1650 vs 3050 6gb on an old pc for theoretical prices
Posted by Odd-Panic-9574@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Hi guys, I'm trying to decide between 2 low wattage cards that don't need power connectors for an old OEM HP pavilion 590-p0066 with an i5-8400 and 24gb of 2666mhz ram. The motherboard and psu are proprietary, so changing those to higher performance oem compatible parts is required for cards that need power connectors.
The 1650 I could possibly line up will be the slower gddr5 version for $50 flat or should I try to find a 3050 6gb deal for around $130? I know the performance difference is only around 30-40 percent max which is bad for the price, but I know that the 3050 can at least do 1080p 60fps+ on most of the games and settings I want to play; the 1650 would need lossless scaling to hit that which would I think would be annoying with the latency spike but am not sure exactly what it would feel like in real use, so I could trade it off.
I plan to play older games with some newer games mixed in like Spider Man, Cyberpunk 2077, and emulated Wii, Switch, and PS3 games(obviously obtained legally). Those newer games would have to be significantly boosted with lossless scaling to make them playable on the 1650, while the 3050 would at least be okay. For even more context, this will be a secondary pc for my older parents and for family to use when they come over as a tv-connected option for casual gaming, not a main gaming rig which I could more easily justify spending on. Sorry for the mountain of a post lol but which would you recommend?
Another option but would be the most expensive while not building from scratch, and price is definitely a large factor for this project, is getting a psu upgrade to 500w that's still proprietary for around 60 and then getting at most an 8pin connected gpu to work, however that would definitely bring the overall cost up to 200-250 easily.
Time-Waster-007@reddit
How much are you willing to spend at most
Odd-Panic-9574@reddit (OP)
Probably 150 max which is sort of pushing me towards the 3050 but part of my reasoning for the 1650 is that if I save by getting it, I could get an i7-9700 also and still stay affordable which is the best cpu for my mobo and isn’t that expensive if I can find a good deal, which I think will play a part in 1080p and especially in emulation, but obviously the 3050 will be point blank better in newer games.
postsshortcomments@reddit
Make sure your PSU can handle it if you have not already. That model might be a 310W?
Unfortunately, it's that HP model has a proprietary motherboard so you'll have issues simply replacing it with a standard PSU.
I was going to suggest a 5700XT (the 1650 especially is a fairly old GPU), but unless my information is wrong a 310W PSU is definitely not enough to run it. Don't know if it could even do a 6600 (a low wattage GPU). Not sure if that PSU could do a 3050, but I think it'd be OK with a 1650. I don't know much about best in slot low-wattage PSUs, but you may want to ask if there are better low wattage options than a 1650 as that's a super old card that was never that powerful in the first place. I'd be very surprised if a 1650 could hit even 45-50FPS in Cyberpunk (but that's a pretty demanding title).
PCPartBuilder can help you approximate wattage. But just be ready for that.
Odd-Panic-9574@reddit (OP)
I think it can, it’s the 310w model and unfortunately the 1650 is the second best performing option after the 3050 6gb for cards that are strictly pcie bus powered. In some benchmarks I can see it achieve around or greater than 30 fps in the games I want to play, so I guess another question is whether or not lossless scaling/optiscaler would feel fine with 2x-3x frame gen needed to push 60 fps which I’m fine with. Regarding the wattage, my cpu is a 65w tdp chip and the gpu would be 70-75w with either the 3050 or 1650, and the mobo plus 1 ssd and 2 data hard drives probably pull 50-60w maximum, so I should have enough headroom for the psu to run efficient enough.
rednemesis337@reddit
Surprisingly enough for emulation your main concern is the cpu not gpu
Odd-Panic-9574@reddit (OP)
That’s true, I guess one thing I have also thought about is I could probably get the 1650+upgrade from the 8400 to the 9700 for around the same price as the 3050 itself
rednemesis337@reddit
I’d check online what’s the bare minimum to run these emulators and see youtube videos to check performance and the games you want to play
JumboPancake@reddit
Id try for the 3050 between these two. You get modern driver support and dlss which should boost performance. Settings will still need to be lowered significantly for some of those games but the 1650 may not even be playable. As always look up benchmarks tho.
Odd-Panic-9574@reddit (OP)
This is what I’m leaning towards as well right now, it just hurts having to say it out loud and actually try and find a decently priced 3050 6gb😭. Even 130 seems steep for the performance compared to other cards in that bracket but that no power connector tax exists I guess.
JumboPancake@reddit
Id try and snag one for maybe 100, that should be doable depending on location ofc. But yeah no power connector is a limiting factor.
Odd-Panic-9574@reddit (OP)
Yeah I wish I did this a couple months ago, 100 is definitely gonna take a lot of hunting in my area but that price doesn’t pain me to think about, might take ages tho to find so idk I might just settle to save time