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Realistic to boost GPU?


Springheel

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Our "family computer" is an Acer ax3470-eb20p.

 

At the moment is had integrated AMDRadeon HD 6530D graphics and probably a pretty crappy PSU (some forum posters said 220W, though I can't confirm that atm), though the processor is a pretty decent quad core.

 

My daughter wants to be try and run Sims4 on it, and apparently the Processor could just about handle it if we could get a decent enough GPU. I have no idea whether or not the PSU would be able to power a video card strong enough to make it worth trying to upgrade. Anyone have any knowledge on that front? I haven't been able to find much info online.

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What you want is a gfx card that dosent have a PCI power connector, as it it will get all the power it needs from the PCI-e slot.

 

An nVidia GTX 750 will do the trick, its has a TDP of 60W. So even though Stumpy's table says you need a 300-350W psu you might be able to get away with it. Buty before you do, input your system spec via the PSU calculator and see if you will in fact need a new PSU or not - http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

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AMD R7 240 might be a better choice.

 

38W and will gel with the AMD ecosystem better. Might even crossfire with the integrated graphics.

 

Nvidia has better performance per watt and better drivers but who knows what funny business you'll get when putting one into an AMD motherboard...

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but who knows what funny business you'll get when putting one into an AMD motherboard...

I can't image any, and while the TDP of R7-240 is attractive its perf is low, its not higher than the HD 6530D. The price reflects that, R7-240, NewEgg $69 and the GTX 750, NewEgg $99

 

If you can afford it, get the GTX 750 and a updated PSU - NewEgg, $29 (EVGA 430W)

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The PSU in his chassis is a custom design. He'd need to buy a whole new tower to upgrade the PSU. It's possible but quite a lot of work. There used to be dedicated GPU power boosters that you could drop into an empty CD-ROM slot but it seems that they stopped making them sometime after 2008. ( google Booster x5). So it's better to stay on the lower side of the power spectrum. The R7 240 gets about double the performance of his integrated chip according to GPU comparisons I've seen. If you wanna stay with the Green Team then the GT 730 is around double the performance of the integrated solution too and has even lower performance requirements than the R7 240 but it won't crossfire with the integrated chip.

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Ah yes, arse. I didnt think to check & see how small the case was (see attached). Now looking at the case, two things stand out -

  1. the card needsto be a half length card.
  2. and its needs to have a single slot cooler.

Then found this article on that particular PC and adding a descrete GFX card that can be Xfired with the onboard -

 

- http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-a8-3800_16.html

 

So had another look on NewEgg and found a single slot R7-240, that and HD6530 on the APU in dual card mode should get close to or beat the perf of the GTX 750.

post-496-0-38241300-1443356321_thumb.jpg

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that and HD6530 on the APU in dual card mode should get close to or beat the perf of the GTX 750.

 

 

I've never before looked into dual card modes...how hard is it to set something like that up?

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It's mostly automated as long as you have updated drivers and the game profiles package.

All you have to do is open your driver settings and "Enable Crossfire".

 

Doom 3 \ TDM (OpenGL) doesn't like it that much but most Direct 3D games like SIMS would already have profiles.

 

Dual GPU is only really a hassle when you need to hook-up a bridge connector between the cards.

Most of the newer cards no longer require that and can pass the data over PCIE and that would be the case here too.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

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I've never before looked into dual card modes...how hard is it to set something like that up?

 

Forget it, crossfire from AMD and SLI from Nvidia, when they work is nice, but are a source of problems, i know because i add a crossfire setup before and i know friends with SLI that also complained a lot.

Also DO NOT crossfire your AMD 6530D integrated GPU with a discrete GPU from AMD (i don't even know if you can and it only works with GPU's of the same family, in this case AMD 6000), if it works the lest fast GPU will call the shots and bring the faster GPU to its level, so you are in a sense making your discrete GPU run slower, and it could even run faster alone than both cards in crossfire!

 

If you go with AMD or Nvidia i don't care (it really depends on who you ask and where their preferences go, so i will not even try) just buy the GPU that is in your price/performance range but still has some life beyond it, if you buy a really low end GPU just to save money, it will become obsolete fast.

Edited by HMart
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if it works the lest fast GPU will call the shots and bring the faster GPU to its level, so you are in a sense making your discrete GPU run slower, and it could even run faster alone than both cards in crossfire!

Its not Xfire in the traditional sense and its been shown to work(see the review in my post above), at the very least the PC will have double the current GPU power. If it dosent work he can send it back for a refund, @Springs I assume you have distance selling rules over there..? for unwanted items..?

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Hum, i know that in traditional crossfire by pairing two discrete GPU's using a bridge the lest fast GPU will obligate the faster one to work at slower speed so it can keep up, on APU plus discrete card crossfire i don't really have any experience, but i would be surprised if it's different. Btw saw the links you gave above and i see that AMD says (now) it only works if you pair a dx11.2 APU with a dx11.2 discrete GPU and it still recommends to pair a discrete GPU of the same family or performance range has the one in the APU.

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@Springs I assume you have distance selling rules over there..? for unwanted items..?

 

 

Probably. Though that card would definitely be a big improvement over the onboard video even if it didn't work in tandem.

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DX12 will make pairing mismatched GPU's better though. That said, I doubt they'll update SIMS4 to use a DX12 backend. OTOH, this is mostly academic

because it's SIMS 4 we're talking about here...

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DX12 will make pairing mismatched GPU's better though.

Which needs Win10, which wont run well on such a low end PC. better off sticking with Win7 or 8(if Springs really wants to).

 

@Springs, may I suggest an SSD upgrade to the HDD aswell. Even thought it only has a SATA 2 (3gb/s) port you can still get a speed boost over a mechanical HDD. I suggest a Samsung 850 evo 120gb or above. After looking at a video of someone dismantling another Acer Aspire, the best place I can see for the SSD is to stick it ontop of the PSU with some double-sided foam tape. You can then keep the original 500GB HDD for infrequently used data (downloads, music, videos, backup, etc)

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A HD update isn't in the cards...I'm not willing to put very much money into this upgrade as it's just a backup computer for the kids. We payed about $400 for it originally, so anything over $100 to upgrade isn't really worth it...I'd rather save up and buy a new one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Coming back to this...won't this be a problem?

 

Minimum PSU Wattage Requirement 400 Watt

 

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