Upgrading Aspire AX3960 desktop GPU

Hyudan

Hi guys,

I intent to upgrade the GPU, but due to the low power requirements and the mini ITX case I am pretty limited.

The PC has Nvidia GeForce GT 435M in it at the moment, 4 GB RAM DDR3, an Intel Core i7 2600 and supports a PCI Express x16.

I do not know what to buy, which is why I am asking here for advice.

I already tried to use the search function and came across https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/160741/upgrading-aspire-ax3960

but the thread has been already archived.

Does anyone have expertise with this case?

Thanks in advance

billsey

The Aspire X3960 originally came with Windows 7 and the 2nd generation Intel chipset/CPU. I believe it does not support a UEFI boot, since it was released before the switch was made. Check though to be sure, it might have been late enough in the Windows 7 to have shipped with sp1, which means it might have some early UEFI support. You need UEFI boot for most modern GPUs. Other than that, there are replacement power supplies that will give you 300W which is enough for some of the older GPU designs. You will need a thin, short card to fit, but those are doable...

You might want to think about a SSD instead of HDD, that will give more speed improvement than anything else you can do. Also be aware that two of the SATA ports are SATA 2, the other two are SATA 3, and SATA 2 is running at half the speed of SATA 3.