How do I know what graphics card i need with a hp8d37 motherboard

[Michael607]

just a basic new HP omni desk desktop mo2

has 16G of ram 

[NonSequitur777]

@Michael607,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

The answer: that depends on your power supply.

Most HP Pavilion desktops equipped with an 8D37 motherboard ship from the factory with a highly restrictive 180-watt or 310-watt proprietary power supply.

If you have a 180-watt PSU: You cannot install a graphics card that requires a dedicated power cable. You must select a card that draws under 75-watt of power solely from the motherboard slot, such as the GT 1030, GTX 750 Ti, RX 6400 or an RX 550.  Please note that depending on what you are trying to do gaming-wise, these are underwhelming cards.

If you have a 310-watt PSU: You can run slightly faster cards that do not require external power cables, or lower-tier cards that only require a single 6-pin power connector, such as the low-power, low-profile (with a full-size PCIe bracket) Nvidia RTX 3050 or GTX 1650.

Upgrading the power supply on the HP Carter motherboard (p/n: P20673-601) is restrictive because HP uses a proprietary, non-standard power architecture. You cannot buy a standard off-the-shelf ATX power supply from brands like Corsair or EVGA and plug it directly into this motherboard.

The Carter board completely lacks a standard 24-pin ATX power connector. Instead, it relies on a proprietary combination of a 4-pin CPU connector, a 4-pin motherboard connector, and an HP-specific 7-pin "PWRCMD" inline control connector (the "P2" power connector).

Power supply upgrades: a 400-watt power supply (equipped with one 6+2-pin PCIe power cable) with p/n: 942332-001, or with a 500-watt power supply, with p/n: 901759-013 (equipped with one 6-pin PCIe and one 6+2-pin PCIe power cables).

With any of these power supply upgrades, you could power much more powerful graphics cards suitable to play modern games with ease.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777