Upgrading for better Witcher 2 Performance

[mongoose]

My computer is having issues with the Witcher 2. Even on medium settings it starts getting choppy enough to add another layer of difficulty to the combat So I'm contemplating an upgrade.

Here are my specs:

ATI Radeon 4850
4 GB RAM
Intell Dual Core 3.16 GHz

Here are the recommend (not minimum) specs:

Processor: Intel or AMD Quad-Core
Memory: 3 GB (Win XP), 4GB (Win Vista/Win 7)
Graphics: GeForce 260 (1 GB) or Radeon HD 4850 (1 GB)

Frankly I'm a little surprised it's lagging as much as it is - does this seem odd to anyone else? Admittedly, I'm a bit of a hardware noob. This computer is a bit old, but it manages maxed out Shogun 2 battles without much complaint.

I'm guessing that the processor is probably the weak link here?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit - now that I think about it, the problem might relate to me running it at 1680 by 1050. I'm going to do some tests.
Edit 2 - after testing it, it seems to run fine on medium settings at 1000 by 700 (forget the exact numbers, something like that).

[Crazyeyesreaper]

if your 4850 is a 512mb version that could be why as the game uses more than that. Resolution directly impacts Vram usage if your GPU is a 1GB model

as for recommended GPU they say 8800 or 3850, well 8800 GTX = 4850

3850 is slower than an 8800 GT the 8800GT if slightly overclocked compared directly to the 8800 GTX and thus 4850,

add in the fact the latest patches seem to have made Depth of Field hit harder possible they changed the filter from half res to full res so if DoF is on turn it off.

but essentially GPU you wise your only a small bit about Minimum
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor...es/perfrel.gif

so see if DOF is on if so turn it off, it eats vram so does resolution, dont no what else to tell you without more info.

[Bolkonsky]

Yeah that PC isn't gonna push anything higher than low.

Your CPU is decent enough for the game, not optimal but when I first played it on medium at ~45 FPS I was using my Pentium Dual Core @ 2.93ghz, and a GTS 450.