Newbie question regarding graphics cards

[FiddyTrickPony]

Hello PC builders,

I have built computers a long time ago and generally work with tech, so I should understand most of it -- but I'm a tad confused on graphics card compatibility.

I can see that not all graphics cards work with all setups, and certain graphic cards can only be used with other parts. My challenge is that I'm not sure how to tell which can be used.

Is there some spec, like 'socket' for mobos and cpus, that you can use as a reference? Is it the motherboard that determines which graphics cards can be used?

Is there a simple rule of thumb to follow on this topic?

Any advice to help give me a basic understanding of this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Silamon]

Any pcie card will fit into any pcie slot, there should not be compatibility issues in this game since all of the mobos have pcie slots.

Where are you seeing gpus that dont work with your setup?

[FiddyTrickPony]

Interesting. I'm on a job where I'm building a new comp for the F1 2017 max spec.

Everything else is working fine, but I can't get the card I bought to plug in. (After installed, no cable attachments are available on the card). It's the 'Shean GeForce GTX 980 Gamer' and the cheapest mobo.

Its a small grey graphics card, only uses one 'slot.' If I use a bigger graphics card like MSI GeForce GTX 960, they install fine, have available cables to hookup and the computer boots just fine.

I assumed from this that only certain graphics cards would work with this setup. Perhaps based on the size/shape/design.

[Pr0ject0ne]

So the main issue is that you don't get the cable attachment? You understand that the graphics card only need cable attachment to the power supply unit? The connection with the motherboard is the pci slot, so far you told up here the installation in the pci slot works?

So if you have no cable att option, do you have a psu? Or am i missing something..

[FiddyTrickPony]

Originally posted by Pr0ject0ne:

So the main issue is that you don't get the cable attachment?....

...So if you have no cable att option, do you have a psu? Or am i missing something..

Correct, main issue seems to be a lack of cable connections I can make (on certain cards).

I do have a psu. Everything else is hooked up and working. If I swap in a larger graphics card where the cable connections show up, it boots up totally fine.

I just thought I was making a newbie mistake, but perhaps its not so cut and dry. I'll take a screenshot so you can see.

Edit... Just took 3 screens to illustrate the issue the best I can. Not sure the best way to share but they are the most recent 3 in my screenshots. Showing 2 different cards without cables plugged in and the available options. And lastly the working one pluged in so you can see it does indeed boot up.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Quark:

Originally posted by Pr0ject0ne:

So the main issue is that you don't get the cable attachment?....

...So if you have no cable att option, do you have a psu? Or am i missing something..

Correct, main issue seems to be a lack of cable connections I can make (on certain cards).

I do have a psu. Everything else is hooked up and working. If I swap in a larger graphics card where the cable connections show up, it boots up totally fine.

I just thought I was making a newbie mistake, but perhaps its not so cut and dry. I'll take a screenshot so you can see.

Edit... Just took 3 screens to illustrate the issue the best I can. Not sure the best way to share but they are the most recent 3 in my screenshots. Showing 2 different cards without cables plugged in and the available options. And lastly the working one pluged in so you can see it does indeed boot up.

That 980 doesnt seem to have any psu connections (which frankly is not realistic but... its a fake card anyway). Did you notice the cpu fan is not connected? That is probably what is throwing the msising cable error out.

[FiddyTrickPony]

There's no 'missing cable' error though that I'm dealing with -- it's that I can't connect the graphics cards to the PSU like you said. As you can see in the screenshots I took (both while in cable mode), one type of card lets me connect to PSU while another doesn't. I ended up just buying another graphics card that was larger and it connected fine, finished job. Just wasted about $300 buying the wrong one first (or perhaps it has a bug).

I honestly thought there was something that would only let certain types of graphics cards work with certain parts. Like AMD and radeon graphics cards, or Intel and NVIDIA. Something along those lines. (But this is why I said 'newbie question' =P)

[Silamon]

In the screenshot where you had the cheap 980 installed, the only thing wrong was the cpu cooler not being plugged in. That gpu did not have any psu connections.

[FiddyTrickPony]

Originally posted by Silamon:

In the screenshot where you had the cheap 980 installed, the only thing wrong was the cpu cooler not being plugged in. That gpu did not have any psu connections.

That's the root of my question. A different card in the same setup works just fine, but the smaller grey cards show no connections. Figured it was a compatibility thing, but perhaps this should be a bug report if that's not the case.

(Also, for clarity, I unplugged the cooler in the screen so you could see that it was in cable mode. I know it was not connected in that screen).

[Silamon]

That card didnt HAVE psu connections, as unrealistic as that is for a 980. But the card is fake anyway, so I don't consider it that big a deal.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Quark:

Originally posted by Silamon:

In the screenshot where you had the cheap 980 installed, the only thing wrong was the cpu cooler not being plugged in. That gpu did not have any psu connections.

That's the root of my question. A different card in the same setup works just fine, but the smaller grey cards show no connections. Figured it was a compatibility thing, but perhaps this should be a bug report if that's not the case.

(Also, for clarity, I unplugged the cooler in the screen so you could see that it was in cable mode. I know it was not connected in that screen).

Some small video cards do not have physical connections to the power supply. If they are small enough they can pull all the power they need from the pci-express slot. That is the card you installed. That's why it doesn't have power connections, it doesn't need it.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Originally posted by Quark:

snip

Some small video cards do not have physical connections to the power supply. If they are small enough they can pull all the power they need from the pci-express slot. That is the card you installed. That's why it doesn't have power connections, it doesn't need it.

His question is not a bad one though if he is looking at irl as a reference. There is no way you could power a card like a 980 with no power from psu, at least not without underclocking it to the point of making it worse than lower cards.

[FiddyTrickPony]

Thank you all for the clarification. I understand now that in the game certain cards have no PSU hookup -- and that all cards 'should' work with all setups.

What threw me is that the first card I used had no hookups, but also would not boot to OS (when all other connections made). I can't show a screen or further test since I finished the job, but I'm 99.99% sure it wasn't a user error. Exact same setup, same connections, different graphics card worked fine. So I wrongly assumed it was just the lack of PSU connection that was the root of the issue, but it seems the issue was that the graphics card didn't work at all (and no, it was not 'broken').