Upgrading GPU on an nearly 10 year old mainboard [Solved]

[Noax]

Hello,

I want to upgrade my nearly 10 year old system and try 4k gaming out.

I researched an little and came to conclusion that it "should be fine" to stick an PCIE 5.0 GPU in an PCIE 3.0 slot. And my CPU should also be "fine" for most 4k games. Especially because I dont game much AAA games. Indie games are in the most cases better.

Mainboard: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon
https://de.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GA ... cification

New GPU I want to try: AMD RX 9070xt
https://www.amd.com/de/products/graphic ... 070xt.html

As you can see below at the moment I have an GTX 1660 Super and my main question for this thread is: Will I be able to "integrate the new AMD GPU more or less seamlessly also driver wise in the MXLinux OS environment"?

I dont have any AMD experience and I only have now 5 months experience with MXLinux so I wanted to be more or less sure and asked you for advice. Also I want to switch from Nvidea to AMD because I think AMD should now be generally better then Nvidea and I cant utilise DLSS with Linux anymore.

This is at first only an idea and I would be also grateful for any kind of other suggestions hardware related. My experience in building an complete setup is also limited to only 1 PC. Its my other rig in my first thread here on your forum.

But for this I want to try to preserve the 6700k rig and get to 4k or atleast 2k. Hope that would be possible with an RX 9070xt and this mainboard... should be... I also will research more.

And I have an Corsair Vengeance 650M with 650W so atleast I can say the ca. 200w more of the GPU will be handled by it. Ca. 350W GPU + 100W CPU gives me a headroom of 200W for the peripherals (5x cooling fan, mouse etc.) Which should be fine I think but... Should I more care about voltage spikes?

Thank you very much for any kind of advice in advance.


Best regards
Noax

P.s. And that is the system in question hehe

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20250318_1840
System:
  Kernel: 6.12.17-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.12-22~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0
    intel_pstate=disable amd_pstate=disable BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12.17-1-liquorix-amd64
    root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash pcie_aspm=off
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto March 18  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: Z170A GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7A12) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.80 date: 05/03/2017
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-6700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S gen: core 6 level: v3
    note: check built: 2015 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x5E (94) stepping: 3
    microcode: 0xF0
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1184 high: 1700 min/max: 800/4001 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1700 2: 800 3: 1700 4: 1372 5: 1000 6: 800
    7: 1300 8: 800 bogomips: 63999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS; IBPB: conditional; STIBP: conditional; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: TSX disabled
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia
    v: 535.247.01 non-free: 530.xx+ status: current (as of 2023-03) arch: Turing code: TUxxx
    process: TSMC 12nm FF built: 2018-22 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:21c4 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
  Monitor-1: DP-0 pos: primary res: 1920x1080 hz: 144 dpi: 81 size: 600x340mm (23.62x13.39")
    diag: 690mm (27.15") modes: N/A
  Monitor-2: HDMI-0 size-res: N/A modes: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.247.01 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 1-13:5 alternate: snd_soc_avs chip-ID: 1532:0504
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 class-ID: 0300 chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: lanes: 16 bus-ID: 02:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:1aeb class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Razer USA Kraken 7.1 Chroma type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.17-1-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15b8 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.96 TiB used: 2.35 TiB (79.5%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 4B2QEXM7 temp: 36.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: CC26 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 750 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q
    scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 307.32 GiB size: 301.43 GiB (98.08%) used: 22.43 GiB (7.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 623.94 GiB size: 613.08 GiB (98.26%) used: 467.04 GiB (76.2%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C pch: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 36 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 43%
Repos:
  Packages: 2733 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2716 libs: 1510 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 17
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
  Processes: 286 Uptime: 56m wakeups: 1 Memory: 15.59 GiB used: 2.79 GiB (17.9%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[siamhie]

That card will need a minimum of a 750 watt power supply.
If you want to stick with the 650 watt power supply, you can check out the Radeon RX6700XT cards. Minimum of those is 650 watts.
They will have 12 GB GDDR6 RAM and a maximum display of 4K.

[Noax]

Thanks for the answer.

But I want to question your answer a bit: I looked through versus and I dont know if 80w less wattage make a difference. Price wise the 6700xt seems eeally lovely and research wise 4k gaming seems possible but... for an Idea I think I will swap out the rtx 3070 from my main rig and put there an RX 9070xt and put the rtx 3070 in here... that would be only 14w less tdp but with an I7 6700k with an tdp from 91W and an rtx 3070 with an tdp from 290w I should be surely fine with my Vengeance 650m PSU... or? What about the mysterious power spikes?

And these minimum requirements of PSU I red are only recommendations based on really new CPU's with tdp's over 200w...

https://www.corsair.com/de/de/p/psu/cp- ... -techspecs

https://versus.com/de/amd-radeon-rx-670 ... 1660-super

[siamhie]

You look at it from the perspective of the power requirements per GPU. They will all have a minimum wattage range.
GPU manufactures don't know what other components you have installed and want to make sure you get the full specs of their cards.

[DeepDayze]

Those nvidia RTX cards and the newer AMD cards require more power and it's also recommended to upgrade your PSU to handle the power draw as @siamhie stated. Also note that while PCIE 5.0 cards *may* be backwards compatible they WILL be slower due to the lower data transfer rate of the PCIe 3.0 standard.

As an aside, I would venture future PCIe standards most likely not be backwards compatible at some point to older PCIe standards.

[m_pav]

When a GPU says 650W minimum, its important to factor in the efficiency of the PSU. The Bronze, Silver, Gold or Titanium ratings are all set at the 80% of PSU's rated capacity and the Bronze will burn out much faster than the models with a higher Power Factor rating.

I have recently had 4 machines through my little business with PSU issues and all of them were EVGA brands, all of them less than 2 years old. With one specific machine the PC assembler from whom he purchased the unit cheaped out and fitted a Bronze rated PSU unit. The machine was always frequently pulling very close to 80% of the PSU's rated capacity and adding a later model of the game upped the GPU's power draw. It was not long before the PSU started failing, the machine encountered random errors which the owner thought was a virus so I sold him ESET but his machine was clean. Less than 2 months later, it all went pear shaped, the PSU's micro failures eventually caused a blowout and took out his motherboard. That was nearly 3 weeks ago and the machine is still witing to be reassembled due to the assembles less than perfect warranty process.

Moral of the story, do not cheap out on the PSU you choose. Where I live, the cost difference between a 650W Bronze vs a 650W Gold is a pathetic $30. Had the PC assembler opted to use a silver or gold rated PSU, then the likelihood of the dual failure would have been reduced significantly, and as it is, the futzing around with that supplier has been a cacophony of errors that is now into its 3rd week and the machine is still not reassembled.

[siamhie]

Moral of the story, do not cheap out on the PSU you choose.

+1

When I built my system at the beginning of 2022, I picked up the EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G+ 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular PSU and have had zero issues with it.

[Eadwine Rose]

I put a PSU in this computer that I KNEW I would never need all the power of. BUT just in case, if I happened to want to add something, I would never find it lacking. It is worth the few extra bucks.

[uncle mark]

Moral of the story, do not cheap out on the PSU you choose.

+1

When I built my system at the beginning of 2022, I picked up the EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G+ 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular PSU and have had zero issues with it.

Power requirements and specifications aside, back in the day when I did computer repairs as a side gig, the only hardware failure I ever dealt with on a regular basis was PSUs. If I'm building a rig or spec'ing one out nowadays, I'm going with a top of the line unit. The extra cost is well worth it.

[Noax]

Thank you all for your answers.

Then I think I will buy the same PSU I have on my main rig (https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info ... 92518.html). Little bit expensive but when I build an entire new computer and salvage this old rig then I can simply use it again so I dont think it will be a waste.

So I want to try out the RX 9070xt first on this older rig and gather experience if this would be 4k playable and later on the line in an few years I will ditch the 6700k and build an new PC.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Now one of the last qeustions for this thread: When I swap my gtx 1660 super over to the RX9070xt how will MXLinux "see" the hardware? Should I swap to the 6.13.8-4 kernel before swapping the PSU and GPU or will I be "fine" without much software tampering? I saw AMD has an Linux installer but... would I need to download any external stuff? Or is the support in the AHS repo I am using and the 6.12.17-1 Liquorix kernel already there for the hardware in qeustion?

Again thank you all for your help :-)