Question Cheap GPU recommendations for a low-budget PC ?

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dzastyr

Feb 4, 2025
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Hi all, I'm here hoping someone could be kind enough to recommend a cheap GPU to use with a (very) low-budget PC I bought a few days ago.

I picked up this cheap rig the other day, but when I unboxed it today I realized I hadn't paid enough attention to the case size or the fact that the listing doesn't show any PSU specs. It only comes with an integrated GPU so I just assumed I'd be able to pop in the Geforce GTX 1060 from my other PC, but this system needs a low-profile card. It's only got a 180W power supply, and I'm hoping to not have to spend more than the price of the system for a compatible GPU.

I'm thinking I'll probably just end up returning it, but before I do I figured it couldn't hurt to reach out to some more knowledgeable people. Any input would be appreciated.

Thank you!
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Honestly, I'd return it. You're going to run into MANY problems with this type of system if you try to upgrade anything like graphics card, PSU, etc. But in the event you don't or can't, how much are you willing to budget for a card because you are usually going to pay MORE for the same card model in a low profile, SFF or mini ITX type design.
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I picked up a GTX 1060 last year for my well-aged PC when Counter Strike 2 came out. All I really played for years was CS:GO, which ran just fine, but it couldn't really handle the update. Lately I'm playing Elite: Dangerous but my CPU is under spec for the game so I'm getting some nasty fps drops when loading in planetary terrain. I'm not looking to spend more than a few hundred bucks but I'm hoping to find a cheap system that can balance out well with my 1060.

Any recommendations on a good place to shop around?
 
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ykmtx said:
Going second hand in your budged might be better
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Can easily put a system together for a couple hundred bucks, especially if there is some existing hardware that can be reused. Even more so when you consider that almost anything including some of the lowest end models is going to offer world's of improvement from whatever they had since Kaby lake was going to be an "upgrade". Not even that difficult especially if you've already got a suitable PSU, graphics card and storage devices you can reuse. Even more so if you have a usable case.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Are you capable of assembling it yourself?

Would you list the parts that you can or plan to reuse from the existing older PC?

What are the specs for the system that has become too weak? Because it must be pretty old if your upgrade is an 8 year old Kaby lake system.
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Oh it's old. I built it in 2012 for like $400 to play CS:GO. It's got a first-gen Lynnfield i5-750 so a Kaby Lake would have been a welcome upgrade. When I first put it together it was the i5-750, 4gb ddr3 ram, and a 2gb GeForce gt600 on a gigabyte h55m board.

The PC sat in a closet for a long time after a move but a couple years ago I decided to bring it back to life. A stick of RAM had died somehow so I upgraded it to 8GB DDR4 (max the board can handle), and my 2GB GT600 to a 6GB GTX1060. All I ever really played was CS and metroidvania games so it's never been a big deal, and $180 for a i5-7500, 16gb of RAM and a 256gb NVMe seemed like a good, cheap lineup to go with my GPU.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Ok, so what parts do you have that can be used with a new build, or are you not interested in assembling it yourself and only interested in some kind of prebuilt? Because if so, that is going to REALLY limit your options on trying to get something decent for cheap.
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The only thing I think worth trying to transfer to a new build would be the card, and yes I can assemble it myself.
 
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So, you don't have any storage devices, meaning hard drives or SSDs, power supply or case, either from your old system or that you bought for use with the "new" system, that you feel is usable in the new build?

Ok then. Because if you do it might reduce the investment somewhat. Otherwise, I can't see finding anything near what you paid for that Dell system that's going to be any different than what that is. Minimum I'd say to put something halfway acceptable together if you have nothing except the graphics card is going to be tough. This is about the best you can do without wasting money on something not worth it, and still keep the price as low as possible while not getting completely crap parts.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($83.41 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Patriot P220 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($16.48 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Zalman T3 PLUS MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($38.90 @ Newegg Sellers)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $324.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-02-05 17:21 EST-0500
 
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For comparison. It's literally a 148% increase in single core performance and a 662% increase in multithreaded performance. You'd be capable of playing a LOT more titles, fairly well, if you chose to. And, it's not terribly off the deep in when it comes to your GTX 1060 then being a bottleneck. If the GTX 1060 performs sufficiently for you now, it's going to be miles better afterwards because your CPU won't be holding anything back anymore.


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ohio_buckeye said:
Don’t go to crazy on the board. I would treat the build above as a bridge build. In other words it gets you better performance and gets you bye a couple of years until you can upgrade into a higher tier platform. But am4 in its time was great and isn’t terrible today.
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My reasoning is, they are clearly not too interested in a higher tier platform considering the upgrade is coming from a Lynfield platform, so maybe getting a better board that at least has a half decent VRM configuration WITH heatsinks, isn't really a waste in the event they decide a year or two down the road they do want to upgrade because there is a lot of headroom for them to upgrade on AM4 coming from a Ryzen 5500. And they are upgrades that might actually make a difference a couple years down the road a lot more than going from say a 6500k to a 6700k some years back. An upgrade down the road to a higher TDP Ryzen 7 or 9, which will probably be extremely reasonable in price on the used market by then, would be a lot more sound on a board with better power phase and some heatsinks. That's all I was suggesting. Plus, when you go bottom of the barrel, that's kind of what you get. You can get a decent bump in quality and longevity quite often spending only 30 or 40 bucks more on a better model board. But, it was just another suggestion.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($83.41 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Patriot P220 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($16.48 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Zalman T3 PLUS MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($38.90 @ Newegg Sellers)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $324.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-02-05 17:21 EST-0500
Click to expand...
Nice package there you put together Darkbreeze. I'm going to borrow your work and send it to someone who just today asked for a new system, a friend of the family.

I was given low budget and this is better than what I thought I could put together. And it really moves the bar for the OP who asked for help in this thread.
 
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stonecarver said:
Nice package there you put together Darkbreeze. I'm going to borrow your work and send it to someone who just today asked for a new system, a friend of the family.

I was given low budget and this is better than what I thought I could put together. And it really moves the bar for the OP who asked for help in this thread.
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Yeah, that's really a kind of sweet build for the price. And, considering the price of everything is so expensive now compared to years past.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
My reasoning is, they are clearly not too interested in a higher tier platform considering the upgrade is coming from a Lynfield platform, so maybe getting a better board that at least has a half decent VRM configuration WITH heatsinks, isn't really a waste in the event they decide a year or two down the road they do want to upgrade because there is a lot of headroom for them to upgrade on AM4 coming from a Ryzen 5500. And they are upgrades that might actually make a difference a couple years down the road a lot more than going from say a 6500k to a 6700k some years back. An upgrade down the road to a higher TDP Ryzen 7 or 9, which will probably be extremely reasonable in price on the used market by then, would be a lot more sound on a board with better power phase and some heatsinks. That's all I was suggesting. Plus, when you go bottom of the barrel, that's kind of what you get. You can get a decent bump in quality and longevity quite often spending only 30 or 40 bucks more on a better model board. But, it was just another suggestion.
Click to expand...

Point taken. I guess as a tech when it comes to hardware I’m always thinking of not about the cheapest route per se, but how can I get value if needed but still have a way to upgrade it later. But yeah if they intend to keep the build long term, spend another 10 or 20 bucks out however much foot a better board, because if you decide to upgrade the cpu later you’ll definitely want that.
 
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stonecarver said:
Nice package there you put together Darkbreeze. I'm going to borrow your work and send it to someone who just today asked for a new system, a friend of the family.

I was given low budget and this is better than what I thought I could put together. And it really moves the bar for the OP who asked for help in this thread.
Click to expand...
The Ryzen 5500 has no integrated graphics, so you need to install a GPU in this system
 
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