How to determine what motherboard I have

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08-24-2013, 12:08 PM
mythicrose

How to determine what motherboard I have

Anyone able to give me tips for discovering what my motherboard is? In essence, I'm trying to upgrade from an AMD Radeon 5670 card to a likely Radeon 7850 or 7870. All I can find is Bios version A09. My power supply is sufficient for the newer cards.

I have two PCI express x16 connectors (164 pin connectors) and two PCI express x1 connectors (36 pin connectors).

Windows 7, 64 bit OS
08-24-2013, 12:09 PM
Arikaen

if you know the connectors the motherboard doesn't matter and you can search for video cards using the pci connector types.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0Express%20x16

heres some youll be able to upgrade to

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20Express%20x1

and some more depending on which connector you use. In the first link the 7750 is the highest you can go
08-24-2013, 12:09 PM
CatofNineTails

what operating system?

nvm here is a page with a link to a tool which can find it for you.

http://superuser.com/questions/519735/in-windows-8-how-do-i-find-out-my-motherboards-manufacturer-and-model
08-24-2013, 12:18 PM
mythicrose

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arikaen

if you know the connectors the motherboard doesn't matter and you can search for video cards using the pci connector types.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0Express%20x16

heres some youll be able to upgrade to

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20Express%20x1

and some more depending on which connector you use. In the first link the 7750 is the highest you can go

Thanks. If you don't mind explaining, why can't I go for the 7850 if it and the 7750 both use PCI 3.0 x16 connectors?
08-24-2013, 12:19 PM
Arikaen

Quote:

Originally Posted by mythicrose

Thanks. If you don't mind explaining, why can't I go for the 7850 if it and the 7750 both use PCI 3.0 x16 connectors?

if you have pci 3x16 then yeah you can go with that but in your initial post you said pic x16 not pci 3.0 x 16.

also use this site it should help when choosing. I go between newegg.com and this benchmark site to determine what graphcs card to get.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
08-24-2013, 12:22 PM
mythicrose

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arikaen

if you have pci 3x16 then yeah you can go with that but in your initial post you said pic x16 not pci 3.0 x 16.

I guess that's where my confusion is. Both cards say pci 3.0 x 16. So I need to find a plain pci x16. Thanks!
08-24-2013, 12:30 PM
Zanthred

If your ports are PCIe 1.0 x16 you will be maxing out the bandwith lanes with lots of the 7xxx series cards. If you have a PCIe 2.0 x16 then you should be fine. All PCIe 3.0 graphics cards are backwards compatible to 1.0 / 2.0 for the most part.
08-24-2013, 12:32 PM
MynxLynx

For future reference you can use this utility and it'll give you manufacturer/model info on your mainboard and CPU,

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

They have a version that is a zip file if you don't like a self extracting executable.
08-24-2013, 12:34 PM
Zanthred

Quote:

Originally Posted by MynxLynx

For future reference you can use this utility and it'll give you manufacturer/model info on your mainboard and CPU,

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

They have a version that is a zip file if you don't like a self extracting executable.

I can vouch for this program also. Its a very lightweight program to get info on PC internal including clock speed / temps.
08-24-2013, 12:37 PM
mythicrose

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanthred

I can vouch for this program also. Its a very lightweight program to get info on PC internal including clock speed / temps.

Thanks. I'll try it out. AMD says my current 5670s use pci 2.1 x16.
08-24-2013, 12:55 PM
mythicrose

Quote:

Originally Posted by MynxLynx

For future reference you can use this utility and it'll give you manufacturer/model info on your mainboard and CPU,

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

They have a version that is a zip file if you don't like a self extracting executable.

I went to the site...got a whole of junk with that program. I'm now reverting to a prior system backup as things are rather screwy on my system.
08-24-2013, 01:05 PM
Zanthred

Quote:

Originally Posted by mythicrose

I went to the site...got a whole of junk with that program. I'm now reverting to a prior system backup as things are rather screwy on my system.

Thats should not have happened at all. I have downloaded this program many times over the past few years and have had no issues. Either way if you have a PCIe 2.1 x16 you should have able to max out all but 1 or two cards on the market. So you should not need to worry about running into comparability issues.
08-24-2013, 01:09 PM
MynxLynx

Quote:

Originally Posted by mythicrose

I went to the site...got a whole of junk with that program. I'm now reverting to a prior system backup as things are rather screwy on my system.

Sorry, did you download the .exe or the zip file? I usually recommend the zip version, my folder only has four files in it. What type of junk are you referring to?

I agree with Zanthred, you shouldn't have any problems with newer cards, and if you had problems with cpu-z just forget about using it. I suggested it because many PC enthusiasts have been using it for a long time, myself included.
08-24-2013, 01:16 PM
mythicrose

Quote:

Originally Posted by MynxLynx

Sorry, did you download the .exe or the zip file? I usually recommend the zip version, my folder only has four files in it. What type of junk are you referring to?

Zip file. The program attempted to change my browser page and added two other applications (one appeared to be an internet gaming application, couldn't determine what the other did). I removed everything and reverted to an earlier system backup as a safety precaution. I'm by no means accusing you of sending me to a bad site, so don't worry!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanthred

Thats should not have happened at all. I have downloaded this program many times over the past few years and have had no issues. Either way if you have a PCIe 2.1 x16 you should have able to max out all but 1 or two cards on the market. So you should not need to worry about running into comparability issues.

That's great to know. So long as I just go with a single 7000s series I won't have to upgrade my PSU or anything else. It was just the PCI connectors that were throwing me for a loop. I appreciate everyone's help!
08-24-2013, 02:52 PM
Cikala

Quote:

Originally Posted by mythicrose

Zip file. The program attempted to change my browser page and added two other applications (one appeared to be an internet gaming application, couldn't determine what the other did). I removed everything and reverted to an earlier system backup as a safety precaution. I'm by no means accusing you of sending me to a bad site, so don't worry!

This made me curious, so I downloaded the zip file and ran the program to see. No issues. I can't help but wonder if you actually clicked on something else mistakenly? If you are sure you clicked on the right link (says '1.66 zip, english' on the right side of the page), then I'm concerned you may have some kind of malware on your computer. You might consider looking into scanning your system with MalwareBytes.