What graphics cards can I use for my desktop?

[Morganiscool]

This is a fairly old computer, and my parents aren't getting a new computer anytime in the near future, so I've been thinking of getting a graphics card upgrade from the system's original integrated graphics. I am mainly getting a new graphics card for gaming, such as Call of Duty modern warfare 2, Rust, Team fortress 2 etc. May someone recommend me good graphics card upgrades for a good FPS boost in gaming? Thank you.

[NonSequitur777]

@Morganiscool,

Welcome to our HP User Forum!

Your HP Pavilion 590-P0053w (3LA71AA) is fitted with a Lincs motherboard (SSID: 843B) and a 180-watt power supply.

A 180-watt power supply cannot power any meaningful graphics card, but not to worry: it can be upgraded to a 400-watt power supply with p/n: L04618-800, or even a 500-watt power supply with p/n: L05757-800.

Btw, your desktop is highly upgradeable, and could be upgraded with an i7-8700 or an i7-9700 / i7-9700F (without integrated graphics) for even better gaming performance.

Btw, also consider upgrading your RAM with Crucial or Samsing or any other quality RAM to 2 x 16GB of DDR4 PC4-25600, 3200 MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered DIMM (UDIMM), 288-pin RAM sticks, down throttled to 2666 MHz. Or buy DDR4 PC4-21300, 2666 MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, DIMM (UDIMM), 288-pin RAM.  But I digress, back to your original question.

The most affordable PSU upgrade for you is to purchase the 400-watt unit, and here is an eBay purchase example ($64) for a 400-watt power supply (p/n: L04618-800): https://www.ebay.com/itm/265149352183?epid=3038039156&hash=item3dbc2208f7:g:dFgAAOSwlhBgkp6Y&amdata=....

Given the gaming expectations you provided, and perhaps a little bit beyond that, in my honest opinion one of the best (and currently most affordable) graphics cards you can pair with the aforementioned power supply, would be an HP (or Dell-) branded RTX 3060 12GB graphics card, starting at $230: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dcat=27386&_fsrp=1&_from=R40&_nkw=RTX+3060&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&....

References: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06110763, and: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp-compaq/pavilion-590-p0053w?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4cSFy..., and: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Knowledge-Base/Power-Supply-Cross-Reference-for-specific-model....

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Morganiscool]

What if my CPU is bad? The base speed is 2.81 GHz (Usually optimizes to 100% usage during gaming, like when I play team fortress 2)

[NonSequitur777]

@Morganiscool,

I don't think your CPU is necessarily "bad", just that an i5-8400 (2.80 GHz to 4.00 GHz, 6-Cores, 6-Threads) isn't the best (no hyperthreading, etc.) when it comes to gaming, to be honest.  -I would enable virtualization in BIOS, though.

That's why I suggested/recommended to upgrade to an i7-8700 or i7-9700.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777