Will an AMD Radeon R9 290 Work on an HP h8-1120?

[Tomufin]

Hello. 

I made a post yesterday asking if my NVIDIA GTX 1050 TI would work on my Legacy motherboard. I concluded there would be no way to get it working on my PC unless I changed the motherboard (due to it being incompatible with my BIOS), which I have very little intention of doing, as I heard that it would be an extremely time-consuming, risky and difficult process when it comes to doing it with Pavilion towers. 

So I did a bit of searching on a replacement card and found this post by a user in a forum on Tom's Hardware. The motherboard described has the same processor and does not have UEFI BIOS, so I am assuming that it is similar to mine. 

So before I get my hopes up about this could I get clarification that this is indeed compatible with my motherboard (IPISB-CU (Carmel2))? 

Thanks so much and happy holidays!

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Greetings,

Welcome back to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

The h8-1120 will not run newer AMD or Nvidia graphics cards.

The newer graphics cards require a UEFI BIOS. The 1120 does not support a UEFI BIOS.

You would have to look at Nvidia 600 series graphics cards. Many Nvidia 600 cards require more power than the 300 Watt PSU HP has included in your PC. You need supplemental PCIe six and eight PSU connectors to power these graphics cards.

Sapphire (Link) was making some R7 and R9 (X) series AMD cards with a BIOS toggle switch so you could run this card on a Legacy BIOS. I have no idea if you can get these cards now.

This R9 290 (Link) has the Legacy BIOS option. Sapphire has four SKUs in the 290 series that will work on a Legacy BIOS.

You would still need to upgrade the HP factory PSU to install a Sapphire Legacy BIOS AMD card.

Regards

[Tomufin]

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You would still need to upgrade the HP factory PSU to install a Sapphire Legacy BIOS AMD card.

I actually already did upgrade my PSU to a 500W, but thank you for the suggestion for any future users reading this. 

Sapphire (Link) was making some R7 and R9 (X) series AMD cards with a BIOS toggle switch so you could run this card on a Legacy BIOS. I have no idea if you can get these cards now.

This R9 290 (Link) has the Legacy BIOS option. Sapphire has four SKUs in the 290 series that will work on a Legacy BIOS.

---

Thanks a million and happy holidays!

[Grzwacz]

Hi Tomufin,

You're very welcome.

Happy Holidays!

Regards

[Tomufin]

UPDATE FOR ANYONE READING THIS IN THE FUTURE

I have not yet purchased a Sapphire GPU but I have made a list of all the R9 Sapphire cards that have been shown to have dual-BIOS on their website (I don't think I included all of them but here is most of them).

                    R9 295X2 Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ R9 295X2 8G D5................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=7A5B671A-8C94-459E-98C5-9E5B03DE636D&lang=eng

                    R9 390X Series

-SAPPHIRE Tri-X Radeon™ R9 390X 8G D5.................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=D40475DB-8BD0-40F6-8C33-F12D63272AEC

                    R9 390 Series

-SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon™ R9 390 8G D5..................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=C436E37C-8A09-48B6-9F2B-F4AF86E377B6

                    R9 290X Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Tri-X R9 290X 4G D5 (and 8GB)...............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=640A98CD-0CF0-4191-B75C-CA2800111ADB

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Vapor-X R9 290X 4G D5 (and 8GB).............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=30FBA531-261D-412A-B0D1-61C8AC711B41

                    R9 290 Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Tri-X R9 290 4G D5..........................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=5458920E-5359-4004-B041-DFA58823AB9E

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Vapor-X R9 290 4G D5........................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=718897BF-E6D5-4C79-AA00-C1DC766ADF80

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Tri-X R9 290 4G D5 (New Edition)............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=D4AC4856-9166-4C37-A7D6-ECDD3EEB4C17

                    R9 285 Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ DUAL-X R9 285 2G D5..................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=206733C8-D4CB-4A61-B667-50B7563C7ECE&lang=eng

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ R9 285 2G D5 ITX Compact...........http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=E1D771C8-BC65-4F16-81C6-99EDD325595D&lang=eng

                    R9 280X Series

Every card  in this series features dual BIOS (5 cards)........http://www.sapphiretech.com/catapage_pd.asp?cataid=74&lang=eng

                    R9 280 Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Dual-X R9 280 3G D5.............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=C4D1B443-6105-4A63-85DE-1732CC9C443D&lang=eng

                    R9 270X Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Vapor-X R9 270X 2G D5.............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=DDB9DC4C-3C90-4DB3-A045-2372665A9FD3&lang=eng

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ TOXIC R9 270X 2G D5...................http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=299DEBCC-34CE-42D2-8D00-20C714B7009C&lang=eng

                     R9 270 Series

-SAPPHIRE Radeon™ Vapor-X R9 270 2G D5..............http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=DA758B2F-964E-4977-B067-D5E48E6D4C10&lang=eng

If I find any more I will edit this post. I believe there are many cards in the R7 series which also feature dual BIOS if you would like to check those out. After purchasing one of these cards I will create another update post to see if it worked with my system.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Tomufin,

Measure the distance from the rear back plates along the x16 slot where the new, possible, dual slot card will sit to make sure you have room.

Some of those dual fan cards and triple fan cards are lengthy.

This card (Link) is 12 inches long.

You have a micro ATX case. May HP cases max out around 10.5 inches in length.

Regards

[Tomufin]

Hi Gtzwacz,

I'll make sure to keep that in mind! 

Thanks.

[Tomufin]

Hi Grzwacz,

Another question: if there is room past the motherboard along where my graphics card goes, could I possibly have it overlap my motherboard (i.e. entend past it)? I measured the width of the motherboard from the back to be about 10.5 inches but the distance that I could get overlapping the motherboard adds another inch or two.

Thanks.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Tomufin,

The graphics card can extend beyond the MB.

Regards