Upgrading Computer Questions

[simonblack]

Hi I have a P5GD2-X that I'm thinking about upgrading. I'm confused about what it can take though. In the Manual it says, PCI Express x16 and people online say that any PCIe card is backward compatible. My question is what kind of card will be worth it. As I'm guessing the computer will lose out on lots of performance because of this. I don't want to buy a card that is too good for my motherboard. Also it has 1 GB of ram (2x 512) and I'm thinking of buying 2 GB more (2x 1GB) as it has 4 ram slots with a max capacity of 4 GB total. Should I consider buying a new motherboard(and processor) or will these 2 items speed up my computer and be worth the money? Any recommendations?

I'm hoping on playing some of the new games that are already out at their lowest performance settings.

Thanks, I'll in check regularly,
William

Motherboard Specs

Asus P5GD2-X 800MHz FSB Intel 915P Chipset Dual Channel DDR2 533 LGA775 Socket 775/T ATX Motherboard with SATA, Gigabit LAN, PCI-Express X16, PCI-Express X1, 8 Channel Audio, USB 2.0

Video Card I'm possibly looking into
XFX Radeon HD 4770 750MHZ 512MB 3.2GHZ GDDR5 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Video Card
General
GPU
Radeon HD 4770

Packaging
Retail
Interface
PCI Express x16 (2.0v)
Max Resolution
2560 x 1600
Operation Supported
Windows XP/Vista
Specification
Core Clock
750
Stream Processor
640
OpenGL
2.0
RAMDAC
400 MHz
DirectX Version
Direct X 10.1
Low Profile
No
Memory
Memory Size
512MB
Memory Type
GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth
128-bit
Memory Clock
3200
Connectors
DVI
2 x DVI-I (Dual Link)
TV-Out
HDTV
HDMI Capable
Yes
Feature
TV Tuner
No
Cooling Device
Heatsink/Fan
SLI Capable
CrossFire Ready
CrossFire Capable
CrossFireX
Vista Ready
Yes
HDCP Ready
Yes

[techniner]

Hi I have a P5GD2-X that I'm thinking about upgrading. I'm confused about what it can take though. In the Manual it says, PCI Express x16 and people online say that any PCIe card is backward compatible. My question is what kind of card will be worth it. As I'm guessing the computer will lose out on lots of performance because of this. I don't want to buy a card that is too good for my motherboard. Also it has 1 GB of ram (2x 512) and I'm thinking of buying 2 GB more (2x 1GB) as it has 4 ram slots with a max capacity of 4 GB total. Should I consider buying a new motherboard(and processor) or will these 2 items speed up my computer and be worth the money? Any recommendations?

I'm hoping on playing some of the new games that are already out at their lowest performance settings.

Thanks, I'll in check regularly,
William

Motherboard Specs

Asus P5GD2-X 800MHz FSB Intel 915P Chipset Dual Channel DDR2 533 LGA775 Socket 775/T ATX Motherboard with SATA, Gigabit LAN, PCI-Express X16, PCI-Express X1, 8 Channel Audio, USB 2.0

Video Card I'm possibly looking into
XFX Radeon HD 4770 750MHZ 512MB 3.2GHZ GDDR5 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Video Card
General
GPU
Radeon HD 4770

Packaging
Retail
Interface
PCI Express x16 (2.0v)
Max Resolution
2560 x 1600
Operation Supported
Windows XP/Vista
Specification
Core Clock
750
Stream Processor
640
OpenGL
2.0
RAMDAC
400 MHz
DirectX Version
Direct X 10.1
Low Profile
No
Memory
Memory Size
512MB
Memory Type
GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth
128-bit
Memory Clock
3200
Connectors
DVI
2 x DVI-I (Dual Link)
TV-Out
HDTV
HDMI Capable
Yes
Feature
TV Tuner
No
Cooling Device
Heatsink/Fan
SLI Capable
CrossFire Ready
CrossFire Capable
CrossFireX
Vista Ready
Yes
HDCP Ready
Yes

Please be advise that if you plan on going above 3.25GB of ram then you will want to get a 64bit O/S as a 32bit O/S is not capable of addressing larger then 3.25GB

As far as hardware to purchase this is dependant on your budget.

Give me some numbers of what your willing to spend in each area and I will gladly suggest some product numbers.

[simonblack]

Thanks for the quick response, so that covers the ram. So a video card like the one listed above "Radeon HD 4770 750MHZ 512MB 3.2GHZ GDDR5 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Video Card " would work at full capacity? I'd rather not spend more than 100 dollars on a video card unless it will improve performance to a significant degree.