hi
my system; 1.0 ghz p3, 256sdr(100), (msi) nv gf4 mx440
i know i have a poooor system and somewhat obsolete graphic card(but this card did all what i write below)

played hl2, far cry pretty nice on med settings. played doom3 on low settings everything off(obviously) with choppy performance. nfsu2 was smooth. however, riddick is completely frustrating, (choppy) x 3 and unplayable. now, the big question.

i have only two options with me; buy ati9600pro or increase ram to 512 or at best i can try both. nothing more than this. what should i do? will this proposed upgrade make a difference? should i stick to mx440 and add some more ram? pl focus on only these options; my budget doesnot allow x..series cards or latest amd processors. however, i was thinking to upgrading to p4 and 512ddr(266) but in autumn(may be).

suggestions wil be valued greatly.
thanks

p.s. hl2 was a better game than ridick and doom3 with equal or better graphics. then why...............?

Is that an ON BOARD video?

I would drop in some ram as quick and easy and cheap to do, lots of it around for cheap else free...

For $50 Frys has AMD 2400 with motherboard.... That would do the most for the buck...

What part of the country / world ar you in...?

thanks for ur time thong. i am in Pakistan.

thanks for ur time thong. i am in Pakistan. the card in question is a graphic display/3d card aka vga card. used for graphic programming, architecture, has also tv out connectivity and mostly it is used to play games with 3d graphics. the better the card, the better it will display todays complex 3d textures including pixel shaders bla bla bla..............

thanks

Hi omw! I am also from Pakistan. I think I'd prefer a better RAM over a vga. I think if you're only playing games then you'll certainly need to upgrade both ... and preferably whole of your system. But for now if you're using a mixture of games and applications then you should be upgrading your RAM.

great.........which city r u from.im in multan. u a gamer?

Disagree nanosani. You get more performance improvement from a better video card than from a RAM increase for gaming.

That said, the combination of a 1GHz processor, a Gf4MX, and 256Mb of SD-RAM is beyond redemption when you are talking in terms of today's latest games. Whatever you upgrade is really only throwing good money after bad. That system is inadequate overall as a modern games system.

I gotta agree with Catweazle. Upgrading the ram or the video card is not going to allow you to play the newest games at any sort of decent setting. The CPU is going to be a bottleneck too. I'd recommend that you save your money till you can upgrade the mobo/cpu, RAM, and video card at the same time. Upgrading the RAM will definitely be a waste as you'll probably need to get a different kind when you upgrade the mobo/cpu. And it's sort of the same deal with the video card, a 1GHz cpu can only drive the video card so fast, so wait to buy that later when it will be cheaper and you can actually get the benefit of the performance from it.

Hey Catweazle... I did write that a whole system upgrade would be a good idea .... but he doesnt want to upgrade then I think RAM upgrade would be a good idea cuz vga is mainly used for gaming purposes but RAM can be used for overall performance upgrade.

I am in Lahore.

The question addresses games performance nanosani. I think the answer needs to address that also.

A display card upgrade will bring FAR more benefit for games than a RAM increase, but as said earlier, that entire system is considerably less than adequate in terms of modern PC games such as Half Life 2, Doom 3 and future titles. Whatever is purchased as an upgrade for the system is not going to be fully utilised, as the central 'engine' in the system (processor and slow SD-RAM) is simply not up to the task.

Playing 3D games is about the most demanding task you can put a home PC to work at!