Choppy graphics and bad lag on battlefield 2

hi,i just got a dell gx280 p4 2.8 ht with 512 ram and nvidia 512mb pci express card. i had the same card on my last system and the graphics were better than this. is the lag and choppy graphics because i only have 512 ram? i hope thats the problem or im gonna sell this dell and just save for a better gaming pc. any hints on how to get it to play good on bf2?

you just bought this? second hand?

I had to google defenestrate

ok i hope its the ram. im in san francisco btw

15a 12volt rail / 300w is the recommended minimum for that card. If you have the one im thinking of then the Dell Part # is U4714 and it provides 16a.
Honestly you are really pushing it (that 16A needs to provide CPU power as well). I would not spend a dime more on this though, so against my better judgement id say run with it for a few days. If you get any sorta crash under load then i was wrong and you do need to invest in a PSU. Or you could underclock your CPU / GPU until it is stable.

the 7300 is a bit weak but you could easily overclock it to get a bit more out of it, trouble is you have run into the upgrade nightmare now lol. So you put in more ram, easy, then you a new gfx card (is your mobo pci x) if not find an agp card.... So you get the new card and dammit your psu doesnt deliver enough grunt so you need a new one, bah it doesnt fit, i need a new case, and on and on lol.
For cheapness just stick in new memory and overclock your graphics card a bit. Otherwise your nightmare has only just begun..

Actually, now that I take a trip down memory lane...I did the same thing. I was a poor college student and had to buy the $399 dell especial el crapo PC.

For a while I rocked out the 512MB of RAM and if I remember right...I got BF2 and it didn't run so smooth with my 6800GT. I replaced the 512 with 2x1GB and the game ran smooth like butta.

I am betting 2GB will do wonders for you. 512 is a bit outdated.

Well majority rules...go with the RAM and if the issue persists then we can choose a suitable PSU for you. If its still a bit sucky then do an OC.

Really would not spend too much so stick with RAM and see what happens

cool..ill try the ram first and see what happens. but someone mentioned the gfx card i got requires more power. can i damage the ps or the mb if i continue to play bf2 with the 250 watt that came with this dell?

yeah the psu is a bit low, you may start glitching a lot when the pc is stressed. Chuck the 300w in and cross your fingers, 2gb will def help loads though especially with level load times. I play it on my new rig now and its so fast to load cos its an old game
you can overclock your 7300 by using RivaTuner - www.guru3d.com/rivatuner.
With that card you should manage 1024x768 with some eye candy turned on.