HP p6310y upgrade to pc gaming

[starter12345]

Hello

back in 2010 my parents bought me a pc for my graduation present and recently i would like to start pc gaming.

my question is what video cards or any other hardware to make it gaming material?

it's an HP p6310y here are the specs

CPU:AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor
ram:6.0 GB
video card:ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series

 

[AntiZig]

you want at least x700 series on AMD side and at least x50 series on nvidia side.

that said, you will need to verify what your PSU capacity is (in Watts) in order to determine if your computer would even run with any particular GPU that you wish to upgrade to.

My advice would be look into 5770/6770 cards. They are good entry level GPUs

 

[jaguarskx]

That HP comes with a 300w PSU so the Radeon HD 5770/6770 are not recommend since they have a maximum power consumption of 112w. The motherboard also seems to have the older PCI-e 1.0 or 1.1 slot. That means there is a small chance that it may not be compatible with PCI-e 2.1 cards; there have been people who reported such problems. It is unknown if a PCI-e 3.0 card will be guaranteed to work in such an old PCI-e slot.

This basically means you should avoid the Radeon HD 7000 series (PCI-e 3.0 card), unless you don't mind taking the risk of having to return the card if it does not work. As stated it is unknown if it will work in a PCI-e 1.0/1.1 slot. Most people in this forum seems to have motherboards with PCI-e 2.0 slots. The following is a Radeon HD 7750 for $110 if you want to take the chance; it is the most powerful graphics card that will work with a 300w PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102969

I recommend giving the Radeon HD 6670 a shot. There is a small chance it will not work in a PCI-e 1.0 / 1.1, but it is the best performing graphics card you can buy for a 300w PSU with a high probability that it will work in an older PCI-e slot. The following Radeon HD 6670 sells for $60 after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102952

If you don't want to take any chances of potentially having to ship back a card that does not work, then you will need to buy a PCI-e 2.0 card which is 100% compatible with the old PCI-e slot. The problem is you will need to get an nVidia graphics card. nVidia do not make bad cards at all, but they tend to be more power hungry so only the lower end models will work with a 300w PSU. Having said that, the GT 430 is the best nVidia video card that I would recommend. You can buy the following one for $40 after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121397

Below is a performance chart which uses the Radeon HD 6670 as a baseline. The nvidia GT 430 has 61% the performance of the Radeon HD 6670; therefore it is much slower. The new Radeon HD 7750 is not part of the chart, but it's performance is pretty close to the Radeon HD 5770 and GTX 550; so it's almost 50% more powerful than the Radeon HD 6670.

Click below for the benchmarks:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6670/6.html

 

[starter12345]

So which card is the best for a 480 psu that doesn't require a power supply?

for example i have an xfx radon hd 4350 that doesn't require a psu plug in i like those kinda of cards but the best one currently can yall point me the direction

 

[PCgamer81]

Look at the low to mid range 7xxx series graphics cards. 7570 or similar current architecture GPUs would be low on power while allowing for a decent gaming experience.