Which part of my computer sucks the most.

Glad to be here, first post, etc etc.

The last two weeks have been kind of frustrating for me; I've always resigned myself to my computer being sub-par when it comes to running games, but when I got a copy of Far Cry 2 and found I'm lucky to get 30fps if I turn everything to the absolute lowest setting, I started wondering.

So, to make a long story short, I meet the numbers for the recommended specs of some modern games, but I still run them like crap. The closer I look, the more things are wrong with my computer. So with the goal in mind of, say, just getting a decent framerate (30+) on modern games like Far Cry 2, can someone please ease my frustration and tell me which parts/issues of mine are the most subpar? What I really will have to replace? I've resigned myself at this point to the fact that I'll probably need to dump more money on this thing.

mobo: ECS GeForce6100SM-M = Been good to me since I got it, though it turns out (screw me for not researching properly) that the PCIE slot only "fakes" being 16x, but actually runs at 8x. I've read the differences between the two aren't such a big deal, so...is that true?

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core BE-2300, 1.9mhz = So I know this is pretty sub-standard nowadays, but how substandard are we talking about? How much would this hold me back?

LeadTek NVidia GeForce 8500GT, 512m = When I bought it, my knowledge only extended this far: It's a GeForce, it's got a big number, and it's 512m. Most feedback I saw was limited to "Won't run Crysis at high settings, lol, but good", which was fine for me. Awesome deal right? Now I'm hearing that it just sort of blows. Grrreat. Is this the weakest link?

Others: WinXP, Old LCD monitor (does 1280x1024, I'm mostly happy), 4g of RAM. Lots of harddrive space. System seems to run at decent temps. Think my PSU is around 500w?

Motherboard sucks.

Cpu sucks bad!!!!!!!


GPU sucks Bad!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the replies, Mousemonkey especially. Browsing cards as-we-speak, actually comparing tests this time around...and definitely putting the 9600's high on that list.