Graphics card ~ £50- 100? worth getting?
Discussion
Is it worth getting a cheap ~ £50--100 graphics card for a £500 desktop I bought last year for my teenage son. It doesn't have any graphics card at the moment, 8G RAM, small SSD and bigger HDD from HP.
He's not THAT into gaming, but is doing computer studies at school and keen to upgrade. Opened it up and it has 2 sticks of 4G RAM, So will need 2 sticks of 8G to upgrade. Any low end graphics card worth considering. Also the PSU probably wont have much surplus so don't want a better, more expensive graphics card.
He's not THAT into gaming, but is doing computer studies at school and keen to upgrade. Opened it up and it has 2 sticks of 4G RAM, So will need 2 sticks of 8G to upgrade. Any low end graphics card worth considering. Also the PSU probably wont have much surplus so don't want a better, more expensive graphics card.
wong said:
Is it worth getting a cheap ~ £50--100 graphics card for a £500 desktop I bought last year for my teenage son. It doesn't have any graphics card at the moment, 8G RAM, small SSD and bigger HDD from HP.
He's not THAT into gaming, but is doing computer studies at school and keen to upgrade. Opened it up and it has 2 sticks of 4G RAM, So will need 2 sticks of 8G to upgrade. Any low end graphics card worth considering. Also the PSU probably wont have much surplus so don't want a better, more expensive graphics card.
More than likely not. What make/model is it?He's not THAT into gaming, but is doing computer studies at school and keen to upgrade. Opened it up and it has 2 sticks of 4G RAM, So will need 2 sticks of 8G to upgrade. Any low end graphics card worth considering. Also the PSU probably wont have much surplus so don't want a better, more expensive graphics card.
The PC will currently have a graphics chipset otherwise it wouldn't be able to display anything, just not a 'gaming' capable one.
If he's desperate to play Cyberpunk 2077 he's gonna have a bad time, but most of the games I dip into are old and worked just as well on a GTX 960 as they do on vastly more powerful stuff now.
Something like a GTX 960 should be 50-80 quid ish, a bit more for a 980, and will be light years ahead of what the computer can do now. That's if it has the relevant holes and plumbing for a separate card.
Something like a GTX 960 should be 50-80 quid ish, a bit more for a 980, and will be light years ahead of what the computer can do now. That's if it has the relevant holes and plumbing for a separate card.
wong said:
It's an HP small desktop with an AMD Ryzen CPU ~ £500 bought 1 year ago (Xmas pressie). It just uses the CPU for graphics at the moment.
If it's a small chassis then check inside to see what sort of space is available for a GPU. You'll most likely find it may have to be a 'half-height' card and there may be clearance issues for fans/heatsinks.What's the model no of the PC?
Funk said:
If it's a small chassis then check inside to see what sort of space is available for a GPU. You'll most likely find it may have to be a 'half-height' card and there may be clearance issues for fans/heatsinks.
What's the model no of the PC?
Its officially "Small Form Factor" - sort of one size down from full size tower. (Didn't think that a Graphics card might be physically too big if it is not a full size tower.) What's the model no of the PC?
The Device name is "Desktop J3EOU3U" - which doesn't bring anything up on Google.
AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with Radeon Graphics 3.70GHz
Probably not. The whole point of those AMD APUs as they are called is that the built in graphics aren't much worse than a cheap dedicated graphics card.
If you are fussed about graphics performance, do make a point of buying faster rather than slower memory, as it is the graphics memory for the APU.
If you are fussed about graphics performance, do make a point of buying faster rather than slower memory, as it is the graphics memory for the APU.
wong said:
Funk said:
If it's a small chassis then check inside to see what sort of space is available for a GPU. You'll most likely find it may have to be a 'half-height' card and there may be clearance issues for fans/heatsinks.
What's the model no of the PC?
Its officially "Small Form Factor" - sort of one size down from full size tower. (Didn't think that a Graphics card might be physically too big if it is not a full size tower.) What's the model no of the PC?
The Device name is "Desktop J3EOU3U" - which doesn't bring anything up on Google.
AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with Radeon Graphics 3.70GHz
And unfortunately nothing you could put in it will honestly make much of a performance difference - anything powerful would need power from a PSU (the PSU in these can't do that) and these are really office machines, they're not designed for gaming (or much upgrading to be frank).
TonyRPH said:
OP I think you have the model number wrong.
Is it a 'Prodesk' or 'Elitedesk'? Is of it's likely to be a model 405 or 805.
OP has given the PC name, not the model no. It's fine; saying it's SFF was enough to narrow it down to either the Pro/EliteDesk so then my comment above still stands...Is it a 'Prodesk' or 'Elitedesk'? Is of it's likely to be a model 405 or 805.
TonyRPH said:
Funk said:
OP has given the PC name, not the model no. It's fine; saying it's SFF was enough to narrow it down to either the Pro/EliteDesk so then my comment above still stands...
I wasn't challenging your comment - I was just curious as to exactly what the OP has.I agree with you that if it's the M01 case it'll take a full size GPU - I think the OP's issue will still be how they power it as I think the PSU won't have the requisite connector for a full-blown dedicated GPU. It'd help if the OP could get the proper model number off the back of the device or out of the HP Support Assist if it's installed.
It's also possible HP do their 'own' GPUs which work purely off PCIe but I can't imagine that would be any significant improvement over the integrated graphics really. I think any money thrown at this PC isn't likely to yield a VFM outcome...
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