zahimizimmy :
Hi .
I would like to ask experts here on what should I upgrade first on my PC ?
Here are the specs :
Intel Core 2 duo 2.2Ghz
RAM 2GB DDR3
Asus ATI HD5450 1GB
I would like to play GTA 4 maybe ? Atleast 60 FPS above on lowest settings ?
Thanks guys
//EDIT:
After some research on wikipedia and Intel site on your CPU I found this:
It is probably a this: ark.intel.com/products/30781#@specifications
In that case your main board would only support DDR2 RAM and not DDR3, so you might have mixed up which was what. In any case a system that old (from around 2007 according to Intel) will sooner or later be in danger of failure, so it will be not a good solution to only replace some parts. Hardware like main board or video card have components that the older it gets will be degrading depending on quality of those components, so sooner or later your hardware will start to fail and in worst case might get overheating. If your PSU are from that time (2007), then I would strongly advice you to get a new one as it could damage your components on main board or video card before it completely will shut down and there is slight danger of fire during this kind of failures from collapsing PSU.//
We don't know where you live to give you any advice about hardware (both for suggestion on prices and what will be available for you to buy locally or on Internet). Then we also would need to know what resolution you are referring to as 60 FPS as there is many option for what most gamers would think are acceptable res. on screen and still make use of low setting in-game.
Make use of Dxdiag or HWinfo (http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php) to find out exactly what kind of hardware you have today on your system. For now we don't know what kind of main board or what kind of hard disk you have. We would also need to know if you have a case that support micro ATX or smaller.
I would suggest that stay away from a gradual updating your hardware as I have myself learned it the hard and very expensive way that it often cost you more in the end. (There are some part that you could re-use like DVD RW, harddisk that aren't too old and maybe the case, but the last one is depending on how you want your cooling to work and if you would like to go to a smaller case this time.)
The reason for this is as some older parts like DDR2 might even cost more for less compared to DDR3 (DDR4 are still more expensive) and in your case you will be needing to change your main board (because of socket) as your system are fairly old.
Intel's i5 4670K or the new i5 4690K would be the best option as both will offer you enough with power to run today's and even older game which often use only one or max. two cores. The "K" in the end of its SKU means that it is possible to change multiplier from within BIOS/UEFI and that way over clock your CPU, but you will need to be careful and learn how to do this in a proper way to avoid damaging your CPU from to high Voltage or heat.
I own myself the i5 4670K@stock which means it will go up to 3.8 GHz when needed. At the moment I am saving up money for a Nvidia GTX 970 or at least AMD R9 290 and make use of the integrated GPU (iGPU) from CPU (Intel Graphics HD 4600) and I can play most games either in 1280 x 720 pixel with Ultra/high setting in game or even at 2560 x 1080 pixel which is my display native resolution from display. The only thing I have to be careful about are not to use any kind of AA in most games as it will reduce FPS very much for a small visual gain and in general it is better to have higher resolution, then to have AA to compensate for jagged lines in game.
From a fast search about GTA 4 I found this video on YouTube which will give an indication about how powerful the integrated Intel HD4600. I don't know how much FPS at the same resolution you would have, but I believe that Intel Graphics HD 4600 have more power, then you video card from that time. Would it be that HD5450 do have more power, then you could use it on your new system as it would be compatible with the older PCI express standard (I hope it is a PCI express and not AGP based video card in this case).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_EyHPAfeRY
From what I can see on this short video you will have around 43 FPS (built in Benchmark@ 720p and most setting low - test run with i7 4770@3.1 GHz; it is a 4 core/8 thread CPU, but it might not be important as most older game like GTA 4 from 2008 didn't take much advantage of threading or more cores). Could you tell us which more games your are playing or would wish to be able to play to have wider base for comparing how much power your would need on GPU and CPU? World of Warcraft are more depending on CPU power, then GPU as an example for game that very often have complains about even high end system struggle to keep up where many people are fighting in raids (PvP) and this is an old game. That is why it is important to know what game that you might want to play to avoid future problems as even older game could be having problems on high end systems of today.
Basic build:
i5 4670K or i5 4690K
Main board wich support socket 1150 (LGA 1150) and have either Z87 or Z97 chipset (best access to BIOS/UEFI that support over clocking).
Pick a video card that will be within your budget range. This is important as a baseline for how much power you will need from a PSU. (So even for a low end gaming rig, this would matter as you then will be able to do an easy upgrade to discrete video card without being forced to invest in a new PSU.)
I would suggest to take a look at benchmarks for GTX 970 as those cards seem to get your most power for your money, don't demand that much power for a PSU and run in general rather silent compared to older video card (like GTX 780 or GTX 770). From AMD you will have R9 290 which will run a bit hotter, need more power (from PSU) and with a good aftermarket cooling solution like the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X you will also get a near silent solution. (Note: Version with an X like 290X are essentially the same GPU, but at a higher clock , will run more or less in the range of GTX 780 and 780 ti - it will also depend on game and video card drivers).
In general all you need for RAM will be 8GB dual channel kit (2 x 4GB) DDR3 RAM on Z87/97 chipset.
Most popular vendor for Main board are ASUS, AsRock, Gigabyte and MSI. I would suggest you search on each site for what they offer on LGA1150 (not to confuse with LGA1155 or other sockets) and Z87/Z97 chipset. What you will gain in upgrading your main board are support for SATA3, USB v3.0 (which also work with USB 2.0) and better features like UEFI. I would suggest you to look at smaller main board like micro ATX or even mini-ITXm if it would be something to consider. I did go from ATX to micro ATX which will make it possible to use SLI or Crossfire in the future (mini ITX are only 17 x 17 cm, so there are really not much space).
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You need to change CPU, main board, RAM and PSU to get updated to today's hardware. Next step will be SSD (very large impact on how fast your OS work), maybe a silent case like Fractal Design R4 or Define Mini (micro ATX case) which will be silent cases and video card within the range you desire to play.
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