Need to upgrade, what's my weakest link?

[nene808]

I want to upgrade a few parts to tide me over till next year when I buy a totally new computer. What do you think I should add for now, what part is my weakest link? I typically like to just get the bare essentials ($600-800) and just replace a few parts in a year, then have enough to get a new rig the following year. This is what I have now:

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
OCZ Fatal1ty 550W Modular Gaming Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor HDZ720WFGIBOX
GIGABYTE GV-N240D5-512I GeForce GT 240 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

I'm thinking about the video card and ram? I primarily use my comp for work but also for light gaming once in awhile, might need more ram to have everything I want open at the same time. Currently feeling a lot of framerate lag in come MMOs I play.


Thanks!

 

[deadjon]

Ram is fine - we are only just getting to the point where 4GB is used in gaming.

The Graphics card is dire - give us a budget for a new Graphics card and we can recommend one.

Off the top of my head you can pick up an EVGA Superclocked GTX460 1GB for £100 at the moment - should pick up your frames substancially - Anything above the 460 puts your PC In jepoardy of being entirely CPU limited though.

 

[nene808]

I guess £100 is about what I'd like to spend.

So the ram is ok? When I'm running the the game I want, a browser, and outlook together, my ram is at 95%-98% capacity. Would it help significantly hopping up to 8 or 16?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162078&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-14-162-078-_-Product

What about this? Too much?

 

[deadjon]

The horrible 550ti - Its a marketing scam

The GTX460 1gb is VASTLY Superior - I would recommend

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130749

Its a V2 version so only has a 192bit Bus, but the clocks are much higher and it runs cooler than the original.

Otherwise there is the 6850 for a Similar price.

 

[nene808]

Alright, I'll probably pick up that vid card tomorrow night. No ram then?

 

[de5_Roy]

mobo: if you like single card system and keep your components for a year, get a gigabyte/msi/asrock 970/990x chipset am3+ mobo (micro atx are even cheaper). those are cheap and future cpu-friendly.
cpu: ph ii x4 960t or 970 b.e.
ram: ddr3 1600 2x 2gb or 2x 4gb - gskill/mushkin etc
gfx card: radeon hd 6770/6850/6870 1 gb gddr5 or geforce gtx 560/560ti 1 gb gddr5.
according to price, an approximate comparison:
6770<6850<6870<560<560ti

 

[esrever]

6870 = 560 in terms of performance

for light gaming, the 6850 or 460 1 gb is probably a good choice. if you have to go cheaper then the 6770 is the way to go.

 

[deadjon]

You are running a 64bit OS right?

4gb of RAM is fine - I've never had an issue with RAM usage.

 

[de5_Roy]

don't know your location, so i'll take a wild guess and list some prices of cheap stuff:
mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521&Tpk=Gigabyte%20GA-970A-D3 @$90
cpu:
phenom ii x4 970
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894 $140
gfx card:
msi 6850 cyclone
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127576 $155
recommendations are based on price. look up the reviews of the components you choose.

 

[nene808]

Yes, running 64 bit windows 7. System just feels bogged down when I'm running a lot of stuff.

 

[phatbuddha79]

I doubt you're running out of RAM. Your system do look well balanced for its parts. If I had to pick though, it'd either be the gpu or cpu.

 

[nene808]

I'd appreciate a little help understanding how these two video cards compare.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130749
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

What makes the 460 superior? Is it the stream processors? What is that and how does it fit into the other specs?

 

[sykozis]

I'd appreciate a little help understanding how these two video cards compare.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130749
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

What makes the 460 superior? Is it the stream processors? What is that and how does it fit into the other specs?

GTX550Ti has fewer stream processors, fewer ROPs, fewer texture units.....

GTX550Ti: http://guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-550-ti-review-msi-cyclone-ii-oc/2
192 Cuda Cores
32 Texture Units
24 ROPs
98.5GB/s memory bandwidth
28.8 GT/s Texture Fillrate

GTX460: http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/2
336 Cuda Cores
56 Texture Units
32 ROPs
115.2GB/s memory bandwidth
37.8GT/s Texture Fillrate

Now, there is a GTX460 V2 out there with lower specs....

This page directly compares the various GTX460 models, including GTX460 V2....performance is questionable though as I've yet to see a review of the V2 cards: http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-460/specifications

 

[nene808]

Thank you all for your help!