Where will I have a Bottleneck?

[ThunderUpOKC]

Hello, I am new to tom'shardware but I am very impressed with everybody's knowledge!!

First of all I would like to say sorry for being poor. I would buy a new system but I just graduated college and don't have the money right now.

I have a Dell Vostro 200 which shipped to me on 2/27/2008 so it's almost 5 years old

E4500 Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz L2 Cache 2048

I have 4 Memory Slots with a maximum of 4096 DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (PC2-6400)
I have 2 slots with 1GB DDR 2 and 2 slots with 512GB DDR2

My Video Card is an XFX Nvidia 8600 GT 256MB DDR3 680MHz

Two Questions:
Would I see a noticible difference going from 3GB Ram to 4GB Ram?
Would I see a huge jump from my Nvidia 8600 GT to ASUS HD7750-1GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card ?

I know my PCI Express X16 can't take advantage of the 3.0...

Basically I am wanting to know if I will be able to play Company of Heroes 2 if I upgrade my video card and the ram. If not Please let me know if I would be wasting my money. Company of heroes 1 works perfectly on my system with high settings on a 1980x1200 monitor.

If I decide to save for a new rig what is the best Bang for your Buck Rig under 700 bucks... I'm not too concerned about what graphics card is in it as I can always upgrade that.

 

[ASHISH65]

You notice performance from 3gb to 4gb and gt8600 to hd 7750.your cpu will bottleneck in cpu intensive games.do not worry you will notice no performance loss if you plug pci 3.0 gpu in pci 1.0 slot as gpu never utilize its full speed.

 

[ThunderUpOKC]

Thanks so do you know if RTS games like XCOM Enemy Unknown, Starcraft II, or Company of Heroes 2 are CPU intensive or GPU intensive? If my rig can play those games if I upgrade the GPU and add 1gb more ram then I think I'll go that route and wait for Ivy Bridge CPU rigs to drop in price. Like I said I can play Company of Heroes 1 on full settings on a 1920x1200 Resolution. Granted that game is about 6 years old. I can play starcraft II on low settings. Is there a way to tell where the weakness lies by observation?

 

[ThunderUpOKC]

You notice performance from 3gb to 4gb and gt8600 to hd 7750.your cpu will bottleneck in cpu intensive games.do not worry you will notice no performance loss if you plug pci 3.0 gpu in pci 1.0 slot as gpu never utilize its full speed.

Basically is the upgrade from the Nvidia 8600GT to the AMD 7750HD a huge jump? Will that fix poor frame rate or is frame rate a cpu issue?

 

[iceclock]

it will be a worthy jump yes, but id recommand a cpu upgrade as well.

 

[ThunderUpOKC]

it will be a worthy jump yes, but id recommand a cpu upgrade as well.

Thanks! I guess now I'm considering cost... If I can play the real time strategy games I want with the 7750 and adding 1GB Ram I can do that for about 120$ If I get into a CPU upgrade I may start looking at too much money... unless the E4500 Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz can be upgraded for cheap I'm just not sure what would fit the mobo and what is the best upgrade if the faster core 2 duo cpus will fit.

 

[iceclock]

its not worth getting a new card, ur cpu will bottlebeck anything new u get.

id saveup tbh.