I have 8 GB ram and 512 MB graphics but still lag in gaming

[Oli Mondrano]

i play dark souls and it runs very slow/lag. why is this happening ? do i need to upgrade my graphics card?

need help.

 

[neon neophyte]

yep. 512 mb is terribly low, the gpu it is paired with cant be very good either.

 

[bystander]

You need to specify your whole system.

 

[Vynavill]

RAM is not a magic ingredient that you just increase and it makes things better...
Sure, it improves the overall response of your computer and allows for more softwares to be loaded and running at the same time, or it allows softwares with high memory requirements (such as games) to run better, but only ever so slightly.

CPU, GPU and VRAM are the first things you look at, and even 512 MB is barely enough for DS1.
State your full system specs, as bystander suggested; that means manufacturer, model, working frequency (at least) of any component in your system.

Easiest way to get most of these would be a software called Speccy. It won't provide a perfectly accurate report, but it's usually a nice starting point. For the power supply you may need to open up your case tho...

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

I have an i3-4130 which allows me to run almost anything I throw at it(BF3, BF4, FC4, you name it) but because I have an old GT430 1Gb graphics card I have to always play these games on the lowest setting or medium at best. I'm sure that if I simply upgraded my GPU my framerates would improve dramatically even though my i3 is not exactly a high end cpu. The GPU is what counts more these days with games, even when you have a decent CPU like mine.