The Choices
If I didn't work for THG and had kids or had some on the way, what constraints would I most likely be under? Most likely I would have a restricted budget because having a family is not cheap - but well worth the cost, of course. Given the system listed earlier and the fact that you love to game and have a limited budget, what should you choose to upgrade based on this system?
There are several areas to improve performance:
CPU
The CPU can increase the overall speed of the system. Some games offload parts of the workload from the graphics cards to the CPU. Load times should take less time and in game frames per second should be faster because the CPU can handle more work in a shorter period of time.
Motherboard
With a newer motherboard you are able to get more features and faster buses. If you upgrade to a different CPU, the socket and pins most likely will be different as well. So if you choose to upgrade one, you might be forced to upgrade the other.
RAM And Hard Drives
Main system memory helps overall system performance by decreasing the need for virtual memory reads and writes to the hard drive. If you do not have enough system memory to house programs and other files then the system will temporarily store them on the hard drive. A faster hard drive can help speed this up but the greatest performance boost you will see would come from the increased load times. Most CPUs can handle the information faster than the hard drive can supply it.
The Old Memory
The New
Graphics Card(s)
This is the one component that can significantly boost frame rates and overall gaming performance. Just like a CPU upgrade, this option can be as expensive as you want it to be.
Graphics cards are also linked to the motherboard. Older motherboards use AGP slots and newer boards are equipped with PCIe (PCI Express). One requirement is to make sure your existing motherboard has a fast AGP slot. The DFI board has an 8x AGP slot where some older systems only have a 4x connection.
There are several reasons why upgrading the graphics solution make the most sense; the first being that the newer the card, the newer the graphics engine. Processors such as the Ti4200 were great in their day but are lacking when it comes to advanced games with complex lighting, such as in Doom 3 or the benefits of better sampling in games like Half-Life 2. Unlike upgrading the CPU that can increase all aspects of the computer's performance, the graphics processor will only boost your 3D graphics capabilities. However, we are talking about games here; graphics is thus what matters the most.
