Looking for an gpu for older pc

[adast]

Hello as im building my new pc soon i want to give this old pc to my little bro with some upgrades on it this is the one i will be giving as i tried to game on doesint really play even on low settings some games but im looking into buying for this pc an GPU r9 280x 4GB or even an rx 550 4GB and i also will be adding another 4gb of ram to it
specs
Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.20GHz
4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3
Motherboard Foxconn 2ABF
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 1GB
power supply is hard to say i looked up its without brand 300watts

 

[zoltan.boese]

You have 4 physical cores and you are going to upgrade to 8GB RAM. The only concern as you pointed out is the PSU. Depending on your budget get a 450W or larger power supply from a reliable brand.
SSR-550FX https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-SSR-550FX-ATX12V-Modular-Compact/dp/B073GY89G5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517824793&sr=8-1&keywords=SSR-550FX
Corsair CX 550 https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Bronze-Certified-Modular-CP-9020102-NA/dp/B01B72W0A2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517824827&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+cx+550

 

[adast]

You have 4 physical cores and you are going to upgrade to 8GB RAM. The only concern as you pointed out is the PSU. Depending on your budget get a 450W or larger power supply from a reliable brand.
SSR-550FX https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-SSR-550FX-ATX12V-Modular-Compact/dp/B073GY89G5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517824793&sr=8-1&keywords=SSR-550FX
Corsair CX 550 https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Bronze-Certified-Modular-CP-9020102-NA/dp/B01B72W0A2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517824827&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+cx+550

Alright but from these gpus that i mention will it be good for medium gaming just im looking to buy second hand gpu from these two gpus they cost r9 280x £130 and rx 550 £125

 

[cryoburner]

An RX 550 is an entry-level card, and doesn't need much power. Since it's newer and more efficient, it actually should have lower power requirements than the GTX 650 already in the system. The GTX 650 has a 64 watt TDP, while the RX 550 only has a 50 watt TDP, so if the power supply is enough for the GTX 650, it will most likely be enough for the RX 550 as well. Another option in a similar performance range to the RX 550 would be the Nvidia GT 1030 2GB, which is a bit more efficient still, with only a 30 watt TDP, and should perform similar to an RX 550 in most games.

However, it should be noted that while an RX 550 or GT 1030 should be a bit faster than a GTX 650, it probably won't be a huge amount faster in most titles, and if you are looking to give the system significantly more gaming performance, you would likely want something more powerful.

The 280X is in a higher performance class, though it is an older design, so it's a lot more power hungry, and can draw over 200 watts from the PSU under load, so you would likely want at least a good 500 watt PSU for one of those.

A GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti won't be quite as fast as a 280X, though it would still be a big step over the RX 550 and GT 1030 in terms of performance. And the GTX 1050/1050 Ti only draws around 70 watts under load, so there would only be a very slight increase in power draw over the 650, and therefore a good likelihood that the existing PSU would be enough for one of those as well.

 

[cryoburner]

Alright but from these gpus that i mention will it be good for medium gaming just im looking to buy second hand gpu from these two gpus they cost r9 280x £130 and rx 550 £125

One important thing to note is that cryptocurrency mining has messed up the prices of graphics cards at the moment. Be careful to make sure that a card's gaming performance justifies its cost.

An RX 550 at £125 is not a very good price. Again, it's not much faster than a GT 1030 2GB, and the added VRAM won't help much at the resolution and settings that these cards can run smoothly. Looking on PCPartPicker, it's possible to get a GTX 1050 2GB for less than that, which should be a lot faster...
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=379

Or for a bit more, you can get a 1050 Ti 4GB, with around 10% more performance than the 1050 2GB in most games...
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=380

 

[adast]

Alright but from these gpus that i mention will it be good for medium gaming just im looking to buy second hand gpu from these two gpus they cost r9 280x £130 and rx 550 £125

One important thing to note is that cryptocurrency mining has messed up the prices of graphics cards at the moment. Be careful to make sure that a card's gaming performance justifies its cost.

An RX 550 at £125 is not a very good price. Again, it's not much faster than a GT 1030 2GB, and the added VRAM won't help much at the resolution and settings that these cards can run smoothly. Looking on PCPartPicker, it's possible to get a GTX 1050 2GB for less than that, which should be a lot faster...
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=379

Or for a bit more, you can get a 1050 Ti 4GB, with around 10% more performance than the 1050 2GB in most games...
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=380

so gtx 1050 2gb would be better thing to go with as my brother he mostly plays on console and for him on pc he likes to play games like garrys mod left 4 dead 2 TF2 and probably some other games is just if it can run on 1080p on low settings or something