Whats wrong with my Radeon 6850?

[scienceisfun91]

I have a Radeon 6850. All games lag.

Specs

Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6 Ghz
2 GB Ram
350W PSU

Now, what's causing the lag? RAM, Processor, or PSU?

 

[Onus]

Edit: Mods took care of it.

As pointed out by others, I think the CPU is the bottleneck here. Your PSU is running very near its limit; capacitor aging may mean you are running it ragged. It isn't at all likely to be the cause of your performance problems, but you need to replace it before adding anything else to your rig (or increasing its load by overclocking), which may push it over the edge and kill it, and there is the real possibility it could take other parts with it when it dies.

 

[Kari]

the thing is, your whole setup is getting old...
you are most likely being held back by the cpu, and if you upgrade that into anything decent and modern, it forces yuo to buy new mobo and ram aswell because of compatibility issues, and all of these will need more power to run them properly, (if only so slightly) to mandate a more powerful psu...

and as 4745454b pointed out buying a 3 gen old cpu like 9550 is dumb. The prices on old stuff is inflated because they aren't being made anymore. That said, if you can get an used 9550 from ebay (or something) at a low price it might be reasonable solution, you'd still need a more powerfull psu though.

 

[scienceisfun91]

the thing is, your whole setup is getting old...
you are most likely being held back by the cpu, and if you upgrade that into anything decent and modern, it forces yuo to buy new mobo and ram aswell because of compatibility issues, and all of these will need more power to run them properly, (if only so slightly) to mandate a more powerful psu...

and as 4745454b pointed out buying a 3 gen old cpu like 9550 is dumb. The prices on old stuff is inflated because they aren't being made anymore. That said, if you can get an used 9550 from ebay (or something) at a low price it might be reasonable solution, you'd still need a more powerfull psu though.

So upgrading ram wont do anything?

 

[clarkjd]

So upgrading ram wont do anything?

It probably won't do anything that you could see except in benchmarks. In real world terms you wouldn't notice the difference.

 

[scienceisfun91]

It probably won't do anything that you could see except in benchmarks. In real world terms you wouldn't notice the difference.

So nothing will work?

 

[4745454b]

So nothing will work?

When did we say that? Are you reading the replies?

OCing his CPU or flat out buying a new one should fix his issues.

 

[clarkjd]

So nothing will work?

You've asked about upgrading everything but the CPU. The CPU is what is bottlenecking your system! If you don't change the CPU in some manner(Overclocking, replacing, etc) none of the other upgrades will make a difference.

 

[Onus]

I would limit that to overclocking. Buying a replacement S775 CPU today would be a waste of money. If the overclock isn't enough, then it would be time to plan on CPU/mobo/RAM replacement.

 

[4745454b]

I disagree slightly. Buying a massive high end quad core for $200 or $300 is a bad move. But buying a cheap $75 quad or faster dual core isn't a bad idea. You can also get a new HSF to help with the OCing as something like the Hyper 212 will carry over to a new build. This can get you back in the game while you save up more money for the new rig.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'd try OCing first. The less you spend on this computer now the better.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

I disagree slightly. Buying a massive high end quad core for $200 or $300 is a bad move. But buying a cheap $75 quad or faster dual core isn't a bad idea. You can also get a new HSF to help with the OCing as something like the Hyper 212 will carry over to a new build. This can get you back in the game while you save up more money for the new rig.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'd try OCing first. The less you spend on this computer now the better.

+1 jillion; on pretty much everything numbers man has said

 

[LTDAkiles]

OC cpu,more ram and hunt good deal down to buy better psu. Your hardware is in that point where any one change would make it much better. 2gb is too little for win7 gaming,psu is poor quality and not giving enough 12v rail and not giving wattages out what it says in specs, oc with underpowered psu and too little ram doesn't make games run much faster. Memory is cheap and some quality psus can be cheap as well. Just remember to ask help here when you are choosing your psu so you get your moneys worth.