GTS450 too old for folding?

[MeeLee]

Soooo this happened 3 days ago:

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0:18:23:WU00:FS01:Connecting to assign1.foldingathome.org:80
20:18:23:WU00:FS01:Assigned to work server 128.252.203.10
20:18:34:WU00:FS01:Requesting new work unit for slot 01: READY gpu:0:GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] from 128.252.203.10
20:18:34:WU00:FS01:Connecting to 128.252.203.10:8080
20:18:39:WU00:FS01:Downloading 15.43MiB
20:18:45:WU00:FS01:Download 35.25%
20:18:51:WU00:FS01:Download 84.27%
20:18:52:WU00:FS01:Download complete
20:18:52:WU00:FS01:Received Unit: id:00 state:DOWNLOAD error:NO_ERROR project:11759 run:0 clone:6626 gen:52 core:0x22 unit:0x0000005a80fccb0a5e6e935a9e2a5f26
20:18:53:WU00:FS01:Starting

And it's back up to >10000 points per day as compared to the previous CPU only < 2000. Yay ?

The 430 uses 200+ watts, and performs about the same as a $40 GT730 (with DDR5) that can do it at 50W. I would consider it an upgrade.
The next step up, a $80 1030, twice the price, performs 3x higher PPD, at 30W (nearly 10x lower power consumption).
Next significant upgrade, a $160 1650 Super, again, twice the price of the previous model, but nets you between 15 to 20x better performance, at twice the wattage of a 1030.
I'd say PPD/Watt, a 2060 Super is the next viable upgrade.
At 1,5x the price of the 1650, the $250 RTX 2060 Super nets you double to triple the PPD, at roughly double the wattage (125-160W).

The good thing with the GT and GTX 1000 series and above (1600 series, and RTX 2000 series), is that you can adjust the power curve.
You can do the same on a 730, but you'll probably only have 5 Watts of tolerance on the 30Watt GPU, where of 1 to 4 watts make sense, and the 5th watt is only going to lower performance by too much.