doing that. I might use it to run a Minecraft server or something.

Tom Bombadildo said:
That CPU doesn't have the LGA1155 socket the i7 3770k you picked out uses, nor does the 3770k support that chipset, so you would absolutely require a new motherboard period. And, in getting one, you'd also have to lose the RAM since consumer motherboards for that series of CPU will only have 4 slots max, for a total of 32GB RAM total (since DDR3 officially maxes out at 8GB DIMMs, and the few 16+GB DIMMs you'll find of DDR3 have massive incompatibility issues), and that RAM is ECC, which is also not supported by the CPU you chose....and the PSU, as well, since that server PSU doesn't have standard ATX leads, so you'd need to grab a new PSU as well.

The GPU is the only part you've chosen in the entire build that doesn't have major compatibility issues, funnily enough. As FAST above mentioned, so long as the motherboard has a full sized PCI-e slot and can get power, anything will work...but your motherboard will need to have adapters for the power connectors for the GPU, since your PSU is server grade and has none.

So quite frankly, none of what you want is easily possible with your build, and you 100% would need to build something else. Getting cheapo motherboards for that i7 3770k should be easy enough, but you're still going to have to buy RAM, a PSU, and a case at the very least as well.

That's why I made this part list.

Tom Bombadildo · Jun 3, 2020

twindtrout9783 said:
That's why I made this part list.

In that case, I wouldn't bother upgrading the server at all, or if you really need to upgrade right now instead of waiting for that build then go for a couple Xeon x5680 CPUs (you can get 2 for $80 on sites like Aliexpress, but 1 would also suffice if you need it now for like $50 each on ebay) and pickup a GPU that doesn't need external power (I think the most powerful you can get right now is a GTX 1650, which can be had for like $130-$150 currently), both of which should be more than enough for playing a game like DragonBall Xenoverse 2.

twindtrout9783 · Jun 6, 2020

Would my build work for 720p-1080p 144hz Ultra Settings Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2?

Deathwing Zero · Jun 7, 2020

twindtrout9783 said:
Would my build work for 720p-1080p 144hz Ultra Settings Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2?

It should be fine, but there is a caveat. PCGW lists the game as being locked to 60fps in online mode and 150 otherwise.

In regards to your build list, I have some suggestions for changes which I'll put in a spoiler below in case you don't care.

CPU: Drop this down to a Ryzen 5 3600. Ignore 3600x. Price to performance increase is not worth the cost. 3700x and up are only really necessary for productivity and/or streaming. If you don't do these things it's a waste, the extra cores and clockspeed won't give you much in terms of fps. Alternatively you could consider having a look at the recently released Ryzen 3 3300x. That thing is a freaking monster for it's price point. If you can find it.

Thermal paste: Not really necessary as the cpu cooler will have some pre-applied, however the AS5 will be better, but not a whole lot.

RAM: If nothing else, I strongly recommend you take my advice here. Buy a 32gb kit consisting of 2 16gb sticks. Quad channel is pointless and you will see absolutely no benefit from it. Even outside of gaming it's benefits are marginal at best. Plus it's cheaper than buying the same kit twice. (same ram you picked but 32gb kit instead)

All that said and done, it's only a suggestion to save you a bit of money. You do you, even if you don't take my advice the system should perform fine.

twindtrout9783 · Jun 7, 2020

Deathwing Zero said:
It should be fine, but there is a caveat. PCGW lists the game as being locked to 60fps in online mode and 150 otherwise.

In regards to your build list, I have some suggestions for changes which I'll put in a spoiler below in case you don't care.

CPU: Drop this down to a Ryzen 5 3600. Ignore 3600x. Price to performance increase is not worth the cost. 3700x and up are only really necessary for productivity and/or streaming. If you don't do these things it's a waste, the extra cores and clockspeed won't give you much in terms of fps. Alternatively you could consider having a look at the recently released Ryzen 3 3300x. That thing is a freaking monster for it's price point. If you can find it.

Thermal paste: Not really necessary as the cpu cooler will have some pre-applied, however the AS5 will be better, but not a whole lot.

RAM: If nothing else, I strongly recommend you take my advice here. Buy a 32gb kit consisting of 2 16gb sticks. Quad channel is pointless and you will see absolutely no benefit from it. Even outside of gaming it's benefits are marginal at best. Plus it's cheaper than buying the same kit twice. (same ram you picked but 32gb kit instead)

All that said and done, it's only a suggestion to save you a bit of money. You do you, even if you don't take my advice the system should perform fine.

Thank you for the advice. I'm aware that the game is locked at 60fps for online mode (higher framerates mess with the regeneration of ki, stamina and everything else of the like.)

Hardware Would my motherboard support a XFX Radeon Hd 7970 GHz Edition 3GB?

Well-Known Member

The powers that be

Techromancer

Dick, With Balls

Well-Known Member

Dick, With Balls

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum