[SOLVED] upgrading GPU in an HP prebuild

[rlomura]

hi!
forgive me if i seem a little unknowledgeable, i'm not exactly the most versed in pc builds & the like.

a bit over two years ago i was in the market for a cheap prebuild that i could use for gaming and some college graphic + web design work, and found something decent off of fb marketplace for dirt cheap. its served me very well ever since, but now that im out of school and play games just a little bit more often thanks to the extra time in my schedule, i'm interested to upgrade this to be the best it can be.
the tower i've got is the HP Envy 750-160qe, the (relevant afaik) configurations are as follows:

• 32gb RAM
• intel i7-4790 3.6ghz
• amd radeon R9 370 2gb
• 3TB 7200 rpm sata hdd
• unsure of the power supply but given the specs are on the higher end i'm assuming the 500W

my primary painpoint in this build at the moment is the GPU, it was wonderful when i first purchased the tower using a single mediocre 720p television monitor but i've since connected 27" 1440p & a 35"ultrawide 1440p monitor to it, and its working awfully hard. to this day i still don't do super heavy gaming with this... but the last time i tried to play minecraft with shaders my GPU utilization was maxed and overall it was a bad time. i'm looking to upgrade this to a GPU that can handle a dual high quality monitor setup with some more involved gaming graphics work, and /potentially/ some light streaming.
im interested in upgrading the hdd as well, i love the amount of storage space as i love to hoard files. however, booting up is such a pain in the rear and i cannot believe myself sometimes that i'm starting up from an hdd in 2021.

just to reiterate, i'm using this pc for a for some relatively complicated graphics-wise gaming (whatever you'd call ultra minecraft shaders. i don't know. i'm casual but i sure do love my casual games to look pretty) with potentially some light streaming in the future. these days i'm also using this pc to work from home, but my company has me using a remote desktop to utilize my work pc and that's not nearly as heavy of a task.
as for my budget - i'm not looking to pour a ton of money into this since this model's been out for a bit over 5 years and im unsure as to when the first owner purchased it/how long they used it for. i do heavily rely on this pc day to day for work and leisure, so i don't want to cut corners. maybe a maximum $300USD on the GPU? upgrading the drive is my second priority but id consider spending maybe $150-200USD on that at some point as well. im aware this isn't the newest prebuild and im not sure what nowadays is compatible with the other existing hardware, but i do not know what compatible upgraded parts would cost lol. tax refund szn is coming up so im feeling frisky.

i'm very open to hearing any recommendation you all have, whether it's upgrading other parts as well or just outright replacing my tower with something better. as i mentioned i'm not the most well versed in this area, with my limited knowledge i'm looking at upgrading gpu + boot drive first. let me know if there's any other additional information you'd like to know about my setup & i'd be happy to provide.

thanks so much!!

 

[Viorala]

- it's probably 500w but people are going to be asking for the exact details of your psu. It could also be proprietary to HP only.

- this is a terrible time to upgrade a GPU. Prices have been inflated, stores are out of stock...that said, I know you'd be able to find a gtx 1070. I don't know the AMD equivalents, sorry. Probably a rx 570? They may come in under $300...ooh, well no, no they dont.

A GTX 1060 would though. Unless I'm terribly mistaken that would fit in with your specs nicely.

 

[rlomura]

- it's probably 500w but people are going to be asking for the exact details of your psu. It could also be proprietary to HP only.

i wouldn't be shocked if its one thats proprietary to HP only, the motherboard is also something i've got no information about beyond the name. i could definitely crack open the computer later tonight to grab more detailed specs on that, i have some older pictures of the insides from my negotiations w/ the original seller, but they censored out that information.

- this is a terrible time to upgrade a GPU. Prices have been inflated, stores are out of stock...that said, I know you'd be able to find a gtx 1070. I don't know the AMD equivalents, sorry. Probably a rx 570? They may come in under $300...ooh, well no, no they dont.

A GTX 1060 would though. Unless I'm terribly mistaken that would fit in with your specs nicely.

i'm really not attached to AMD at all, just happens to be what came in this bad boy. thank you so much for these recommendations!! thankfully this isn't an urgent upgrade, just something i've been thinking about lately as i have the means. i honestly had no idea cards were /this/ inflated right now, definitely going to be setting some price alerts & stock notifications for those options, in hopes one pops up with a reasonable price tag. 🤔

 

[SamirD]

As your hard drive is 5 years old now, it should be regulated to just being a backup/secondary and you should get a newer, bigger drive--8TB seems to be a price sweet spot. Then for boot, get an ssd as those are cheap. Storage issue solved.

The gpu is a bit more challenging as the R9 370 was only a 110w tdp card so you'd be limited to that tdp to avoid any power supply upgrades. I'm not sure what would be ideal there, although the suggested 1060 6gb is a great upgrade in a similar power profile:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r9-370.c2726
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1060-6-gb.c2862

 

[Karadjgne]

but i've since connected 27" 1440p & a 35"ultrawide 1440p monitor

That's the issue. A 35" 1440p ultra wide is @ 2.5x as many pixels as a 16:9 1080p, or around 10x as many pixels as a 16:9 720p.

A gtx1060 won't even come close. A 1070 will even struggle.

You'll need to be looking at a 2070Super or better class of gpu to get decent framerates in most games. Windows is one thing, it's basically static pictures, video. Games is interactive and definitely not static.

Your psu will not support the kind of gpu you require. No ifs, ands or butts.

Which beggars the questions, is it even possible to upgrade the psu physically, would a gpu even fit in the case, or is it a small form factor/slimline office type desktop.

 

[rlomura]

As your hard drive is 5 years old now, it should be regulated to just being a backup/secondary and you should get a newer, bigger drive--8TB seems to be a price sweet spot. Then for boot, get an ssd as those are cheap. Storage issue solved.

The gpu is a bit more challenging as the R9 370 was only a 110w tdp card so you'd be limited to that tdp to avoid any power supply upgrades. I'm not sure what would be ideal there, although the suggested 1060 6gb is a great upgrade in a similar power profile:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r9-370.c2726
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1060-6-gb.c2862

thank you for the storage recommendations! i'll look into hard drives around that size & find a smaller ssd to boot from.

That's the issue. A 35" 1440p ultra wide is @ 2.5x as many pixels as a 16:9 1080p, or around 10x as many pixels as a 16:9 720p.

A gtx1060 won't even come close. A 1070 will even struggle.

You'll need to be looking at a 2070Super or better class of gpu to get decent framerates in most games. Windows is one thing, it's basically static pictures, video. Games is interactive and definitely not static.

Your psu will not support the kind of gpu you require. No ifs, ands or butts.

Which beggars the questions, is it even possible to upgrade the psu physically, would a gpu even fit in the case, or is it a small form factor/slimline office type desktop.

yea... this is what i was afraid of. given the age & wattage of my power supply, figured i was highly limited on what i can do with this.
i'm honestly surprised my gpu has help up with as much i've thrown at it lately, though shes definitely having a hard time. i don't need the /best/ performance in games as i don't play a ton of intensive ones, but definitely need something that likes my dual monitors better.

here's an image of the inside of this pc, its an old picture that the original seller took for me & they blocked out a bit of the details, but still gives a better idea of what i'm working with.

gpu is a slimline model, and i don't think i'd be able to swap in anything with a larger form factor. the psu... yea i don't think i'm getting in there to do any upgrades, nor do i really trust myself to fiddle with something that volatile if i were able to get into it.

would you just recommend starting fresh with a new build at this point? i'm not sure anymore if i can get the performance i truly want out of this tower, and if i did have the ability it might not even be worth the effort anymore.