How should I upgrade?

[Professor Idle]

Sorry about this Escapists, but I can't think what other site could give me better advice for this:

A friend of mine built me a gaming PC a few years ago. In recent times its performance has been degrading more and more, to the point I have trouble playing newish games like Arkham City on high graphics without it going choppy on me. I've done all the classic stuff like defragmenting and virus scanning and it occurred to me that I really need to update some of its hardware.

My computer specs are:


Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 1417MB used, 25907MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260

What should I buy? Should I get more RAM? Upgrade my video card? Anything else? There's a lot of shit in my specs up there that I don't understand. I-I'm so sorry. Help out a technologically impaired doofus.

(Also, I have a Terabyte Hard Drive which is split into 2 partitions; {System C: and Files D:] The system folder holds all my Windows and User files, and a couple of Program Files, but only has 3.16 GB of 48.8 GB left, the other one is just for storing anything, and has 651 GB out of 882 GB left. Is the nearly full partition slowing down my computer?)

 

[Kordie]

CPU and RAM both look good, but you are missing your graphics card. If you need to find it, check control panel > System > Hardware > Device manager, then it should be under display adaptors.

If the problem lies with playing games set to high graphics, than I would guess that a new videocard is the way to go.

Two other questions, do the games perform well if the settings are lowered? and have you noticed games that ran fine before having issues now?

 

[Professor Idle]

More memory is good, but only worth it if you also upgrade to Win 7 64 Bit. (BTW, a "clean" windows install will also often solve problems for you since windoz tends to get too much junk in its registry over time)

3GB free is tons of free space for OS.

If your computer can support it, One option you do have though, especially if upgrading your OS, is to get a new solid state boot drive for your new OS. That tends to have a huge impact on performance.

Maybe I'm blind but I can't see what video card you are using so if you could give us that people could comment.

Ho shit, I am dumb.

I meant to put that my Graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce GTX 260.

Cheers, i'll look into Windows 64 bit. Although I heard rumour that a lot of programs were incompatible with it?

 

[Wintermoot]

upgrade the MOBO along with the CPU
your OS can only use 3GB out of the 4GB
while you are at it also get more RAM and upgrade to the 64 bit version of 7
PS
how many years are we talking here?

 

[BENZOOKA]

Reinstall Windows. It'll do a lot without any investments. Especially if you've had the same OS for a long time. That's something you should do every couple of years, even though it's not such a problem now, with W7. And install 64-bit. Unless you'd have 1-2gb RAM, only then should you consider 32-bit W7.

You need to consider the money you are willing to spend, and how urgent it is for you to upgrade, as well as if you'll rather get a quick fix for the time being and the next few months, or a bigger investment (i.e. building a new system) that will make all games run and look great and that'll carry for many years.

PC's get old and inefficient for current games as time passes. Right now your system still looks fine, exceeding most min. requirements quite easily, unless you want more eye candy in heavier games. But a couple years more (or more or less, depending on personal PC needs and preferences) and you'll face a time, when you'll need to upgrade basically everything. Personally, I prefer to build a system, then just do minor upgrades if needed, until building almost completely a new one in a few years and when I've got money.

That is, because everything boils down to MOBO; it's socket type for CPU, the type of RAM it supports, even external ports, extension card standards (for GPUS, audio cards, for example). And most parts tend to go hand in hand with others, so it's not smart to have, say, overkill graphics card, and a bottlenecking CPU. So, couple of years after that new system, you'll think of upgrading, let's say CPU, but you can't use it on the next system. I just think it's better to hang on to one rig, and then start again from an empty table when it's time, rather than buying costly minor improvements in the meanwhile, which you then have no use for; be they obsolete or just not good enough.

So. Buy a better GPU, as that is holding you down right now. Maybe something like GTX 560 Ti, which should give your system a noticeable boost in performance, for at least a year or so. At least for getting current games to run smoothly. The other option, which doesn't have to exclude the previous upgrade (if it should take a longer time), is to hold on to the system for some time, until you're ready to build a new PC. Or just get the whole new system now.

Practically all 32-bit applications run at least just as great on 64-bit. Absolutely nothing to worry about. Btw:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
motherboard

 

[BreakfastMan]

CPU looks pretty good. Upgrading to 8GB would not hurt and is really cheap and easy. What you really need to upgrade is that graphics card. Get like a 560 or higher, and you should be good to go.

 

[Heronblade]

snip

EDIT: Hmm, sorry about that.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Quick question.

I've been running 32 bit Windows 7 for a bit and I was wondering... is there a simple way to upgrade to 64 bit without wiping everything?

the answer is yes

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/shop/windows-anytime-upgrade

I haven't used it myself, so cannot vouch for its ease of use personally, but my understanding is that it works just fine without screwing up other information. With that said, ALWAYS back up important files before messing around with the OS.

The real answer is No.

You can't flash upgrade from 32bit to 64bit. It even says that on that page in the notes.

And it's always the best solution to do a fresh OS install anyways. It's not that big of a deal. Just back-up your data and get on with it. It's only the OS partition you're formatting anyways.

 

[thesilentman]

Sorry about this Escapists, but I can't think what other site could give me better advice for this:

A friend of mine built me a gaming PC a few years ago. In recent times its performance has been degrading more and more, to the point I have trouble playing newish games like Arkham City on high graphics without it going choppy on me. I've done all the classic stuff like defragmenting and virus scanning and it occurred to me that I really need to update some of its hardware.

My computer specs are:


Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 1417MB used, 25907MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260

What should I buy? Should I get more RAM? Upgrade my video card? Anything else? There's a lot of shit in my specs up there that I don't understand. I-I'm so sorry. Help out a technologically impaired doofus.

(Also, I have a Terabyte Hard Drive which is split into 2 partitions; {System C: and Files D:] The system folder holds all my Windows and User files, and a couple of Program Files, but only has 3.16 GB of 48.8 GB left, the other one is just for storing anything, and has 651 GB out of 882 GB left. Is the nearly full partition slowing down my computer?)

Have you used CCleaner? Use it to clean the registry and uninstall junk you don't need. It's worked for me, clearing out the registry. Other than that, I say:

-Upgrade motherboard and install 64-bit Win7
-Manually clean your Files partition occasionally.
-Add RAM (only if upgrading to 64 bit; I recommend 8 gig RAM total)
-Get a better graphics card. I have been good with my ATI HD Radeon 5450, but I'm not sure about your card
-Physically open your PC and clean out dust. Hey, the last time I did this, Skyrim jumped from stable 30 FPS to 40.

 

[Professor Idle]

Cheers lads, looks like my first priority will be to get Windows 64 bit and upgrade my RAM. Y'all are good to me

 

[SnowyGamester]

I'm running a nearly identical build other than the graphics card and I can say with certainty that that is what's holding you back.

Your CPU has plenty of power and upgrading that probably won't give any noticeable performance increase as far as games go (and would probably require a complete rebuild for any substantial upgrade anyway). You could add more (or faster, if you aren't running 800mhz or can overclock it, or for whatever reason have DDR3 with an older CPU socket) RAM if your board supports it (though I'm currently stuck at 4GB overclocked to from 800 to 1000mhz with this board but it's enough for everything I've ever played) and that would definitely increase performance, but would require an upgrade to an x64 version of Windows (which you should do anyway, though it'll require a complete format reinstall). And you could of course opt for an SSD (or, even better, a RAID of SSDs) but they will only decrease load and file operation times without adding any noticeable improvement as far as getting a game actually running or cranking up the graphics (and since you've got a 1tb drive it's safe to assume it isn't some horrible old slow IDE thing that takes forever to load).

But really you need a better graphics card more than anything...I'm personally running a GTX 560 which isn't exactly the best thing available but you won't get much better for under $200 and it can handle every new release I've tried at maximum graphics (sometimes sans antialiasing or high shadow detail, but after that the price rises exponentially so it doesn't seem worth getting anything better ATM). Also running CCleaner (including the reg cleaner and getting rid of any unnecessary startup items) wouldn't hurt.

And since you're on Windows 7 which should have automated defragging enabled by default having a near full drive isn't likely to impact performance. Though I'm not sure why you've opted to have two partitions...it can be useful in some instances but if you're just using it for storage you might as well just put things in a folder, plus then you won't have any problems with one of the partitions filling up when there's enough space on the other. Perhaps go for a single partition if you decide to format and switch to 64-bit Windows, though that'll require a full wipe so you might want to get an external drive for backup purposes (it's really good to have one of those all the time with a persistent backup anyway in case of a drive failure).