Bottleneck?

[hearld500]

Well since I got a little Christmas cash to play with I'm debating if I want to upgrade my video card.

Right now I'm running a computer with a PentiumD at 3ghz with 4gb of ram. For day stuff it's more then quick enough but for some of the new games the framerate is starting to suffer a bit. Right now I'm running an ati 1900xtx that has served me well but I think it might be time for an upgrade.

Running Fallout 3 with the settings cranked and taskmanager on my second screen the cpu is running about 80-85% and getting around 23 average fps outdoors and 50+ indoors. Am I at the point where the computer itself just isn't fast enough to keep up or should I just invest in a new video card and that would be sufficent?

Thanks.

[Quzar]

Well since I got a little Christmas cash to play with I'm debating if I want to upgrade my video card.

Right now I'm running a computer with a PentiumD at 3ghz with 4gb of ram. For day stuff it's more then quick enough but for some of the new games the framerate is starting to suffer a bit. Right now I'm running an ati 1900xtx that has served me well but I think it might be time for an upgrade.

Running Fallout 3 with the settings cranked and taskmanager on my second screen the cpu is running about 80-85% and getting around 23 average fps outdoors and 50+ indoors. Am I at the point where the computer itself just isn't fast enough to keep up or should I just invest in a new video card and that would be sufficent?

Thanks.

Possibly the 3ghz PD not the 1900xtx. I would however first make sure to disable the secondary display while gaming. It will typically make a big difference.

[Eviltaco64X]

I'm sure it's the processor.. You have a decent amount of ram and a good video card.

You could always try upgrading or overclocking (if your motherboard allows it) your processor to get a little more life out of your computer. Higher-end Pentium D's aren't too expensive these days.

[hearld500]

Well thats a bummer, I've loved this computer. So think it's the cpu itself even though it's not maxed out playing games? What kind of framerates should I be expecting with the 1900xtx by upgrading?

Well its a Gateway 845gm with an Intel 945 chipset. If I were to throw a Core2Duo in it would it automatically turndown the clockrate? My only concern is that it of course has a oem bios...wish there was an intel one I could switch it out with. Would that be worth it or should I just breakdown and upgrade the whole machine?

[Zealous zerotype]

see if the comp is compatable with what cpu you are trying to put in a quick google search should tell you. You'll probally find out an older c2d model that matches your fsb.

[tekkaman1]

You could try to upgrade the video card. If your motherbeard has pci express it will be cheaper than agp. I have a pentium4 3GHZ with a Powercolor HD4670 AGP and I must say that it was an improvement over the x1650 512Mb that I had. Of course I can't play games on high definition but they look alright and playable. I'm currently playing Last Remnant on this old motherboard and it's a miracle that it works considering the minimum requirements are a dual core cpu. This card really helped. Sure it could halt in one of those powerhungry games designed for quadcore but I mostly play doujin games and the requirements of those are WAY lower than the usual games you find in local stores. Since your cpu is dual core you could have even better results than me.