Which GPU for an old HP envy?

[Zachabola]

Hello and thanks for reading this. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU from a decade old GTX 660 to something that can run 4K. What can my machine run? I've heard that it can handle a GTX 1060 but that a GTX 3060 would be bottlenecked by the CPU. Do you think my computer could run a GTX 2060? Any comments are appreciated.

Specs:

• 2013 HP envy phoenix 800-070st
• Pegatron 2ace motherboard
• Intel i7 - 3820 quad-core processor 3.6 GHz
• LGA 2011 CPU socket
• Intel x79 express chipset
• Sandy bridge
• 600W PSU
• BIOS AMI 8.09
• PCIe gen 2.0
• 16 GB DDR3 - 1600 MHz

Thanks in advance.

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@Zachabola,

Welcome to our peer-to-peer HP Community Forum!

This sounds like a fun Legacy Upgrade project!

If this was my project, and I was willing to put some money in it, I would consider the following:

1.) Change your processor to an i7-3960X (6-Cores, 12-Threads, 3.30 GHz to max 3.90 GHz) as sold here via a trusted eBay Seller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/402187469248?hash=item5da43dc1c0%3Ag%3AUHYAAOSwMS5efgtp&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAA..., or an i7-3970X (6-Cores, 12-Threads, 3.50 GHz to max 4.00 GHz) as sold here via a trusted eBay Seller: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=i7-3970X&_sacat=0&LH_Titl....

2.) Max out your RAM with DUAL-RANK 4 x 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, DIMM (UDIMM), 240-pin RAM sticks such as seen here: Timetec 16GB KIT(2x8GB) DDR3L / DDR3 1600MHz (DDR3L-1600) PC3L-12800 / PC3-12800 Non-ECC Unbuffered ....

3.) Making sure my primary (boot) drive is a SATA SSD.

4.) Upgrade your graphics card to an RTX 2060 Super or RTX 3060.

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[old_geekster]

@Zachabola , welcome to the Community.

Here is an HP Knowledge Base article that will explain what to consider when adding or upgrading a video card.