GPU Upgrade for Victus 15L TG02-0000i RCTO Base Model 49N24AV

[Wedge313]

Hello. I would like to upgrade the GPU on my Victus 15L desktop. I currently have a RX 5500. I'm looking to get something with at least 8 GB VRAM, but other than that I am wide open to suggestions. I do have a 500w PSU installed. What GPUs can you suggest that are compatible with the Victus 15L desktop? Thanks.

[NonSequitur777]

@Wedge313,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

I would recommend upgrading to an RTX 5060, which is currently offered very competitively by Amazon for under $300: https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeForce-WINDFORCE-Graphics-GV-N5060WF2OC-8GD/dp/B0F8LDHQ7Y/ref=sr_1_....

This RTX 5060 has a low 145-watt TDP, and your 500-watt power supply is more than sufficient to power it.

You'll most definitely like the graphics card upgrade compared with your old card: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-5060-vs-AMD-RX-5500/4184vs4059.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Wedge313]

Thanks for your response. I looked into the RTX 5060, and I think it would work well for me, but while doing so I saw a number of comparisons of the RTX 5060 to the RTX 3060 with 12 GB VRAM.  I'm trying to get a GPU that will handle X Plane 11 and allow me to run it at high rendering settings. I don't know what would help me more, the better performance of the 5060 or the larger VRAM of the 3060. I would appreciate your thoughts. 

Also, with my limited understanding of the specs, it looks like the 5060 is compatible with my system, whereas the 3060 might require some modification or adaptors? I don't really want to go down that path.

Thanks again for your help.

[NonSequitur777]

@Wedge313,

Excellent question: the recommended X-Plane 11 graphics card is a GTX 1070 8GB or better, so an RTX 3060 would indeed qualify to play this game at high 1080p resolution.

Btw, according to the game's specs, the GPU should have "at least 4 GB VRAM", so having 8GB VRAM should be plenty.

I am not sure what you meant by "the 3060 might require some modification or adaptors" -this card requires one 8-pin PCIe power cable and should fit in your case, unless some larger-sized (triple-fan) cards are too long (measure carefully!), but this applies to any graphics card in your case.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Wedge313]

Hello, Thanks again for your response. 

I'm sure the problem is on my end, but for some reason I didn't see your last response until just now. 

After my previous post I did a little more shopping around and decided to go with a new RX 9060 XT 16GB dual fan GPU, which seemed to be compatible with my system. But this morning when I tried to install it I got a "No Signal" message on the display. I checked the connection from the PSU (the card uses an 8-pin (6+2) connector, the same as my current RX 5500), and the card seems properly seated in the slot, the fans spin up when I turn the computer on, so I'm not sure why I'm getting the "No Signal" message. I've replaced the old RX 5500 for now.

I started a new post seeking help with this issue (and that's when I saw your last response). Since you seem knowledgeable on this subject, can you determine if the RX 9060 XT is compatible with my system? And if it is compatible, why am I getting the "No Signal" message. Thank you.

[NonSequitur777]

@Wedge313,

You're quite welcome!

An RX 9060 XT 16GB has a 160-watt TDP (and can use possibly up to 182-watt in some scenarios according to sources) which your 500-watt power supply should be able to power.

There's always the possibility of a defective unit or PCIe slot issue. Testing the card in another PC, or testing another known working card in yours, can clarify that.

This card is very new -it was released just two months ago in June 2025, and sometimes new cards -both Nvidia or AMD, need an upgraded driver and sometimes even a BIOS update for it to be (fully) functional.

Sometimes it is hit-and-miss. For example, I recently purchased an RTX 5070 which didn't work in an HP Pavilion TP01-3xxx, no matter what I tried, whereas this card worked just fine in an even older HP Pavilion 590-p0xxx -figure that.

Speaking of BIOS, make sure you got the latest version (F.30, issued on Sep 23, 2024) for your Victus by HP 15L Gaming Desktop PC TG02-0xxx as found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/victus-by-hp-15l-gaming-desktop-pc-tg02-0000i/2101006741.

Bottomline, I believe that the “No Signal” issue likely stems from power delivery issues or BIOS/configuration -rather than pure mechanical incompatibility.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Wedge313]

Thanks for getting back so quickly. The first thing I did after getting the "No Signal" message was check/update the BIOS, so I am running the most current version. I've spent the morning researching this, and did find one other case where someone had a problem installing a RX 9060.

I might be too worried about how much VRAM I'll need, I've seen a number of posts that knock the RTX 5060 for only having 8 GB. So I've gotten myself stuck between the new 5060 8GB and the older 3060 12 GB, a paralysis through analysis situation.

At this point I'm probably going to try to return the 9060 and exchange it for one of the others. I just need to decide which is more important to me, newer tech or more VRAM.

Thanks again for the help.

[NonSequitur777]

@Wedge313,

You're welcome.  Truth be told, 8GB of VRAM is sufficient for most gaming, so I wouldn't be too uptight about that.

The older -thoroughly tested and reliable RTX 3060 12GB should be just fine, as long as you don't venture beyond 1080p gaming.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Wedge313]

Hi, just a quick update on the RX 9060. I contacted Sapphire, and it appears that the card is not compatible with my system.

If it hasn't become obvious already, I'm not too savvy about computers. I knew my motherboard was far from cutting edge, and the PCIe slot is a 3.0. I checked a few websites to see if the 9060 (which is designed for a PCIe 5.0 slot) would work in a PCIe 3.0 slot, and the consensus was that these cards are backwards-compatible, there would be some hit to performance but the card should work. With the RX 9060 that is sort of true, Sapphire said it should work in a PCIe 4.0 slot, but not a 3.0 slot. So that would seem to be my problem. I don't know if that's true for all GPUs, they are only backward-compatible by one generation? If so, I'm limited to looking at older GPUs designed for PCIe 4.0 slots.

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@Wedge313,

It is understandable why you are cautious -GPU compatibility can get confusing quickly. Let me help clarify a few points:

1. PCIe Backward Compatibility

   • PCI Express (PCIe) graphics cards are normally backward-compatible across multiple generations.

   • A PCIe 5.0 card should work in a PCIe 4.0 or 3.0 slot -the only difference is reduced bandwidth.

   • For example, a PCIe 5.0 x16 GPU in a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot will run at PCIe 3.0 speeds. That’s a performance drop in theory, but in practice, most modern GPUs are not bottlenecked significantly by PCIe 3.0 unless you’re running at very high frame rates or doing heavy workloads like compute/AI.

2. What Sapphire Told You

   • It sounds like Sapphire gave a (very) cautious, brand-specific answer, saying the RX 9060 is validated only for PCIe 4.0 and newer. That doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work in PCIe 3.0 -it probably just means they haven’t tested it officially on older platforms.

3. Real-World HP Victus Compatibility

   • Your Victus by HP 15L Gaming Desktop TG02-0000i has a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (from its B660 chipset).

   • Looking at real-world results from Victus TG02 users on UserBenchmark, people are running RTX 20, 30, and 40 series GPUs successfully -but so far, I haven’t seen any RX 9000 or RTX 50 series cards reported.

   • That doesn’t mean they won’t work -just that they haven’t been widely tested yet.

4. My Experience

   • I recently tested an RTX 5070 (also a PCIe 5.0 card) in an older HP Pavilion 590-p0030 system with a PCIe 3.0 slot, and it worked perfectly fine: HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0xxx Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

   • This suggests that your RX 9060 should also work in your Victus TG02, despite Sapphire’s (overly) cautious wording.

Bottom line:

• PCIe GPUs are generally backward-compatible across multiple generations.

• You’re not limited to PCIe 4.0 GPUs -PCIe 5.0 GPUs should still work in your PCIe 3.0 slot, just at reduced bandwidth.

• If your RX 9060 is not posting, the issue may be elsewhere (BIOS support, PSU wattage/PCIe cables, or a compatibility quirk).

• The TDP for the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is reportedly 132-watt and is powered by one 8-pin PCIe power connector.  This means that as long as you got at least a 500-watt power supply, this card will get sufficient power.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777