Inquiry About Budget GPU Compatible With 300w Power Supply
Inquiry About Budget GPU Compatible With 300w Power Supply
In short: I'm looking to buy a budget PC from eBay to connect to my old 1080p TV in the bonus room. It's meant for basic gaming streaming and general use. The machine has 32 GB of DDR4, an i5 10400, a 300-watt PSU, a DTX motherboard, and I'm thinking about using the 6GB 3050 GPU for efficiency. I'm also considering the 4060 GPU but will cap its power usage at 70% and use an 8-pin SATA or Molex connector. I expect it to run smoothly at around 60 FPS. What do you think? I’m leaning toward the 4060, but I want to make sure it won’t be too demanding.
You have two good options for adding a better GPU instead of being forced into specific cards.
1. You can buy a higher wattage Acer TFX form factor PSU. The 500 watt model makes this the "simplest" and cleanest solution, and can be bought on ebay for $50-80+.
2. Find a higher wattage TFX form factor PSU that fits your GPU upgrade budget, and use a $15 adapter to adapt the 24pin motherboard power cable to 6pin. This is a more expensive option, but is also a clean option for your Acer case that allows for more GPU options that require 1x6+2 pin or up to 2x6+2 pin, depending on what you buy. There are expensive PSU models from good brands, but also cheap ones from bad brands like Apevia.
Here is the adapter you would use for options 2
https://www.moddiy.com/products/6556/PSU...-Acer.html
The only other option is combining option 2 into a new case with all the Acer parts or a new motherboard, but it's a lot of work for not much pay off.
I’m not aiming for a top-tier GPU. My setup is a solid main rig capable of 1080p. I’m mainly thinking about either installing the 3050 with 6GB RAM or setting the 4060 to 70% power and using the Molex 8-pin connector to provide extra capacity. I understand it’s not commonly recommended, but since the 4060 would only run around 85 watts, I’m curious if that would work. Thanks for your advice.