So I have a Dell Optiplex 3010 with an i5 3470, 8GB of 1300mHz DDR3 RAM, a GT 1030 Low Profile, 500GB HDD and a 250 Watt Power Source. I am planning on getting a new graphics card, but am a little confused on how powerful a graphics card can be before it overloads the power source. I am looking at a GTX 1050Ti Low Profile or a GTX 1650 Low Profile, could anyone help me with which one would be able to be put in my computer? I can't spend more than 500 dollars so buying a new case or power source is not an option.
I want to upgrade my graphics card which is a gigabyte amd radeon rx 5500xt 4GB and was looking to get something that has 8GB.
I am planning on switching my PC out for a MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip at the end of the summer, that thing is so powerful, it can just run parallels desktop with Windows 10 on it, so this graphics card upgrade is just a temporary fix until I get the Mac
Yes, if you look at the geek bench scores of the MacBook Pro M1 Max, it outspecs any Windows laptop out there (I need a laptop for school, and I don't want to have to have two computers)
Parallels is *painfully* slow, so it would be better to get a used 27in iMac or Mac Pro if any are in your budget. I'd go for the Mac Pro because of expandability and because 2012 and onwards iMacs have the glass and display fused so glass replacement is expensive
I have tried parallels on a 2020 iMac 27" with a i5 10700K, 40GB of ram and an AMD Radeon Pro 5300 Graphics card with 4GB of VRAM, and it was SUPER slow. The 16" MacBook Pro with the M1 Max Chip with the same amount of RAM doubles the scores of the iMac. (I have included screenshots below)
Parallels is really bad for most things, so if you want the maximum performance on an Intel Mac, use Bootcamp. It's not as easy as Parallels but it works far better, just make sure to get an Intel Mac as Windows does not naitively support ARM, which Apple's M1s are based off
