Frame rate issue with new graphics card and memory

[CruiseNick]

Ok so I just installed a new graphics card (was using an integrated graphics card before) and replaced my 2GB DDR3 RAM with a 4GB DDR3 RAM so that I can play MMO games like Dragon Nest, Vindictus, World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Except for SWTOR, I am able to access these game with no errors, crashes or whatsoever. But the thing is the frame rate is slow and the movement gets choppy, sometimes to the point that it is not playable due to the sluggish movement especially in complex animation.

A friend of mine have an Intel Pentium E6600 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM and GTS 220, and aside from his RAM I am pretty sure I am way ahead of his rig and yet I was able to play these games smoothly on his rig, so I was wondering if there is some compatibility issue with my PC or if there is some troubleshooting I can do to improve my gaming experience.

Here is the specs of my computer:

Motherboard: Biostar N68S3+
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 (4CPUs) 3.0Ghz
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB DDR5 192bit
PSU: Generic 600watts
DirectX version: DirectX 9.0C
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP3 32 bit

I installed the latest driver for my graphics card and my desktop has a nice cooling system with 2 in-take fans (of course not including the processor fan) and 1 exhaust fan. Any help will be greatly appreciated. (^_^)

 

[AdrianPerry]

Two things come to mind.

The first being the PSU. Your using a fairly good mid-range graphics card yet a very cheap PSU. Buying a PSU with at least an 80PLUS rating would be recommended with this build.
The Corsair Builder Series 430w would be perfect here:
UK: £36 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-psu-corsair-builder-series-cmpsu-430cx-80-eff-uncertified-quiet-fan-atx-v23
USA: $45 ($35 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

My second recommendation would be to grab yourself Windows 7 and get onto DirectX 11. Windows XP is limited to DX9 and this is a limiting factor for you.

Other than that there shouldn't be any compatibility issues with your components.

 

[CruiseNick]

Thanks for the response. It seems that I have to spend some bucks again to improve my PC, though with limited budget I may have to choose which to prioritize first. On a side note, I noticed that not only does this sluggish performance happen when playing games but it also happens on other applications as well. When I scroll down while browsing a website it kinda stops for a while as if the PC somewhat hangs for a few seconds and by the time it responds back it scrolls the page all the way down when I was just trying to drag it down a bit. And when I tried burning DVD I noticed that the read buffer is lower than usual, about 80%-85% unlike before where I hit 98%-100%, though not really alarming since it still gets the job done but it means that something is wrong. My friend told me perhaps I didn't setup the memory RAM properly. He mentioned that aside from installing the hardware, there are still some stuff to be done on the BIOS like setting up the voltage but he isn't so sure how to do it. Do you think it has got something to do with the PSU not providing enough power to the memory and graphics card?