Recommended Upgrade

duncan3393

Hello, All. I have a PC I use for gaming, it's an Off The Shelf HP.

It's an HP tg01-2032. The Graphics card is an AMD RX 6600 XT

My primary game is Warhammer III. And any questions here are with that in mind. The card works perfectly well at 1080p, and plays well at 1440p. I want to be able to play and encode for streams at 2160p.

Is a GPU upgrade viable with the base MB and PSU, or should I simply go whole hog on a new PC?

If I do upgrade the GPU alone, what's a good recommendation?

If I go new PC, what GPU should I go for?

I have no brand preference, so AMD/NVD, I don't mind. I am an end user, so the multitude of options are too much for me to make sense of. The end goal is to be able to play at top quality 4k while using a cqp encode for high quality at lower bitrate. The outcome is going to be buy a GPU and have MC install, or shop new PC.

Thanks.

Rye_Bread

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/52116#Comment_52116

Oh my! I was cut off, very odd. Here's the rest to the best of my not-so-great memory :)

I would recommend going with the 4080 or the 7900 XT, but you can step up to the 4090 or the 7900 XTX for extra performance. It's going to heavily depend on what games you're playing as well, and whether you want RayTracing or not. I find that streaming performance is better on NVidia cards, but otherwise the AMD cards can provide better value. If you're playing lighter or more optimized games, the 4070 or the 7800 XT would be good options. Do keep in mind that you will have to be a bit more selective with graphics settings.

If you plan on going with the prebuilt option, I would take a look at our offerings in the PowerSpec and MSI lineups. They're some of my favorites.

Best of luck!

Rye_Bread

Hey, duncan!

You are able to do some limited upgrades to that PC, however, you may find yourself limited by the 400watt power supply and the case. If I were in your position, I'd learn toward starting a new build or grabbing a prebuilt.

HP uses a non-standard power supply form factor, it'll be tricky to get ahold of one in the 750watt+ range you'll most likely be needing. The case is also somewhat restrictive on airflow. For more efficient components like what comes stock it's not a major issue, but upgrading to parts that will draw more power and generate more heat will cause the entire system to overheat.

The motherboard in that system (pictured below) is proprietary, so unfortunately there isn't an easy way to transfer it to a new case. Note that the front panel IO is attached to the motherboard, and the entire board is elongated on the X-axis.

The HP Pavilion prebuilts are solid for the price and the specs, but I think you'd be better off starting anew for the power you want.

As for what GPU you want, it's going to heavily depend on the types of games you're playing. Since you want to be able to play at 4k, I would recommend

duncan3393

Much appreciated. I wonder if you were cut off.

duncan3393

Rye, greatly appreciated. I had been shopping 4070/4080 and 7800s so it's good to know I was in the right ballpark.

I don't remember where I got the HP, but my previous build was a PowerSpec from MC in Dallas during COVID. Nice machine but underpowered after a while.

Thanks!