A noob seeking knowledge all about FPS for gaming

hi, first of all, sorry if i made a thread to a wrong section. i recently joined and i have this new pc. i just want to ask if there is a way to increase FPS of modern games, like crysis, assassin's creed, mercs2, nfs undercover, etc. here's my system specs.

i have
Windows XP Prof SP3
Intel(R) Core 2 Quad CPU
Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
2.40GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series 1024MB with ATI CCC driver 8.12 (Latest)

i have'nt tried anything like tweaks, overclocking, etc.

i can say i play these games with fps rate of 18-30fps. am i getting right fps for my system? i posted on overclocking section thinking that i need to overclock my GPU or CPU, or RAM? sorry for these noob questions, im still on a bottle, wanted to go out and seek the world of tweaking and more.. thanks in advance.

I might only recommend a new GPU.

What motherboard do you have?
How old is this PC?

u mean a new Video Card? can i ask what specific gpu that would be best for my processor and for gaming?

i have Asus P5Q Motherboard. and this PC is only a month old. my uncle that has an IT related profession, im not sure, but he's the one who recommends these parts for this pc.

i have 7200rpm 500gig harddisk also.

btw, thanks for the fast reply.

Yea new Graphics card was what I ment, This depends on alot of things.

1. Are you on a budget, How much are you willing to pay for another GPU?
2. Are you wanting to run games on high settings?

If you want to run games on full settings i might suggest an increase in ram to 4gb.

Xp does not see 4Gig of Ram :rolleyes:

Argh your right! Only see's 3.5gb or something along those lines isn't it?

Yes, but I'm still completely shocked (is that the word, I mean surprised) by your knowledge at such a young age. It's like you're a wise old man as a kid !

Lol, I thank you for your compliment.

yeah, high settings will sure satisfy me too.. but for the fps i have now, should i go for buying more RAM to have more FPS? or sticking to 2gig ram and buying excellent GPU would do more increase in FPS? im quite satisfied by the graphics i have now. my main concern is the fps. i wanted to play games smoothly.

about the RAM for XP thing,, what maximum RAM is allowed? i heard is it 2gig only? i have 2pcs 1gig RAM now installed.

I think 2 gig's for xp should be fine if you were running vista then i would say you need more.As for the GPU if you can afford an ati 4850 i would say get it.

hi, thanks for the reply. may i ask if ati 4850 would do fine with my processor, 2gig ram, windows xp 32bit, and asus p5q mboard? and would increase FPS in games i mentioned? i really dont know what to upgrade to increase FPS. is it RAM or GPU would do more on increasing FPS..?

your gpu doe's most of the work.i would say upgrade your card then if you are not happy you could overclock you cpu and gpu,but your fps should be fine,on my machine with a amd 6000+ and a 3870 i can play NFS undercover and C.O.D 4 on the highest setting with no frame rate issues.

i see.. u have 2gig of rams also? is overclocking my cpu and gpu now would make a great improvement in terms of FPS? how about RAM, from what i read in alot of gaming forums, alot of them has decent FPS of 45-55fps, and that is with 4gig rams. so im thinking if i have more ram, keep my gpu and other units, upgrade ram alone, will my current fps of 18-30fps improve above 30? i will be really satisfied with consistent FPS atleast 30-40fps. with not so high/max settings of textures/graphics. FPS is really my concern..=(

the 4850 would do that easily-i am using 8gb's of ram on vista 64bit.
the 3600 series of card's were more for htpc'c and simple game's.
I think your card would be holding back your cpu.

i see, i see.. now im lightend up in that issue.^^ i'l be upgrading my GPU after christmas. might aswell my RAM and change OS. thanks again for the replies.

btw, is there any way or certain guides for overclocking my current gpu? will that also make a slight difference in my FPS?

you can give it a try,use ATI CCC it has a overclock feature with it.
Keep your OS it work's

Yes, Stay with XP, only reason you might upgrade is because Vista has a higher ram limit and has DirectX features.

2 pretty good reasons to upgrade if you ask me! (although there are plenty more good reasons not to upgrade)

if you want a better frame rate from the harware you have, then you will have to lower the graphics detail in the games.

if you are willing to spend a bit of money on your rig, might i suggest an ATI 4850 or similar...which should deliver the power required and not break the bank at the same time. (i'm not for a second suggestion this is the best power-for-pound card on the market)

adding more ram or overclocking your CPU will not give you any noticable advantage when gaming, as you will find your GPU is the bottle-neck. (gone a little overboard on the CPU for a gaming rig if you ask me. money could have been better spent)

Correction, any 32-bit OS, be it Vista, XP or a Linux distro, cannot utilize nor recognize all 4GB of the RAM. This number drops lower if you have a video card with more than 512MB of VRAM. For running 4GB or more of RAM, Vista x64 is the best choice right now. XP x64 exists, but has abysmal driver support and too many issues to be a plausible solution.

@jonathan, upgrade your video card, but be sure that your PSU (Power Supply Unit) can handle the increased load. If it's a generic PSU, then you will not be able to use any better card than your current one unless you get a new good-quality PSU, the exact specs of which will depend on what card you get, and when you'll be looking to upgrade it again.

Hey Rage,
thats really interesting i have never heard that before, whats the relationship to the ram that makes my 1Gb graphic card see less than the 3.3 gb, (for Km) that XP 32 sees? and, i thought i had read that it actually sees the ram above 3.3, but reserves it for virtual memory, possibly page file.is anything above 3.3 gb on XP 32 going for waste? that question has been looming around here forever, maybe you could answer it for us or sticky it. its a constant question on here. and I have seen about 18 different explanations for it. might save a few people a few bucks too