What upgrade do I need?

[ychorst]

Heya,

I've recently upgraded my gpu to a GTX 260, primarily for gaming. Games do run better but on particular games, namely Bioshock, the framerate seems to take a huge hit(i'm not familiar with how fps works but its basically a slideshow) when I look at new areas or enter new rooms. I know the graphics card can't be the problem, so do I need more, better ram? or a cpu upgrade? i hear games don't really see considerable performance increase from going from duo core to triple core..

I currently use...
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000
2Gs of ram PC2-5300 (333 MHz) (and could someone tell me what the 333 667 abd 800 numbers on rams mean?)

 

[christop]

more memory 2 gigs is kinda low . The 333 667 and 800 are clock speed of the memory

 

[andy5174]

Both!

Get at least an Athlon 64 x2 6000 and 4GB DDR2-800.

 

[ychorst]

oh ok so the higher those numbers are the better. Thanks! Turned out the Bioshock thing was a graphics driver problem. It just took a small tweak in the settings. But thanks for the responses.

 

[andy5174]

oh ok so the higher those numbers are the better. Thanks! Turned out the Bioshock thing was a graphics driver problem. It just took a small tweak in the settings. But thanks for the responses.

Yes in the case of AMD CPUs.

 

[shubham1401]

Just OC your CPU and get 4GB Ram(Make sure the 1 you buy is supported by your mobo).

 

[jj463rd]

Heya,

I know the graphics card can't be the problem, so do I need more, better ram? or a cpu upgrade? i hear games don't really see considerable performance increase from going from duo core to triple core..

Some games can have a performance increase from using a triple core CPU.
See this old article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-cores-performance,2373-9.html

Also here

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/multi-core-cpu,2280-10.html

Take a look at this in which an obsolete one of the slowest Phenoms (9350e) of 2008 goes against the Intel E8500 Duo Cores

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/e8500-phenom-9350e,2010-6.html

Some games are now optimized for quad core CPU's as well in which a quad core CPU will slaughter a dual core.
You can compare your current CPU against some newer ones here to see if a upgrade is worthwhile.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

 

[andy5174]

Some games can have a performance increase from using a triple core CPU.
See this old article.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-cores-performance,2373-9.html

Also here

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/multi-core-cpu,2280-10.html

Take a look at this in which an obsolete one of the slowest Phenoms (9350e) of 2008 goes against the Intel E8500 Duo Cores

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/e8500-phenom-9350e,2010-6.html

Some games are now optimized for quad core CPU's as well in which a quad core CPU will slaughter a dual core.
You can compare your current CPU against some newer ones here to see if a upgrade is worthwhile.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

Yes.

That is why I told him to get at least an Athlon 64 x2 6000.

However, I doubt his mb supports new PII CPUs.

 

[ychorst]

My motherboard is an Asus m2n-e. any recommendations for cpu and ram?