Would a graphics card benefit this system?

Silver Phantom

Honorable
Jan 30, 2014
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10,510
I've got a Lenovo M83 with a Core i5-4570 3.2GHz processor, 12gb of RAM and an SSD drive. It currently has an integrated graphics card that runs three monitors - one via VGA and two via DisplayPort. Would a graphics card benefit this system? If so, any idea how much?

If there was a substantive benefit, I was considering the Asus R7240-2GD3-L Radeon R7 240 graphics card with 2GB GDDR3 video memory on a 128-bit interface
 
Solution
A PCI Express slot is limited to 75W. If your PSU is only 240W, that is still enough for a HD7750. During a SBM cycle last summer, a build using one of those only pulled 113W from the wall.
If you want to play games, the HD7750 is the strongest card you can buy without also replacing your PSU. Low-profile and single-slot versions are available.
That depends on what you are doing or want to do with this system. If you have any intention of playing games (beyond Internet Flash-based titles), then the answer is a resounding "YES!" If you don't play games though, quite possibly you will see no benefit.
If you do wish to play games, a R7-240 is a lot weaker than you want, especially hobbled further by DDR3 rather than GDDR5 memory. If you do want to play games, what is the brand and model (not just wattage) of your PSU?
 
he has a Lenovo desktop, so whatever Lenovo uses.

with 3 screens, you should see some slight improvement with eth 240, even in gaming

the 20 won't do modern games well at all, but will do fine with a lot of STEAM indy games, flash games, etc, and will be a little better than the on-board
 

Silver Phantom

Honorable
Jan 30, 2014
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10,510
All I know is that's its 240w and the PCI Express Card slot is limited to 40 watts pull which is why I looked at the R7-240 which is one of the few that pulls that little. I don't do gaming so maybe it's not necessary.
 
A PCI Express slot is limited to 75W. If your PSU is only 240W, that is still enough for a HD7750. During a SBM cycle last summer, a build using one of those only pulled 113W from the wall.
If you want to play games, the HD7750 is the strongest card you can buy without also replacing your PSU. Low-profile and single-slot versions are available.
 
Solution