I have a PC that I got from someone else who built their PC and it is finally starting to show its age. Sometimes when I open applications, the frame rate drops.

I think it is using one of these currently, from 2014. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/900-series/

I know that gfx cards have to be compatible with your Power Supply, and your PCI-E slot, but not sure what else I should know??

I would like to get something very compatible with Linux, Firefox, and Wayland, with lots of hardware codecs. Intel ARC?

How do you learn all this stuff?

  • Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world
    20·
    2 days ago

    Step 1. Create 2 reddit accounts

    Step 2. Post the question in the builds sub

    Step 3. Answer it yourself with whatever you think is best. Make sure you’re very confident it’s the best solution and nobody could come up with a better one

    Step 4. Rejoice at the flock of tryhards that will down vote your reply to hell while fighting each other for the actual best answer

    Step 5. Choose whichever comment wins.

    Edit: but to answer your question: The stuttering while opening applications isn’t from that GPU. It can game mostly fine at 1080p medium to low.

    Either you need more RAM (16gb minimum these days) or your CPU is showing its age first, which I’m gonna guess is an Intel i5 4000 series or maybe 7000 series.

    Post the rest of the specs and we can all fight each other for the best answer here.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Thanks, that would probably attract attention lol. I was looking at System Monitor when the stuttering happens and I didn’t see a big CPU spike, but I am at a loss.

      # System Details Report (Copied from Ubuntu System Information)  
---  

## Report details  
- **Date generated:**                              2026-02-05 12:03:11  

## Hardware Information:  
- **Hardware Model:**                              Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z77X-UD3H  
- **Memory:**                                      16.0 GiB  
- **Processor:**                                   Intel® Core™ i7-3770K × 8  
- **Graphics:**                                    Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)  
- **Graphics 1:**                                  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980  
- **Disk Capacity:**                               128.0 GB  

## Software Information:  
- **Firmware Version:**                            F20e  
- **OS Name:**                                     Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS  
- **OS Build:**                                    (null)  
- **OS Type:**                                     64-bit  
- **GNOME Version:**                               46  
- **Windowing System:**                            X11  
- **Kernel Version:**                              Linux 6.14.0-37-generic

      EDIT:

      • Toes♀@ani.social
        2·
        2 days ago

        3rd gen i7 platform will be your major bottleneck.

        If the prices for ram weren’t insane right now I’d suggest a whole new build depending on what games you’re hoping to play.

        Don’t go with ARC as it’s not compatible with that motherboard. You need resizable bar support and ideally an x8 pcie gen4 lane or better.

        Since you’re rocking Linux I would suggest sticking to AMD graphics.

        What PSU are you using and games/software would you like to run better?

        The 980 is pretty good for most purposes outside of modern games.

        I’d suggest a new SSD and redoing the thermal paste on the cpu. Clean up the dust too.

        • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Thanks, I didn’t know that x8 pcie was a thing now… also resizable bar support – something else to research.

          I cleaned up the dust and I haven’t noticed those “jerky cursor” problems for a bit, so hopefully that was it. It wasn’t even that much dust, so we’ll see how long 'til the system does it again. I am not trying to play any specific games, just trying to use the OS, file picker, etc., without lag.

          The PSU is a Corsair TX750

          I would like a linux desktop that “just works” ™ when I upgrade, but doesn’t have to play heavy games or pull heavy workloads. I thought a steam machine might be a decent choice for that, but hopefully this desktop has a few more years left in it.

          • Toes♀@ani.social
            2·
            2 days ago

            jerky cursor” problems

            Are you using the nvidia drivers and have your monitor connected to the gpu?

            The 980 should be more than capable of a fully functional desktop experience, so after cleaning the dust it may have just been a heating issue.

            • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              I am using the nvidia proprietary drivers, and had to use prime-select to set them to default. I am guessing it was just a heating issue! It looks like I should add dusting it out to the regular preventative maintenance schedule. I am hoping to not have to mess with the thermal paste.

              I have two monitors set up – one is connected to the discrete gpu, the other is connected to the integrated gpu. They are both using DVI to HDMI cables.

      • Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 days ago

        It’s not always the utilization percentage that tells the whole story.

        You’re a bit out of luck as far as upgrades go for that platform, but if you have 1 stick of RAM and get another one you’ll feel a difference.

        • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          All 4 slots are taken by DIMMs (is that the right term) unfortunately. 4 Memory Sticks.

          Can you think of a way to identify what could be causing the system to thrash (? is that the right term)?

          I did clean the dust out, and I haven’t noticed any problems since then. It wasn’t really that much dust. But maybe that was it!

          • Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 day ago

            1. Windows Update. If the thing was off for a while, expect windows update to cripple it until it’s satisfied.

            2. Slow boot drive. If it’s an older SSD it might be kicking the bucket soon. Also, if your boot drive is over 90% usage you’ll definitely feel it.

            3. RAM issues. Download RAMMon (free RAM checking tool) and let us know what you see

            4. Thermals. If your CPU hits 90+ degrees then it’ll have to throttle down to save itself. Cleaning the dust helps a lot with that because dust is an insulator and traps heat in.

            • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
              1·
              1 day ago

              The drive is very full and old, so upgrading storage has got to be a priority.

              Not sure how to measure thermals, but I will look for a way. There should be a CPU temp sensor at least.

              I can test the ram with memtest86 which is already installed and post the results.

              I don’t think it is Windows Update ;)

  • lavacake1111@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    Frame rate drops when opening applications.

    • This might be because your i7 is showing its age. Not entirely your gfx (or GPU) card. I suggest you clean your case and fans for dust and try cleaning the old thermal paste on the CPU as well.

    For compatibility with your Power Supply and PCI-E slot.

    • There’s not much to worry about here. You are rocking a GTX 980 so I would assume that your current PC has a Power Supply of at least 450 watts. Now, you want an Intel Arc A310. Don’t do that. I mean, you can but I suggest you don’t do so for the simple reason that you are replacing a 4 GB card with another 4 GB card. Also the PCI-E slot will be just fine. My concern would shift to the PC case that you currently use (the new GPU card might be too big for it).

    Compatible with Linux, Firefox, and Wayland, with lots of hardware codecs. Intel ARC?

    • You can go with Arc B580 (12 GB) if you want to go with the Intel route or
    • AMD RX 9060 XT (16 GB).
    • Both are compatible with Linux and mostly share the same dimensions with your GTX 980.
    • Stay away from Nvidia cards for Linux compatibility.

    How do you learn all this stuff?

    • Let’s just say I had my fair share of making a smoke machine with my PC.
    • Try looking up videos on PC building guide. They usually explain things like compatibility, what do these numbers mean, etc.

    Why go nuts with Arc B580 or RX 9060 XT?

    • Why not? These are fairly recent GPUs and should handle most of your needs daily driver-wise or gaming-wise. I wouldn’t worry much about your processor it will still do its job. And having a much bigger VRAM with your GPU is always always a priority over lanes or interfaces (entirely different issue - story for another time) or even your CPU.
  • bryndos@fedia.io
    8·
    2 days ago

    If you can identify the specific model of your graphics card and motherboard as accurately as possible that’ll help. I’d guess 900 series has a wide variation in power use and performance.

    In linux you’d be able to go into shell and run lspci |grep -i vga or lspci |grep -i nvidia

    In this case lspci is a command to " list pci devices" On it’s own that might give you a long list of sound, usb, network etc devices, so we “pipe” the output using ‘|’ into the grep command. grep will filter by text pattern. the ‘-i’ makes it case insensitive search and ‘vga’ or ‘invidia’ is the sequence of characters to filter by.

    Alternatively most desktop environments will have a gui option like “info centre” in kde. Windows will probably have something too if you only have that, unless the’yre replaced it with coprolite trying to guess the answer.

    For motherboard and PSU (power supply unit) you might need to open it up and look for labels or text on manufacturer and model. For the motherboard, you really just need to know what type of pci it has but getting the manual online will be best.

    For the PSU you need to know power rating in Watts and maybe “efficiency rating” usually as some metallic rating like gold, silver, bronze. The manufacturer helps determine how reliable the ratings are.

    If you go inside you may want a torch, a compressed air can, a dust mask, to be outside. and/or a gentle vacuum cleaner (with a mesh or filter or tissue over the end just in case). or duster or toothbrush or something. If you’ve a nice clean environment that may all be no big deal, but if you have household dust, there can be a lot of build up in there over 12 years. Best not to breathe too much of that in.

    To learn more there are loads of webshites and videos. I’d search for terms like "diy build pc ". try to focus on low power or low to mid price to avoid lots of crap top end bullshit. Look at some from back in the day. they should go step by step through components, and how they are installed and connected.

    I’d say try explainingcomputers.com - this is both webpage and links to youtube.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Thank you for the link to explaining computers – I’ll check it out!

      $ lspci |grep -i vga 
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation IvyBridge GT2 [HD Graphics 4000] (rev 09)  
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 980] (rev a1)

      For motherboard, it appears to be this Gigabyte . I found this command online: dmidecode

      $ sudo dmidecode -t 2  
# dmidecode 3.5  
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.  
SMBIOS 2.7 present.  

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes  
Base Board Information  
        Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.  
        Product Name: Z77X-UD3H  
        Version: x.x  
        Serial Number: To be filled by O.E.M.  
        Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M.  
        Features:  
                Board is a hosting board  
                Board is replaceable  
        Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M.  
        Chassis Handle: 0x0003  
        Type: Motherboard  
        Contained Object Handles: 0

      I will try to figure out the PSU soon. EDIT: Corsair TX750

  • olosta@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 days ago

    I’m a bit surprised an Nvidia 9x0 would struggle for web browsing. On a PC this old I would first check other things before swapping the GPU:

    • Is it clean? Physically clean? Restricted air flow can make your CPU throttle down to avoid getting too hot.
    • Is the operating system on an SSD or a spinning disk? I’m sure prices are insane nowadays but a small data SSD just for the OS will dramatically improve performance.
    • How much RAM do you have? Again, prices are not good right now, but 8GiB is the minimum to run a modern desktop+browser.
    • Do you have the proprietary drivers installed? I haven’t touched an Nvidia GPU on Linux in a long time, but I would expect those to be basically mandatory for a smooth experience.

    As for the GPU, if you are not gaming on big modern titles, anything released in the last ten years should be enough. I had a good experience with AMD over this era for out of the box Linux compatibility, but I can’t say much about codecs, I never had issues and never bothered to check.

    Intel is probably good enough also.

    Another thing to consider is maybe your CPU has a built-in GPU, I use low/mid-range Intel CPU from this era without a discrete GPU as an HTPC and it performs fine.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      It doesn’t struggle with web browsing per se., just with opening and closing windows mostly. I just experienced it – I open the file browser, the system hangs for a moment or two where I can’t move the mouse. Then the mouse jerks around for a bit. Then the system is smooth again. I looked in System Monitor right after this happened and didn’t see any big spikes in storage, CPU, or memory, so I am assuming GPU.

      It is probably not physically clean. I should address that first.

      It is running on a Samsung SSD 830 series. I tried enabling write cache. I ran into the system stuttering problem (described above) clicking ‘cancel’ on a random dialog.

      I have had a lot of problems with codecs, and video playback being choppy everywhere, which is why I am focused on getting good hardware codecs that are supported under linux.

      The CPU/motherboard definitely does have a built-in iGPU. I think I could try it out with prime-select. Maybe that is worth experimenting.

  • Phil Nelson@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 days ago

    PCPartPicker is great for this. It will do a sanity check on your existing parts and show only compatible GPUs.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      That is a good point! I am thinking it is a regular full size ATX? But I’ll try to find a model name and search it.

      • FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        2·
        2 days ago

        I’m talking about the max length of the card you can fit. Almost all modern cards are longer than an ATX board, that’s not standard AFAIK.

        Also some are too wide but that’s rare.

        • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Oh wow ok. I am not finding any other standards to look up – I guess you just have to measure with a tape measure to see what clearance is there in the case.

          I couldn’t visualize how it could be compatible with ATX but also longer, but I found this site with a helpful image. https://www.cgdirector.com/gpu-clearance-explained/

          The distance from the pins to the edge of the case is the same, but the distance the other way to the “inside edge” of the gfx card varies widely!

          image

          Thanks for the advice!

          • FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            1·
            1 day ago

            You got it right !

            You can indeed use a tape measure to get the distance from the ports to the end of the card or use the specs of your case as they’re listed on most pc component websites, like I did.

            You do have to know which case model you do have to use these websites, though.

  • dracs@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    It’d help to know what motherboard you’ve got currently. CPU-Z (or CPU-X if you’re on Linux already) can give you that information.

    AMD I find to be the best of out of the box Linux support. What are your use cases? Gaming, web browsing, etc.

    As for your power supply, you should be able to find a model number on it to see if it’d support the new card. Some new cards require newer connectors (though adapters are available). The other consideration is power output. Can it supply enough power to the new card along side your other components. There’s a power supply calculator you can use to see if the demand will exceed the supply.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I posted the system specs here . Apologies if this is not the right way to link to something on the threadiverse. Fun thing, while I was typing this, the system hung for a sec, and then all the letters appeared really quick.