Video Card or RAM?

[Pandragon]

Currently I have around $100 to spend on upgrades for my comp. But I have some questions.

I don't know if I should get new RAM or a Video Card. The only games I play are WoW, and LoL. With WoW I average around 15-25 fps. the 25 is if I'm in the barrens, in a cave, doing nothing. lol With LoL, sometimes my FPS will drop when fights start to happen for a second. I don't know if this is a result of my Vcard, or my RAM.

My video card is: ATI Radeon HD 3200 it is a built in card as well.

My computer has 4gb of ram, 4 slots in the computer all of them are 1 gb cards.

My computer, when not running games also freezes from time to time, and programs will stop responding for a few seconds. I think this has to do with my RAM.

Anyways. Should I upgrade my video card or RAM? I have around $100 to spend, might be able to go as high as 150. Would it be possible to upgrade both of them for around that much money?

[TwentyTwelve]

Honestly it could also have something to do with your CPU, i would say if you have 4gb of ram (NON FAILTY ram) then the best upgrade out of the two would be a GPU as integrated cards aren't the best.

However saying that, i'm assuming the ram is ddr3 1333+, if not please list the ram you have ^^.

[vesseblah]

Graphics card definitely, 4GB RAM is enough for games. Also the speed of the RAM matters very little.

Aim for Radeon 7770, anything lower is going to be a compromise.

[Pandragon]

Where do I find what the ram is?

[mafao]

RAM is the least of your problems, 4GB is enough for stuff you do. The 780G chipset's GPU is clearly not up to date, but so is probably your CPU. If you are on a tight budget, a new video card will probably give you the best immediate improvement. But don't get anything too fancy - any modern lower-mid-range card will probably already saturate the capabilities of your CPU. I'd look into doing something with your CPU as well. What socket are we talking about? Maybe you can find some used parts to update both CPU/GPU for around $150

[Pandragon]

RAM is the least of your problems, 4GB is enough for stuff you do (its not like you can . The 780G chipset's GPU is clearly not up to date, but so is probably your CPU. If you are on a tight budget, a new video card will probably give you the best immediate improvement. But don't get anything too fancy - any modern lower-mid-range card will probably already saturate the capabilities of your CPU. I'd look into doing something with your CPU as well. What socket are we talking about? Maybe you can find some used parts to update both CPU/GPU for around $150

I really don't know much about computers. With not ever having much money it's something I've never bothered to learn. So your entire post just kinda confused me. lol

[mafao]

I really don't know much about computers. With not ever having much money it's something I've never bothered to learn. So your entire post just kinda confused me. lol

Well, if you want to have a good computer on a tight budget, then your best option is to learn about them Otherwise, it would be difficult making reasonable purchase decisions. Or even better: get more money!

I can't give you any specific advice about the components as I am a bit out of the entire PC building scene since a few years. But it would help if you can tell us what mainboard (vendor and model, it should be printed somewhere on it) and CPU (http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/w...rocessor-speed).

[ati87]

I really don't know much about computers. With not ever having much money it's something I've never bothered to learn. So your entire post just kinda confused me. lol

MMO's are different then regular games in that your processor is more important then your video card. The reason why you have low FPS is because your CPU is holding you back.

To find out which socket type you have you will have to find out which motherboard you have. You can't just randomly buy a computerpart and then place it in your computer, it has to ''fit'' as well.

[Pandragon]

You can't just randomly buy a computerpart and then place it in your computer, it has to ''fit'' as well.

That I know.

Under device manager it lists my processor as AMD Anthelon Dual Core Processor 5050e.

How do I find out what the motherboard is?

[mafao]

Under device manager it lists my processor as AMD Anthelon Dual Core Processor 5050e.

Ok, thats good enough. It means that your socket is AM2 and the RAM will be DDR-2...

Well, my recommendation is to get some cheap graphics card and pluck it in there, basically anything will give you a healthy performance boost. In an erlier post, vesseblah suggests a Radeon 7770, which is a good card, but it could be a waste for your setup (because your CPU is really slow). I would slowly try to gather some cash and get a new computer entirely. If you plan going down that road, you can get a 7770/7750 now and some time later, get a new main board/CPU/RAM

[Pandragon]

Ok, thats good enough. It means that your socket is AM2 and the RAM will be DDR-2...

Well, my recommendation is to get some cheap graphics card and pluck it in there, basically anything will give you a healthy performance boost. In an erlier post, vesseblah suggests a Radeon 7770, which is a good card, but it could be a waste for your setup (because your CPU is really slow). I would slowly try to gather some cash and get a new computer entirely. If you plan going down that road, you can get a 7770/7750 now and some time later, get a new main board/CPU/RAM

It will take me a couple years to get the cash for a new computer. I have had this computer for 2 years or so and just now got enough cash to upgrade something.

[Swargle]

Personally, I'd say keep saving. it sounds like you aren't having any major issues for the time being, at least you don't seem to convey them as major issues. Stay the course save up for a nice MoBo/RAM/CPU and get your stuff kicked off right.

[Berserker Cronus]

If it's going to be a couple years, I don't think he should just "keep saving" and continue to live with FPS most of us consider unplayable. Something like the 7770 would be a night and day improvement in performance, even with the wimpy CPU. People recommending that you shouldn't bother because of your CPU's limited capabilities don't know what they're going on about. My only concern would be your PSU, because if it has integrated I'm assuming it's a prebuilt, and if it's a prebuilt power could be a major issue.

In regards to RAM, most games are still 32 bit and so long as you don't have too much going on in the background you should be good with 4GB. It's quite possible you're running on 32-bit Windows anyway.

[mafao]

People recommending that you shouldn't bother because of your CPU's limited capabilities don't know what they're going on about.

I never said he shouldn't bother. I said that a fast GPU will be a waste for his setup because the performance will be limited by the weak CPU. Something like GT 630 will also be a night and day performance increase from 780G. I am simply very sceptical that you'd see that much performance increase when putting a faster card in there. Something low-end for $50 or so will already be enough to give him stable 30+ fps in WoW on medium settings or so. A 7770 might improve it by another 5 fps, if at all.

Edit: to illustrate what I mean, look at these Borderlands 2 benchmarks. There they use different CPUs with a GTX 680. And his CPU is about on par with the A6 3500, down at the bottom.

http://www.techspot.com/review/577-b...nce/page6.html

[dontknowdoya]

Currently I have around $100 to spend on upgrades for my comp. But I have some questions.

I don't know if I should get new RAM or a Video Card. The only games I play are WoW, and LoL. With WoW I average around 15-25 fps. the 25 is if I'm in the barrens, in a cave, doing nothing. lol With LoL, sometimes my FPS will drop when fights start to happen for a second. I don't know if this is a result of my Vcard, or my RAM.

My video card is: ATI Radeon HD 3200 it is a built in card as well.

My computer has 4gb of ram, 4 slots in the computer all of them are 1 gb cards.

My computer, when not running games also freezes from time to time, and programs will stop responding for a few seconds. I think this has to do with my RAM.

Anyways. Should I upgrade my video card or RAM? I have around $100 to spend, might be able to go as high as 150. Would it be possible to upgrade both of them for around that much money?

Before you do anything consider the following. First, you say your computer is freezing all the time, even when not playing games. Has it always done this or is it a newer problem? If it is a newer issue, you probably have too much crap running or you may have a hardware issue. If you have recently started getting interment 30 second hangups and really long boot times, it may be a bad hard drive.

If this is a new issue.
Uninstall any programs that you do not use and disable a lot of the programs that do not need to run all the time. I am too new to post links, but do a google search for pacs portal. That site will help you choose which ones can be disabled. Run some anti spyware programs. Download Malwarebytes, Spybot and ccleaner from filehippo dot com. Do absolute minimum installs (no toolbars or active protection or auto updates I like the 6.22 version of spybot) on these, make sure they are up to date and use them. If they keep finding crap after multiple scans, reload your OS.

If you are worried about your hardware, you can get some good and free diagnostic software do a google search for the ultimatebootcd

Try adjusting your virtual memory settings. If you are running 4 gigs, I would probably set my VM to around 3500mb and setting your visual effects to performance.

What about your hard drive? Are you using more than 80% of the space on it?

To straight out answer your question: Given what I do know about your system, I would say pop a new video card in it. But not until I made sure everything is performing up to par.

[Berserker Cronus]

I never said he shouldn't bother. I said that a fast GPU will be a waste for his setup because the performance will be limited by the weak CPU. Something like GT 630 will also be a night and day performance increase from 780G. I am simply very sceptical that you'd see that much performance increase when putting a faster card in there. Something low-end for $50 or so will already be enough to give him stable 30+ fps in WoW on medium settings or so. A 7770 might improve it by another 5 fps, if at all.

My comment wasn't aimed at you. I agree that anything would be a night and day performance increase. But I think the model he should be aiming for depends more on his gaming habits than anything.

At this point I'm skeptical his PSU even has enough power to drive something like a 7770, so your recommendation of a lower-end media center GPU is probably a better option.