What needs upgrading

[Nick_M]

Ok My specs are as follows:

P4 2.4 (HT enabled)
1gb of DDR(PC3200)
ATI 128mb Radeon 9800 pro
Abit A17 mobo
Seagete Barracuda 80GB SATA
Windows Xp pro

This system has been unchanged for around 1 and a half years now and its starting to chugg a bit when playing the latest games.

Can anyone tell what really needs upgrading, I was told by someone that the CPU is bottlenecking the performance, so I'm tempted to buy a 3.2Ghz Prescott.

Will that give me a noticable perfromance change? and is it worth doing?

Thx in advance.

 

[Rik]

It will definately help, but before u do that, have u defragged your system recently? Also cheching for viruses, trojans, spyware, and adware will help to improve system performance.

 

[DonNagual]

You shouldn't be chugging too bad with that system. Our specs are similar (but I have gone the Athlon path, and you have chosen the dark side of the force).

When I get all chuggy, I reinstall windows (once a year). And make sure I have all the latest drivers. Kills 99% of all chugging problems. Except of course..... the Guiness chugging... there is still a problem there.

What games are you having troubles with, and what settings are you trying? If you are trying Doom3 at full settings... yes you will chug and chug heavy. I run at mid-high-ish settings (closer to the mid side) and get decent frame rates.

 

[Nick_M]

GTA: San Andreas is the most recent example, and really any game that has a lot going on the screen at the same time.

So when the action gets hot in games such as GTA:SA it starts stuttering and lagging.

 

[Rik]

Ive just done a reinstall so i highly recommend it too. Wonder if guiness will work in my cooling kit? hehe.

 

[Nick_M]

By reinstalling windows do you mean formating the C drive or is there another way.