I use a PC which was fairly state-of-the-art when my wife bought it three years ago. However, I notice that some of the newer games I play (e.g. HL2 and its add-ons, FarCry, F.E.A.R.) are running less smoothly than I would like, even at reduced levels of graphics and performance.
I am wondering just how much I am missing out on; for instance, how good does HL2's High Dynamic Range look? How much better is the rendering of the water in FarCry with a new top-of-the-line graphics card? I'd like to improve my PC's gaming performance, without spending a fortune and without outstripping my own technical and practical abilities.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the first thing I did after some research was buy a new graphics card. Problem was, it was a PCI-E card, and my ASUS motherboard only has PCI slots.
After a little more research (and a refund on the card - thanks, Novatech!), I found that my board has an unused AGP4 slot, but that this wouldn't allow a modern AGP8 card to perform at full capacity. Then I started to think about upgrading my MB to allow a GPU upgrade, but the more I read about it the more I began to wonder whether I would also need to upgrade the PSU, other hardware, add more memory, and even buy a new case, and the more my brain began to hurt.
So, to cut to the chase, would someone who's been through this, or otherwise knows their stuff, be kind enough to spare a few minutes to look at my current hardware set-up and say, "You need to upgrade component A, B and C; I recommend you get an X, a Y and a Z"?
I am wondering just how much I am missing out on; for instance, how good does HL2's High Dynamic Range look? How much better is the rendering of the water in FarCry with a new top-of-the-line graphics card? I'd like to improve my PC's gaming performance, without spending a fortune and without outstripping my own technical and practical abilities.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the first thing I did after some research was buy a new graphics card. Problem was, it was a PCI-E card, and my ASUS motherboard only has PCI slots.
After a little more research (and a refund on the card - thanks, Novatech!), I found that my board has an unused AGP4 slot, but that this wouldn't allow a modern AGP8 card to perform at full capacity. Then I started to think about upgrading my MB to allow a GPU upgrade, but the more I read about it the more I began to wonder whether I would also need to upgrade the PSU, other hardware, add more memory, and even buy a new case, and the more my brain began to hurt.
So, to cut to the chase, would someone who's been through this, or otherwise knows their stuff, be kind enough to spare a few minutes to look at my current hardware set-up and say, "You need to upgrade component A, B and C; I recommend you get an X, a Y and a Z"?