How to Install a Video Card
There comes a moment in every gamer’s life when his aging video card stops working. While your old card is to be commended over the years – and the two of you probably had a lot of fond memories – it’s time to let your friend live their days elsewhere and move on to something newer, faster, and much more expensive.
I recently made the jump myself, going from a 2015 Nvidia Geforce 980 Ti to a brand new Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080. It’s much easier to upgrade from an old card to a new card if it’s from the same manufacturer, and the process is a little more complicated if you switch between AMD and Nvidia. However, the physical setup is the same, which is what I’ll cover in this tutorial.
Removing your old video card from your computer
Your computer probably looks different from mine, but there are a few general steps you’ll want to take when upgrading an old graphics card to a new one. Turn off your computer first. Unplug the power supply and press the power button on the chassis to discharge the capacitors. For the purposes of this article, I also disabled everything else on my system and dragged the body into the corridor to get more beautiful photos:
If you have space under the table (or on top), you do not need to move the system. However, you need to disconnect whatever you have connected to your graphics card. Remove the site panel from your case and, before doing anything else, clean up the dust and debris you have allowed to remain inside your system. It only takes a few minutes and will help keep your computer nice and cool.
Disconnect the old card
You’ve already removed the HDMI, DisplayPort, or DVI cables from the back of the card – as awkward as it sounds. Now you will want to unplug its power cables, which is not very difficult to do. If you look at the inside of the case, you will see that the video card power cables are on the right side of the case. Press down on the small tab and separate them from the graphics card.
Unscrew the video card from the case
The video card is usually attached to the case with two screws on the left side. (If you didn’t follow this step when installing the card, you’re a monster or really enjoy living on the edge.) Assuming you didn’t use the thumb screws or they are too tight, grab a screwdriver and remove them. screws. Install them somewhere you know you won’t lose them.
Disconnect the graphics card from the motherboard
If you look at the top of the graphics card, you will likely see a small retention clip on the end of its PCI Express holder. It will look something like this:
And here’s what the entire PCI Express slot looks like without a video card:
This mechanism requires you to click on it only once in order to unlock the graphics card; you may also need to hold it while you carefully remove the graphics card from the PCI Express slot. This is usually a fairly straightforward process unless you have a system like mine, where the world’s most bulky CPU cooler closes the locking mechanism and makes it impossible to access it with your hands. This is how it looks from top to bottom:
In my case – an unintentional pun – I had to resort to pliers and the dexterity of a surgeon to gently push the locking mechanism:
With a little tinkering, I was finally able to unlock the video card and remove it:
Installing a new graphics card
Now that you have improved your skill in “removing a video card”, you will find that you have all the knowledge required to install a new video card. This is the same series of steps, only in reverse order.
First, get your new graphics card out of the box and – what’s important! – do not forget to remove all the plastic film that the manufacturer has attached to the card itself. Hard to miss, but you might not notice:
Then, gently insert the graphics card into the top-most PCI Express x16 slot on your motherboard – the same one used on your old graphics card. (This may change depending on your motherboard or graphics card configuration, but most people will likely use the top PCI Express x16 slot.)
Screw the card into the case using the screws (or thumb screws) that you hopefully haven’t lost before:
Finally, reconnect the power cables. If you need to connect both an 8-pin and a 6-pin cable, make sure you hold the first firmly (if it’s the kind of cable that can work as either a 6-pin or an 8-pin, thanks to this little dangling piece).
You can now reattach the chassis side panel, reconnect the HDMI / DisplayPort / DVI cable (s), reconnect the power supply, and turn on the computer to test out your new graphics card.
One final tip: if you are moving from one manufacturer to another ( AMD to Nvidia or vice versa), you need to make sure to uninstall all drivers that were used on the previous card and install the correct drivers for the new card. Even if you are switching to different cards from the same manufacturer, it is worth reinstalling the latest drivers. In my case, my new GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card comes with a USB-C port that initially confused Windows:
Reinstalling the latest Nvidia drivers (and choosing the “Clean Install” option while doing so) fixed this right away.
Bonus benchmarking
Whenever I make big changes to my system, I like to run some tests before and after the upgrade to see how much it changes. For graphics cards, it’s simple: you can run synthetic benchmarks (like 3D Mark), user-created benchmarks (like Superposition), or games with built-in testing modes (like Shadow of the Tomb Raider ). Earlier, I looked at several testing options , and they all deserve attention.
When you run your performance tests, make sure you keep the same settings between before and after runs — otherwise, of course, you won’t get a perfect comparison. Here’s what I ran to test my new graphics card:
Before
After