GPU Upgrade Options

Origin Saint

Origin Saint

Well-Known Member
Hi all, I'm hoping you can assist me and my friend with a small dilemma we're having. He has a old-ish Lenovo IdeaCentre K330 (not sure which configuration as it was slightly customized at some point by someone else before him). It has the following hardware specs:

280W generic PSU
7GB 1330MHz RAM
1TB 7,200rpm HDD
500GB 7,200rpm HDD
DVD-Multi OD x 2
Generic Lenovo MOBO
Intel Core i3-2100 CPU
AMD Radeon 5450 w/ 512MB of RAM

I'm already working on getting him a Corsair CX 500W PSU so he can actually upgrade the GPU. My question to you guys is, is there a decent GPU for gaming I can snatch up for $95 or less? The manufacturer manual thing I found online lists that there are 2 PCI x1 slots and 2 PCI x16 slots but they are half-length. I look forward to your suggestions.
 
Is there anything decent at a lower price point? I would like to honestly keep it around $70 or so if I really can. I don't need anything amazing, just something that can play the majority of games in 1600x900 on medium-ish settings if possible. Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll keep it in mind.
 
Are the GT models any good for that sort of thing? I always assumed the GTX line was the only thing that could really handle games at all.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

However, with that budget, its hard unless you can scrounge around on Ebay or Craigslist.

A GTX 750 TI can be found for a tad more than 100 on rebate sometimes
 
From the looks of it I can find some decent R7 250X cards around the internet and I checked the fps test on Toms Hardware and it seems like it would be able to handle a large majority of games at 1600 x 900 well. Now I just need to find one that can fit into the case correctly with no issues.
 
What's with people and referencing 7 GB of RAM these days.. What kind of stick configuration is it?

I wouldn't go much below a 750Ti or something. R7 250 or Geforce 730 are really bottom end cards.
 
It is a stock 4GB stick that came with the computer and 3, 1GB sticks that were from a old Dell PC he had before. I realize that they R7 250 is a pretty bottom end card, but my friend happens to be in a horrible financial situation with his family and I myself don't really want to be dropping $100 on a computer that isn't mine, so I'm just trying to make it so that he can at least play the majority of the games he has in half way decent settings sometimes without lagging at 20fps. He can't display anything over 1600 x 900 on his monitor, which means I don't need to find anything that great. Currently, Payday 2 is so laggy it isn't playable and Space Engineers runs at 20fps among other games. I realize also, that the CPU isn't that great, but it's an alright little dual core, the real bottleneck is the old ATI card he has in there.

I know this is a odd request guys, but I want something low-end-ish that performs relatively solidly. He won't be upgrading again anytime soon and this can give him the last little boost he needs to just enjoy the games he has since a lot of them aren't even playable to the average gamer, but he's gotten used to it. Thanks for help, keep any suggestions coming.
 
Would I absolutely need the 500W PSU to handle these cards, or could I get away with a 430W PSU? I'm just wondering because if I can spare some of the price on the PSU I may be able to get a slightly nicer GPU. Also, I'm having a hell of a time finding a PCIe card that is half-length.
 
A good 430W like the CX 430 should be sufficient for anything up to around a R7 260X or GTX 750 so yeah you should be fine, but if the 500W isn't much more you might as well go 500.
 
In your description you said the mother board is PCI. PCI and PCIe are different. For what you are looking to do, 430W is plenty though typically there is only a very few dollars difference.



Origin Saint said:
Would I absolutely need the 500W PSU to handle these cards, or could I get away with a 430W PSU? I'm just wondering because if I can spare some of the price on the PSU I may be able to get a slightly nicer GPU. Also, I'm having a hell of a time finding a PCIe card that is half-length.
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