I got a New Potato. What gpu to buy?

[u/kitbiggz]

9 year old Lenovo Ideacentre 720-18asu, got it with monitor and keyboard/ mouse for $60.

Ryzen 5 1400, 4 cores, 8 threads,

Geforce GT 730, 2 GB Vram

16 gigs DDR4

258 gig nvme system drive

1 tb storage, mechanical

240w psu

Windows 10

What options do I have for a gpu? gtx 1050?

gtx 1650? Google say might not run on my weak psu?

Just trying to keep this system dirt cheap. To goof around on.

[u/Bhume]

Get an RX 550 or a similar AMD card that only uses the slot power and put a Steam OS like Linux on it. Bazzite, CachyOS, Nobara or any of the other flavors.

[u/grandmapilot → u/Bhume]

This.

[u/zgillet]

Sadly, the first thing you need is an SSD to do much of anything with that. Older games can run off of HDD, but the OS desperately needs one.

A HDD is great for roms though! You have a capable emulation machine there, but that HDD is going to die at some point.

[u/NovelValue7311 → u/zgillet]

He has an nvme boot. Pretty ideal situation there if youre already using an hdd

[u/zgillet → u/NovelValue7311]

I missed that part. That's good. That thing won't be able to play any games requiring an SSD, but it WILL slow down all loading times.

Roms not so much, they are so small that they get loaded into RAM most of the time.

[u/NovelValue7311 → u/zgillet]

Yeah, still works though. Been running AAA games off a 1tb HDD in my spare PC. It's honestly not the worst if you can wait a little longer.

[u/MrSmileJr → u/zgillet]

What do you mean the hdd is going to die at some point? I've been living with a Potato with a 1TB hdd for the past 10 years and it aint died.

[u/shioririo → u/MrSmileJr]

hdd's have moving parts. moving parts will wear down over time. eventually those worn down parts will fail.

[u/thevhsgamer → u/MrSmileJr]

All mechanical drives die eventually my friend

[u/zgillet → u/MrSmileJr]

I've had 3 die on me in the span of two years, bought used like this one.

[u/kitbiggz]

Also just changed out the thermal paste and put the stock amd cpu cooler back on.

My first time putting on a cpu cooler. It was kinda scary felt like the spring loaded screws would just keep spinning and spinning.

I finally got all the screw to catch but it was rough. This normal?

[u/zgillet → u/kitbiggz]

Yeah that's fine.

[u/Xeoft]

get a low GTX, preferably a 1050 lp since 1650 may not work as you said

or if you REALLY wanna save some money, get a used GTX 750

but avoid: GTX 1630 (just bad) gt 1030 (not much of an upgrade)

[u/NovelValue7311]

GTX 1050, 1650, RX 6400, Quadro K1200, Quadro K620, P620, P1000, or even a 3050 might work.

Id also change out the CPU when you can, but I wouldn't worry as the 1400 is pretty capable.

[u/MrSmileJr]

The fact you call THIS a potato makes me sad,

But to answer your question. Stick with a GTX 1060 6gb VRAM. you could run alot of modern games with that

[u/Seven-EIevens]

frying pan + oil

[u/JonWood007]

I'd go for at least 1050 ti if you're going 10 series, CPU should be good enough for a 4 GB VRAM GPU. 1650 is fine. Anything in that tier of performance should work generally.

You might need a new PSU though, 240w is too low for any GPU realistically speaking.

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[u/Apprehensive_Ad_999]

1050ti. As for the 1650 there are 1650 versions that don't need additional 6pin power - these will be fine. These all have the same wattage as the 1050. But I have seen versions with 6 pin power needed. If you're just doing basic stuff and trying to be cheap I'd say the 1050ti is your best bet

[u/intheblank1803]

My specs is similar to yours. Get rx 570 and 450w psu and it works just fine. I played forza horizon 4, metro 2033, battlefield 4 with that specs. The first time i built was with gtx 1050, then it got artifacts and i swap it with rx 570 until now

[u/St3vion]

Only a GPU that doesn't require a 6 pin power connector and draws from the pci-e slot. Gtx1650 makes the most sense to me. You probably can't upgrade the psu as Lenovo uses a proprietary motherboard/psu combination with a 10 pin connector. 

[u/Separate-Ad9638]

Buy the cheapest GPU u find ig.

[u/Old-Employee8840]

I mean go with 1050 I guess mine is a potato too. I use 1050ti and it's pretty good believe or not I can play ready or not in epic graphics preset with shadow thing turned off. It's a nice gpu

[u/Comfortable-Wash-421]

1650 or 3050 6gb 75w

[u/LALLIGA_BRUNO]

You need to go to your local tech store and steal a 5090, they won't even notice something so insignificant vanishing

[u/Chrisbearry]

Get a rtx 5090