What do I need to upgrade?

[Deleted]

I'm no good with computers but I want to be able to play Skyrim and such games without it tearing and lagging all the time, what do I need to upgrade? It would be really great if it was just the graphics card but I have no idea, please help.

CPU Type:
Intel® Core™ i5 CPU 650 3.20GHz
CPU Speed:
3.22 GHz
System Memory:
7.99 GB
Video Card Model:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 340
Video Card Memory:
3.96 GB
Primary Display Resolution:
1440x900
Secondary Display Resolution:
1786x1014
Hard Disk Size:
351 GB

[wimbo125]

You could upgrade your Hard Disk to a SSD (not necessary, but you should buy a HDD of 1TB). But your Graphics card needs to be upgraded to a new model, the 600 series of nVidia are awesome, you might wanna switch your primary and secondary screen, but that's just your preference.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the reply, so you think the rest of the PC is okay and just the graphics card needs an upgrade?

[wimbo125]

Well, primarily, your Hard Disk isn't that good, but for Skyrim you need a better graphics card (you might wanna go to Skyrim Nexus for some awesome mods).

[Deleted]

Can my motherboard use a 600 gtx series? It says they're GDDR5, can mine use more than a gddr3?

[yurano]

Can my motherboard use a 600 gtx series? It says they're GDDR5, can mine use more than a gddr3?

GDDR3/GDDR5 refers to video card memory thats integrated onto the card itself. The difference between the two has nothing to do with system compatibility. However, GDDR5 is much better than GDDR3.

For system compatibility of a graphics card, you're looking at 2 things.
1) PCI compatibility. Some older computers only support PCI where as newer graphics cards are PCI-Express. All versions of PCI-Express are compatible with each other, although a PCI-E 3.0 card on a PCI-E 1.0 motherboard might have reduced performance.
2) Power. Most performance graphics cards require additional power from the PSU via PCI power connectors. Not all PSUs have these additional connectors or are able to support the power consumption of a powerful graphics card. This is especially important when adding a new graphics card to a pre-built computer.

[Deleted]

Thank you, this all means a lot to me, I was very worried about posting anything here but this has been a great experience.

---------- Post added 2012-11-27 at 05:58 AM ----------

Can anyone recommend a graphics card for me? Or give me a few of different prices that would run modern games on max graphics.