Looking to upgrade my computer...

So i've been looking into upgrading my computer,and i've been trying to decide what parts im going to upgrade from...
Right now I have...
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+, ~3.1GHz
Memory:
4094MB RAM
Hard Drive:
320 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

With that setup I get around 15 FPS in dalaran with everything on high. I also just bought battlefield bad company 2 and I get some lag even with everything on medium, i'd like to be able to run that at high to say the least. Any ideas? I'm just trying to figure out if I could get away with just replacing like...the processor for a quad core, or just replacing the vid card with another, or to get what i'm asking would I have to replace both?

Off the top of my head, you might see a preformance increase with a better card (that one is a few years old), however even my new macbook pro 15" can get 15 fps in dalaran depending on the time of day, and it has a 9800 nvidea with a duel core intel 2.8 and 4gb of ram.

I would more specifically look at what's running in the background. Any applications using up some of the ram or processor? Who else is on the net at the time?

Dal just sucks.

Talanai wrote:Off the top of my head, you might see a preformance increase with a better card (that one is a few years old), however even my new macbook pro 15" can get 15 fps in dalaran depending on the time of day, and it has a 9800 nvidea with a duel core intel 2.8 and 4gb of ram.

I would more specifically look at what's running in the background. Any applications using up some of the ram or processor? Who else is on the net at the time?

Dal just sucks.

I usually have 1 to 2 small applications running in the background, definitely nothing intense. I built this rig like july of 08. I'm just trying to decide if a quad core is a huge jump from my dual core and if its worth upgrading...the same with my video card

I would recommend a 250 or 275 nvidia - not only are they a steal of a price right now...they are great.

I ended up trying out a nice radeon card(1GB) and upgraded to a nice amd phenom quad core. I'm hoping it's all nice, i've never used a radeon card before, always been more of an AMD guy

Phenom's are good solid procs....Radeon... I haven't heard any complaints from any of my friends...and that says a lot.

I notice something missing from the following sentence:
"NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT"
how much memory is on the card itself? most cards come in variations from 64-250 with some notable outliers on either side for the cheap/highend cards. Realistically your card isn't that bad...also for perspective I play at 14fps as my regular non lagging.

Also in the same vein as the "who else is on the net" what kind of internet are you running? cause if you're running with a crummy connection you can upgrade your computer all you want it's not going to help at all lol.

bruden wrote:I notice something missing from the following sentence:
"NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT"
how much memory is on the card itself? most cards come in variations from 64-250 with some notable outliers on either side for the cheap/highend cards. Realistically your card isn't that bad...also for perspective I play at 14fps as my regular non lagging.

Also in the same vein as the "who else is on the net" what kind of internet are you running? cause if you're running with a crummy connection you can upgrade your computer all you want it's not going to help at all lol.

I think it was a 256 card, and i'm not one to complain about 15 FPS in Dalaran, but I play more than just WoW, and some of the higher end games I can barely play on medium. And my internet connection is solid, my issues are coming from FPS, very rarely will I have any latency issues.

I also found the exact 2 items i was looking at in a combo deal, so I got free shipping, saved 20$ and a free 4gb flash drive. Im pretty sure I got the radeon hd5770 and the amd phenom 985 quad