Changing your graphics card: three mistakes to avoid + Tips and Tricks

You have decided to change your graphics card. It is not the best time due to the stock problems that exist right now, but you have been lucky and have found the model you wanted at an interesting price. My sincerest congratulations, but before launching to change it, Are you clear about all the steps you must take? If the answer is no, be careful, you could screw up the change process, and the consequences could be very serious.

Following the line of the special of twelve things that we should not do when assembling a PC, I want to share with you this article with a simpler approach, although equally interesting, where we are going to discover three mistakes that you should not make when changing your graphics card. These errors are generally the most frequent, and are also the most serious, so its importance is beyond doubt.

Before starting, I remind you that If you have any questions you can leave it in the comments, and we will be happy to help you solve it. If you do not know how to change the graphics card of your quiet PC, in this tutorial you will find all the information you need, explained step by step and clearly.

1.-Before changing your graphics card make sure you have space and enough power

It would not be the first time that I come across the classic scenario in which a user gets carried away by enthusiasm and buys a graphics card that it does not fit in the box, or that it requires too much power (or amperage) for the power supply you have.

If you don’t have enough space, the graphics card will not fit, and if your power supply is below the recommended values, both in watts and amps, it will show erratic behavior, and it may not even work directly.

Check these two keys well before starting to change your graphics card, and in case of doubt speak directly to the seller. Keep in mind, also, that the quality of a power supply has a lot to do with moving powerful graphics cards.

2.-Does it have the connectors you need?

Although it is not as frequent as the previous case, thanks mainly to the standardization of HDMI And, to a lesser extent, the DisplayPort, it still stands as one of the biggest mistakes you can make when changing your graphics card, although luckily it is also one of the easiest to solve.

If you are going to change your graphics card, think first about how you are going to connect it to your monitor, and check if the model you are going to buy has the output you need. For example, if you are going to connect the monitor through HDMI, you will need a graphics card that has this output, and if you are going to do it through DisplayPort the same, it must have that connector.

In case you are using a relatively old monitor, based on VGA or DVI outputs (in its different versions), be very careful, since these connectors are no longer present in most of the graphic cards that are currently marketed.

3.-Be careful with the slot, and with the power connectors

If your motherboard has two PCIE slots, the former is likely to be capable of x16, and the latter is limited to x8. These types of configurations are very frequent, and can lead you to make a major mistake when changing your graphics card if you do not have a minimum of common sense.

When you change your graphics card, you should always keep in mind that this must be installed in the first PCIE slot, as this will provide you with the bandwidth you need to function properly. Installing a high-end graphics card in a PCIE Gen3 x8 slot is proven to severely limit performance, so be careful.

Lastly, don’t forget secure additional power connectors well, since they are essential so that the graphics card can obtain the power it needs at all times, depending on the workload it is carrying out. A poorly fitted power connector can wreak havoc.