What should I upgrade next?

[Acousticx]

My current system is:

Nvidia GTX 460 SE 1GB

AMD Athlon 64 x4 quad core @ 3.1 OCed

2gb 1066 ddr2 RAM

What should I upgrade next for gaming purposes? I was thinking of adding 2gb more of the same ram as it looks to be my bottleneck. Suggestions?

[Sir Shfvingle]

What's your motherboard, as that would be the determining factor for most upgrades?

[Bolkonsky]

Nothing. Invest in a new PC. RAM and CPU are already outdated. It's just not worth the upgrades.

[Devilmaypoop]

Nothing. Invest in a new PC. RAM and CPU are already outdated. It's just not worth the upgrades.

For gaming purposes? I dont think so. I mean sure, he needs 2gb more RAM for gaming, but DDR3 isnt a must. And an athlon II running at 3.1 ghz is plenty for any game today.

He would only need a better CPU if he had a higher end GPU, like a 570 GTX or HD 6970, wich would be massively bottlenecked. Considering he has a 460 GTX, I doubt there is any bottleneck there.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

I wouldn't upgrade anything, just use it until you're ready to do a full system upgrade.

[Bolkonsky]

It's still not worth putting the money into it just for luxury. I've got a build similar to his. He's pretty much maxed out his system. RAM's the only thing he could upgrade.

[Justinian]

A lot of games recommend 4 GB RAM minimum with Windows 7/Vista, so I'd definitely go ahead and upgrade the RAM (provided you have the slots, obviously). 2GB of DDR2 RAM is dirt cheap. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231144 $50 with free shipping, not too bad IMO.

The only way I think you shouldn't upgrade your RAM is if you're planning on upgrading your computer pretty seriously, in which case hold off until you get a new motherboard and then get DDR3 RAM and a new CPU

[ROFL Copter]

RAM is indeed your only possibility, though it will make almost no difference. People place FAR to much focus on RAM. I don't understand it.

[Karklos]

Are you on windows 7?

[Acousticx]

Woops, forgot I made this thread .

Anyways, I have an Asus m3a76-cm mobo and yes 32bit windows 7.

I figure I will just wait till I need to completely upgrade to get anything new.

[Syntax]

Acousticx Like you stated yourself - go for 2 more GB Ram - you will feel the difference in games!!!


ROFL Copter - you will see a change between 2 and installing 4 GB in games (loading times and FPS)- all above there is nearly no difference - true!

[Crazyeyesreaper]

get 2 more gigs matching ram to what you have now, reinstall windows and go 64bit, otherwise your stuck at 3gb or 3.2gb of ram due to video memory needing address space in the windows OS, no one should be running 32bit anymore, unless well like the OP they have less then 3gb of ram.

Amd Athlon II x4 quad core is fine for gaming, not great but it will get the job done, 460 SE is the WORST 460 card out, i feel kind of bad for the OP because its performance is worse then the 460 768mb version which last i checked costs less. most tech users have labeled the 460 SE as the edition nvidia kind screwed the 460 cards like they did the 9600series a few years ago,

overall the only upgrade worth anything is 2gb of matching ram and a 64bit OS install, if the mobo allows bump the cpu speed up to 3400mhz and the northbridge speed to 2400mhz or so, to gain some extra memory bandwidth etc. which will give his current gpu a bit more room to stretch its legs.

it also seems his motherboard uses DDR2,

as for ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

used the above in many builds still fairly cheap since DDR2 prices are on the rise as they are EOL for the most part.
if you really need to save a few extra $$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211188