Commonly Asked Questions
The Info You’re After
How to install a graphics card?
Safety Attention:
1.Static electricity will seriously damage the electronic components on the graphics card. Please try to avoid unnecessary contact with the parts on the graphics card. When you are installing a graphics card, please touch the metal conductive object with your hand first to ensure that your body does not carry static electricity. It is best to wear anti-static gloves.
2.It is easy to cause damage during loading and transportation. When you find that the graphics card is obviously damaged, do not turn on the power.
3.When you install or uninstall the graphics card, please turn off the computer first.
4.Dust, humidity and high temperature will affect the service life of the graphics card, so please try to avoid placing it in these places.
5.The installation pictures shown in this manual are for reference only and may vary from the actual ones, if you have any technical questions, please contact the official E-mail contact@saplosgc.com for help.
Auxiliary Tools:
1. Cross-screwdriver: This can be used to do most of the installation. Choose one with a magnetic head would be better.
2. Pliers: This can be used to pull out the power connectors or remove the brackets.
3. Rubber gloves: This can prevent you from being incised and suffering the static charge.
Uninstall existing graphics card
If you are installing an old machine, and the old machine has installed a discrete graphics card, you must uninstall the existing driver before installing the new graphics card.
1. In the Windows operating system, right-click the "Start" button and select "Device Manager". Select your existing graphics card driver in the "Display Adapter" column, and then select "Uninstall Device".
2. Turn off the computer and disconnect the power, open the computer case, and remove the existing graphics card.
Install the graphics card
1. Turn off the power and remove the case of your computer. Remove the bracket which may obstruct your Graphics card.
2. Put the card directly over the PCI EXPRESS slot and press one end of the card into the slot first. Gently but firmly press the other end until it is fully seated in the slot. Secure the card with a bracket screw.
3. If the graphics card has a 6pin / 8pin external power interface, plug the power cable in the computer's power supply to the external power interface of the graphics card.
4. Reinstall the casing of your machine, lock the screws, and connect the display device that supports VGA / DVI / HDMI / DP / Type-C interface transmission to the graphics card.
5. Reconnect the power cable and start the computer.
How to set up display after installing?
System display setting adjustment
1.After the graphics card driver is installed, you can right-click a blank area on the desktop and select "Display settings" to open the system display settings interface.
2.In this interface, you can view the currently used display resolution and display direction. You can change the display resolution, display direction, etc. on this interface.
3. Click "Advanced display settings" at the bottom of the interface to open the advanced display settings, and you will see the information of the current display device.
Multiple monitors display setting
Make sure your cables are connected properly to the new monitors, then press Windows logo key + P to select a display option. If you need more help, here's what to do:
1.Select Start > Settings > System > Display. Your PC should automatically detect your monitors and show your desktop. If you don't see the monitors, select Detect.
2.In the Multiple displays section, select an option from the list to determine how your desktop will display across your screens.
3.Once you've selected what you see on your displays, select Keep changes.
You can change the resolution of your displays. However, we suggest using the recommended resolution to get the most out of your displays.
The new installed graphics card is not detected or the monitor shows a black screen and the GPU doesn`t work?
There are multiple possible reasons why your GPU isn’t being detected, this guide will help you solve the issue:
1. Check hardware: check that the graphics card is intact and installed correctly and the power cables are properly plugged in the GPU.
2. Enabling the graphics card: go to Device Manager, find your GPU, and check if it’s disabled. By clicking on your GPU, you can also choose ‘Enable device’.
3. Reinstall the GPU driver: carefully examine your GPU model and download the correct driver after removing the mistakenly installed one. This issue can also occur if the latest driver is incompatible with another component inside the PC or the operation system, then you may need to download the previous version of the drive to make the GPU work.
4. BIOS/UEFI setting: UEFI is a successor to BIOS and we will refer to UEFI as BIOS. You can use the integrated GPU to access BIOS. BIOS will detect your discrete GPU and you can simply enable it by changing its status from disabled. You can also try to adjust the PCIe Gen in BIOS to solve the issue.
5. Check PSU: check if your PSU has enough power to handle your GPU’s highest demands. As a general rule, the GPU’s base power use is at roughly 40% of your PSU’s power capability, which allows the option of it using 50% of the available power when performing heavy-duty operations.
If you still haven’t been able to find the problem, try to remove the GPU and test it on a different PC that you are sure works. If the GPU works there, it’s likely that there is a problem with other hardware in your system. It could be your motherboard, RAM, PSU, or even CPU and you have to replace the broken hardware to make your GPU work.
Why my GPU usage drops to 0 during gameplay?
A drop in GPU usage translates to low performance or what’s referred to as FPS in games. This is because the GPU is not working at maximum capacity. it may be due to one or a couple of the following:
• Video driver issue: Having the latest drivers isn’t always the best. Your graphics card might even suffer for it. If you have the latest graphics card drivers installed, it might still malfunction. When it does, it’s possible to roll back to previous drivers.
• Bottleneck: it means that you have an under-powered CPU that can’t keep up with your graphics card performance, you’ll need a better processor to fit your gaming PC.
• GPU overheating: Once you overclock on your graphics card beyond what it can take, the GPU cooler won’t be able to keep up with the temperature. As such, it will overheat and throttle down to lower clock speeds. What you can do is reduce or stop the overclock and keep the temperature under normal working levels specified by the brand.
• Game-related issues: A lot of games depend on the CPU, especially if they have bad optimization. This ultimately leads to very low GPU usage. It can’t be fixed unless you install patches or fixes released by the game developers.
• Power supply issues: Having an underpowered PSU or a faulty 6-pin/8-pin PCIe connector contributes to GPU power drops. The power supply will fail to transmit enough power to your graphics card and CPU. A good power supply, especially for your gaming system, is very important.
• SLI/CrossFire issue: Your HB SLI Bridge can reset, or you can replace it with a new one. Another solution is to install the latest video drivers or roll back to previous video card drivers. Again, you can disable the SLI/CrossFire for that particular game. Further, you can attempt to switch from Rendering Mode to Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR). This can help to maximize GPU usage and stop any GPU drops to 0mh/s.