GPU No Work, Help Make GPU work?

[Oblithian]

The Context:
My father has an old 32 bit windows XP PC which he has kept (and will continue to keep [in a vaguely horder-esque manner, but with absolute certainty is definitely not at all horder like behaviour. I am sure you understand]).

So as the youths say (though hopefully in a less disturbing and more humorous way) I have decided to embark on the rather questionable endeavour of Hagmaxing this PC as a gift for Christmas. I will be taking it in stages, and am starting with the GPU (to better identify/resolve issues and to track relative performance gains)

The Problems:
I bought up a used MSI GeForce GTX 680, and the newest and most powerful CPU that will reportedly run on the motherboard. The first thing I noticed was that GPU-Z said it was manufactured by EVGA not MSI as the casing and listing states. Is this a normal issue for GPU-Z to output the incorrect manufacturer? I was unable to find information on if the internet about authenticating it. Is there a good way to confirm which board partner actually made it? (I assume the stickers may not be reliable if the cover isn’t).

Solutions?
Nvidia has drivers for the 680, as does MSI, and likely EVGA. Online they suggest I use Nvidia. However, when I install the driver it reduces the resolution on the output HDMI from max native, down to 480 . It has been a while since I last had a resolution issue, if you have any suggestions please let me know.

[RotaryJunkie]

Generally not “normal” for GPU-Z to misidentify a GPU manufacturer; the more likely scenario is that someone flashed it with an EVGA VBIOS.

Dropping resolution on intial driver install doesn’t strike me as all that abnormal from back in the day; I seem to recall more than a few occasions where I had to sort of “fight” things to reapply a more sane-for-display resolution setting… Unless you mean that it’s locking out display settings to /only/ 640x480, in which case I’d look at Device Manager and see what’s what there.