What's my bottleneck?

[Banli]

I'm using a rig that's 3 or 4 years old and trying to play newer games such as starcraft II beta and supreme commander II. In order to run either of these games I have to use the lowest settings and even then the loading time is excessive particularly in sup com 2. I'm trying to figure out what I want to upgrade first or if I need to do a multi-part upgrade. I don't have the $$ at the moment to build an entirely new system.

My specs -
2 GB RAM
4200+ x2 AMD processor 939
Nvidia 7800 GT
Asus a8n-e motherboard

 

[strangestranger]

Well, everything although ram and processors affect rts most. RAM would be the easiest upgrade.

 

[swifty_morgan]

True the system is old. But having owned/own 7800gt's I can affirm the biggest problem lies there. Should have included your gaming resolution.

 

[chillybawls]

Well for starters, you should probably go to a 9600 GT or maybe the rebranded equivalent of that. When you have the money though, a change in RAM or maybe just a whole new chipset+cpu would benefit you the most. I would focus on replacing that 7800GT first though.

 

[Guest]

Yes a cheap 9600gt or hd4670 from e-bay and another 2gb ram and you will notice a mega improvement, mind you I would not expect miracles, but it will turn into a working gaming rig as opposed to a slide show pc!

Also Supreem commander requires a decent Processor but I have played it on my Brother in Laws skt 939 4200+x2 with sli 7900gt 1280x1024 full quality no aa and it was smooth above 25fps, so yes, 4670 and 4gb ram will play it at 1280x1024!

 

[isamuelson]

Wow. Your system is pretty close to what I had (I have an ATI Radeon HD3870 instead of a 7800GT, although I DID have that one before the 3870).

At this point, you're only recourse is to either suffer through what you have, upgrade to a 9600GT or wait until you do have the money to upgrade.

I myself just upgraded my 4200+ X2 to an AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE, Gigabyte motherboard and 4 gigs of DDR2-800 memory for $250 due to being hampered by what I had (Socket 939, DDR memory). I had to get a new motherboard and memory due to the architecture change (Socket 939/DDR memory to AM2+/DDR2 memory). But, it was worth it!

Getting the most powerful video card for your CURRENT motherboard/CPU combination might possibly help, but only to a point because your CPU will bottle neck the GPU. To really get things to work better, you really need to eventually overhaul the CPU, motherboard and memory.

 

[swifty_morgan]

ISAMUELS...... Stop trying to confuse the OP. You have an AM2 system he has a 939 system. Parts are NOT interchangeable.

 

[isamuelson]

ISAMUELS...... Stop trying to confuse the OP. You have an AM2 system he has a 939 system. Parts are NOT interchangeable.

Sorry about that. I reread my message and I can see where it would confuse the OP. I modified it to explain what I was talking about.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Looks mobetta now. I too get caught up in what I want to say and omit relevant information from time time.