Will a ProDesk 400 G1 SFF accept an NVidia 1050ti or 1030 graphics card?

[Steve400]

Hi,

I recently acquired a ProDesk 400 G1 SSF. It came with the OEM Radeon 8490 1GB graphics card which is not sufficient for the games I'd like to play. I'm considering purchasing a 1050ti graphics card but have two concerns:

1) Will the 240W PSU be sufficient to power the 1050ti card? As a fallback option, a 1030 card should be OK as it reportedly draws less power than the stock Radeon 8490, but the performance increase would be considerably less.

2) WIll the BIOS allow either of these cards to operate?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

The existing 240 watt PSU does not meet Nvidia's minimum PSU requirements for either graphics card.

The good new is your PC has a UEFI BIOS. Both cards require a UEFI BIOS.

Regards

[Steve400]

Thankyou for your prompt reply.  I'm not all that clued up on what UEFI  allows that BIOS doesn't, but I'm encouraged by your information. I was under the impression that HP's BIOS/UEFI didn't play well with some graphics cards.

With regards to the power draw question, I'm aware that NVIDIA recommend a 300w PSU, but I view that as a pretty generic recommendation to allow for all possibilities. My stock Deskpro is pretty bare bones in terms of what it needs to power. Compared to a PC with multiple drives, multiple expansion cards, and maybe a monitor to power, I would think my power draw is less than average. So I guess I'm looking for someone with real world experience to advise if I've got enough wiggle room to get away with it.

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

The system will probably run fine as is, but it's useful life may be negatively impacted. Some games push both the graphics card and the processor. The current PSU may run hotter with power draws approaching the higher end of it's design specifications. This reduces the life expectancy of the PSU. Bad things may happen to the MB and all connected components when a PSU chokes. Your choice.

I build new PCs and repair/upgrade PCs.

I tend to take a conservative approach to sizing PSUs. Reasonable head room or wiggle room is the key. Installing a 1000 watt PSU in a system that will run nicely at 400 watts is overkill and a waste of money. Using a 250 watt PSU in a system that should have a 300 watt or better PSU is foolish.

I also follow the manufacturer's minimum recommendations. Then make adjustments based on future component upgrades.

Regards

[Steve400]

I did a bit more googling and found mixed reports of success. Seems to fit with what you say. I've erred on the side of safety and purchased a Geforce GT 1030 card instead. It's supposed to draw 30w compared with the OEM Radeon 8490's 35w. By comparison the 1050 and 1050ti reportedly draw 70 - 75W.

I'm not going to wow anyone with my benchmark test results, but I should be able to play some games on modest settings that the OEM card wouldn't run at all, which is all I wanted to achieve. Saved me some pennies too as the 1050ti was around double the price.

Thanks again.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Steve,

You're very welcome.

The 1030 is a decent graphics card.

You can always do the PSU upgrade down the road.

I sometimes use a Kill A Watt: voltage, amp, and watt consumption testing device to check PC power usage at the AC outlet.

A HP PC running an i7-8700K and a GTX 1080 was the last system tested. The system also had a Corsair 650 watt PSU, 16 GB RAM, and one M.2 PCIe 3.0x4 NVME SSD.

The following results were observed:

-System off, power supply switch in the off position, 0.0 watts.

-System powered off, power supply switch in the on position, 3.2 watts,

-operating system load, 68 watts to 105 watts,

-operating system idle, 50 watts,

-Heaven Benchmark test results, 250 watts to 276 watts,

-Time Spy test results, similar to Heaven Benchmark results. Some peak 300 watt transients.

- Time Spy CPU test results, 190 watts,

-Intel XTU test results, 30 minute test cycle, 118 watts to 134 watts,

-Prime 95 and Heaven Benchmark, 30 minute test cycle, running simultaneously, 280 watts. Some transient peaks in excess of 300 watts but less than 325 watts.

Regards

[Steve400]

Delighted to report that the 1030 card arrived in the mail today and installed easily. Drivers installed with only one minor hiccup, but all is good now. Games currently installed look signficantly better, e.g. Fortnite now runs on high settings rather than medium or low. New games being installed as we speak 🙂

Thanks for your advice Grzwacz.

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve,

You're very welcome.

Game on.

Regards