Which one affects gaming the most, video card, processor, ram, or motherboard.?

Question

I want to upgrade my computer and I know all are important, but the motherboard seems the least important to me. If I play games that require alot of power, should I upgrade my motherboard, and then some?

Answer 1

it would all depend on what you are currently running

if you have a high spec pci-e graphics card
and only 512 or 1gb of slow RAM, RAM is your best option to upgrade

if your motherboard is PCI-E compatable then their isnt really any need to upgrade

as for the processor most of the gaming is done by the graphics card but if your graphics card is too low spec it will shift the load onto your processor

so its a big circle
if you could say what parts you have it could help alot

Answer 2

Typically the video card is the most important as in most games, it's the one doing the work, not the cpu. There are a few games, though, that do need cpu power, memory is 3rd. some games need around 1gb ram. There are a few that can use 2gb to 4gb, motherboard last as it only holds the parts. What parts it can use can matter. It matters what you have now and what you are able to upgrade to. Having no AGP or pci-e slot, a new computer would be the better choice. If only agp and a slow cpu (less then 3ghz), it might be a little limited according how slow the cpu is, as the video card does need the cpu to help out a little to get the data it needs. goto www.tomshardware.com for benchmarks and guides. They have an example on older computers and the newest agp cards.

Answer 3

depending on the game you play they are all important, but above a certain level not anymore.

It really is the mix. having a $900 videocard with a 1500mhz processor and 3 gig of ram will not work too well, but having a killer setup with 128meg ram will neither.

Balance the load. Motherboard and processor don't matter too much once the processor is over 3 gig but get a better videocard and a gig of ram.

Problem is that upgrading the MB means upgrading the CPU and memory. Using the old video does not make sense than, and hard disks are cheap......

Unless your system is pretty fast already (3.0 or up) rebuilding the whole thing would be my choice. (go PCI X not AGP)

Answer 4

for top end video games, you should also upload some extra ram, a minimum of yet another gig, yet you'll see a better earnings from a extra perfect video card. there is countless issues that are happening interior you computing device even as your gaming, the cpu is on excellent of problems with what information is critical the position, and ram is the storage for textures and the three-D engine that the game will be utilising. only about any twin middle cpu with 2 gigs of ram, and a short video card will take care of only about any sport. there is better than some thing, the gpu will be doing countless the artwork. that is a huge parallel processing unit, that figures how each and every pixel on the exhibit should be displayed in accordance to the ecosystem and what it happening on the time.

Answer 5

For games the video card is the most important by far. But you might not be able to put in a new PCIe video card if you have an old motherboard. Also, the prosessor and ram should still be pretty good or you will have bottlenecks that will decrease the performance of games.

Answer 6

RAM
Processor
Video Card
Motherboard.
in that order.

Answer 7

processor