Question Upgrading GTX960 in Old HP Prebuild, $200 budget

[mperet96]

Hello, I'm trying to upgrade an (I'll admit ancient) HP prebuild (ENVY 700qe) with it's original HP 2AF3 Motherboard, Intel Core i7 4790 @ 3.60GHz, and a 460 Watt PSU. I upgraded the system previously with a 4GB EVGA GTX 960 (low-profile card) and maxed it out with 32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz RAM.

I'm a professional video editor using the Adobe CC Suite, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. I don't game much on this system anymore but I have started getting into creating AI-generated images in Stable Diffusion and the 4GB GPU is a bottleneck. It maxes out trying to generate anything over 650px x 650px.

I'm looking for another NVIDIA card. Specifically, I was looking at the GTX 1060 6GB or GTX 1070. I would like a card with at least 6GB VRAM or 8GB if there's a lower power card that my PSU can handle. It also needs to be fairly low-profile to fit into the case.

I'm open to buying from any (US) website that has a good price on the card. Since this is such an old computer, my budget is capped at $200. It may not even be worth upgrading and you can let me know below. I'm really just looking at my options to maybe eek out another year or 2 out of this machine.

Monitors: I have 3 monitors total hooked up to this PC: A dual 1080p display setup connected through 2 DVI-D ports.
I also have an 55" 4K TV hooked up through the HDMI port.


Any help is appreciated, thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

Intel Core i7 4790 @ 3.60GHz, and a 460 Watt PSU

I'm a professional video editor using the Adobe CC Suite, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

Really, you need a whole new PC. Not just a better GPU.

A distinctly better GPU will need a better PSU.
Which may or may not be doable with the proprietary HP motherboard.
And the CPU is ALSO a major limiting factor.

For you, a better PC is a business expense.

 

[mperet96]

Really, you need a whole new PC. Not just a better GPU.

A distinctly better GPU will need a better PSU.
Which may or may not be doable with the proprietary HP motherboard.
And the CPU is ALSO a major limiting factor.

For you, a better PC is a business expense.

You're right about me needing a new PC and about it being a business expense, i'm just cheap and tend to use things until "the wheels fall off"

 

[USAFRet]

You're right about me needing a new PC and about it being a business expense, i'm just cheap and tend to use things until "the wheels fall off"

So build a new system for your PS/Premier work, and repurpose this old one for some other use.

I do a lot of photo/video/CAD work, and the difference between the i7-4790 and something new is pretty significant.
I say this as having recently semi retired/repurposed my 4790k system.

 

[mperet96]

So build a new system for your PS/Premier work, and repurpose this old one for some other use.

I do a lot of photo/video/CAD work, and the difference between the i7-4790 and something new is pretty significant.
I say this as having recently semi retired/repurposed my 4790k system.

I currently also use the system for a PLEX media server running mostly 1080p content so I would keep using it for that until I eventually get a NAS.

I was actually thinking about getting a Mac Studio so that I could go back to using Final Cut instead of Adobe. I'm not really a fan of the sealed/non-upgradable ram and storage though.

The other option would be to build a PC myself which I'd have to do more research into.

 

[USAFRet]

I currently also use the system for a PLEX media server running mostly 1080p content so I would keep using it for that until I eventually get a NAS.

I was actually thinking about getting a Mac Studio so that I could go back to using Final Cut instead of Adobe. I'm not really a fan of the sealed/non-upgradable ram and storage though.

The other option would be to build a PC myself which I'd have to do more research into.

Going to the Mac ecosystem is a major change. Software and workflow.
Personally, I wouldn't.

 

[mperet96]

Going to the Mac ecosystem is a major change. Software and workflow.
Personally, I wouldn't.

I've used a Mac for over 10 years alongside a Windows PC so I'm not really afraid of the workflow and software changes. I actually prefer it over Windows though I haven't used any version newer than High Sierra.

The only daunting thing about it would be migrating over 4tb data from all my NTFS hard drives to the Mac file system.

 

[USAFRet]

I've used a Mac for over 10 years alongside a Windows PC so I'm not really afraid of the workflow and software changes. I actually prefer it over Windows though I haven't used any version newer than High Sierra.

The only daunting thing about it would be migrating over 4tb data from all my NTFS hard drives to the Mac file system.

Moving that data shouldn't take more than a day.

 

[mperet96]

Moving that data shouldn't take more than a day.

Moving it alone wouldn't take more than a day, but you need somewhere to move it to. I need to buy new drives, wipe and reformat old drives into the APFS format and transfer and organize the data back onto them so it all makes sense.

 

[sonofjesse]

https://www.microcenter.com/product...ries-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-combo

This is what you need, I would sell that, and use that money for a new build honestly.