Time to upgrade to a new graphics card? This task may seem challenging at first, but, actually, you can easily install a new graphics card on your PC yourself.
In this article, we give you a simple step-by-step guide on how to install and set up a new video card on a Windows 10 PC.
How to install a new graphics card?
The first thing you will need to do is make sure that your computer hardware supports the graphics card you are about to install. In order to do that, you will need to open up your computer case. Here’s how to proceed:
- Turn off your computer and disconnect all cables and connected devices.
- Unfasten the screws on the side panel.
- Once you’ve removed the screws, remove the side panel.
Now that you have your computer case open, here are the things you should pay attention to:
Check your computer’s power supply
A powerful graphics card may be quite energy-consuming. In this case, you will need to make sure that your computer’s power supply is strong enough to support the new graphics card:
check the power requirements for your graphics card, locate the power supply unit inside your PC and see how much power it is capable of supplying.
If your power supply unit is not strong enough to support your new graphics card, you will need to either upgrade your power unit or choose a less-demanding graphics card.
Check your computer’s motherboard
Next, check if your graphics card is compatible with your motherboard: locate your motherboard and see if it has PCI Express x16 slots available for connecting to your graphics card. If you plan to use multiple graphics cards, naturally, your motherboard needs to have enough slots to support the number of graphics card you intend to use.
Make sure there is enough space inside your PC case
Another thing to check for is that there should be enough free space inside your computer’s case to fit your new graphics card. If your computer’s case is small, it is strongly recommended you replace it with a bigger one so as to ensure there is enough ventilation inside the case.
Install the graphics card
To install your new graphics card, follow the steps below:
- Turn off your computer and disconnect all the attached devices.
- Unfasten the screws from the side panel of your system unit and remove the cover.
- Locate and remove your old graphics card (if you have one).
- Once you have removed the old card, plug the new graphics card into the main PCI Express x16 slot (the main slot is usually the one closest to the CPU).
- Secure the graphics card in place with screws. Make sure to check the top edge of your graphics card to see if it has a power connector — in this case, it will require an individual power supply.
- Put back the side panel of your computer case.
- Attach the video cable from your new graphics card to your PC monitor. Make sure your graphics card’s cables are compatible with the video ports on your monitor. If you find out that your ports are not compatible, consider getting a video output adapter.
- Connect all the needed external devices you had to unplug before the installation.
Now that you have completed the hardware part of the installation, you can turn on your computer.
Install the driver for your graphics card
Now you will need to install the driver for your graphics card — you can do that easily following the instructions on the software CD that came with your graphics card.
Note that once you’ve installed your graphics card driver, you will need to keep it regularly updated to ensure the smooth operation of your graphics as well as the whole system in general. You can update the drivers manually — but this can prove to be a rather complex and time-consuming process. You can make things easier for yourself by installing specialized driver-updating software like Auslogics Driver Updater that will take on the task of updating your system drivers to the latest manufacturer-recommended versions.
How often do you update your system drivers? Share in the comments below.
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