How to Improve my computers gaming performance?

[Deleted member 940608]

Hi! First, I'd like to start off by saying I'm new to the Tom's Hardware Community, and I hope to meet a lot of new people and have a great time! Second, I have been noticing something strange with my computers. So, I have an Acer Aspire 5251 with a AMD 2.2 Ghz Single Core processor with 2GB of RAM. This plays a game called "Minecraft" really well and it renders the game great and plays smooth. Side note: Its graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 with up the 893 mb Hyper Memory.

Next, I found an old Dell Optiplex GX620. It has 4GB of RAM, A Pentium D 2.8 GHz, (dual-core) and its graphics card is an EVGA GeForce 9400 GT with 1GB of memory on the card. I try to play the game on that computer and it plays jittery, stutters, and renders bad.

Since the RAM, and the Processor are better in the GX620, I think my problem is the graphics card. I think I should upgrade to a more recent, and gaming graphics card. I was wondering if there is anything else I should upgrade while I am at it, or if the graphics card isn't the problem.

I was thinking about upgrading the processor, but the max the computer supports is an Pentium D 3.73 GHz, as the CPU socket type is LGA 775 (not recent)

Please tell me what you think I need to upgrade in order to get this computer better for gaming, and why you think my laptop with 2x less specs than my desktop runs my game better.

Thanks!!

-Nick Hannon

 

[Spartin503]

First I need more info about the two computers.
1) What type of RAM do each have?
2) What are the HDD that the computers have?

Second, the graphics card on the desktop is better than the one in the laptop.

 

[Deleted member 940608]

First I need more info about the two computers.
1) What type of RAM do each have?
2) What are the HDD that the computers have?

Second, the graphics card on the desktop is better than the one in the laptop.

1) I believe the Dell has PC5200 Ram. (DDR2, 4GB) and the laptop has DDR3 2GB Ram. (Not sure what type)

2) The laptop has a 250GB HDD Sata 7200 RPM, and the desktop has a 500GB Sata 7200 RPM.

Thanks!

 

[Spartin503]

The RAM is better in the laptop but the HDD aren't changing anything. My bet guess it that there is something not working correctly in the desktop, or if the screen res is signification different between the two that could be it.

 

[Deleted member 940608]

Best answer selected by nhannon9.