Hey, I was hoping someone could help me with my computer. Because my computer isn't working great anymore. While running gamestudio I'm getting very low framerates and I can't use many shaders. My computer specs are:

AMD Sempron 2200+, mmx 3dnow 1,5 ghz
512 mb ram
Nvidia geforce 3 Ti 200, 64 mb

Hope someone can tell me which parts I need to improve and with what. So that I can have a better framerate and can use many shaders.
Thanks anyway, Molotov.

You shouldn't do the mistake only buy one new component, even if you're short on money. Because in a few months or years you have to spend much more money. The reason is that your system is very old, almost all hardware components you own changed it's standard.

If you want to replace one of your components with todays hardware you must either buy slower hardware because your mainboard doesn't support newer ones or buy a complete new mainboard and new components.

An example: If you want a new (better) processor you need a new mainboard. But most payable ones doesn't support DDR and AGP anymore, for e.g... so need also new RAM (DDRII for example) and a new video card (PCI-Express).

This is very variable and flexible at all. In your case the video cards is the worst of your components. You could replace it, but I think it's the best solution to buy a new computer.

well your biggest issue right now is your videocard. to get the biggest gaming performance upgrade with the least price would be to get about another gig of ram and a geforce 9600

Upgrading with only a video card and ram won't really help much. The processor will be the new bottleneck then and I don't think a geforce 9600 would fit in such a system, doesn't that one require PCI-express x16 2.0 slots?

Anyways, it'll cost more than the performance gain it would give. I'd just buy a new system altogether.

true, but if he has a pci-e slot, for only getting a couple pieces, that would be the most efficient. then if he can save for a month or two, he could replace the mobo and processor.

yeah, he'll need a new motherboard for a new VideoCard , and his CPU wont fit in the new mainboard. changing mobo,gpu,rams and cpu is nearly same thing as getting a new system.

with how old the system is...I don't think that he would have a PCI-E slot...

edit: quadraxas got the answer before me

The best thing to do would be to build a new one, allstarshop.com has great prices, but if you don't feel comfortable building a pc I could help you get something in your price range, just pm me if you wish. I could get you a good pc from $500 to $1000 depending on how good of a system you want, and allstarshop has optional installation and windows install for a small price. They also have warranties for everything you get, and you have a 1 year return policy in case something doesn't work.

If you don't want to build it completely from scratch then check cyberpowerpc.com, they have some cheap but good gaming pcs, although you could build something better for cheaper.

what i dont understand is why everyone is telling him to buy a new pc, instead of build a new one. much cheaper that way.

i meant building by "getting a new system". It's ofcourse cheaper, and always suits you spesific needs better.

ahem...



I kinda prefer making them too, it's cheaper and with allstarshop it's really good prices. The new pc I plan on building will cost about 1k and it'll be a system I won't have to completely replace for some time.