I am wondering if I would see any significant improvement if I upgrade my CPU, from an AMD Athlon XP 2800 (2.0GHz) to a 3200 (2.2GHz).
I am running Windows XP Home SP2 on an Asus A7V8X-X motherboard, 512mb RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro AGP video card (128mb) , but I am still having problems with games like The Sims 2, running very slow, even though the game itself requires only a 900MHz CPU. I am puzzled as to why the game takes almost 2 mins to start and to exit!
Will I see improvement in demanding games like the Sims 2? Or should I try adding more RAM or a better video card? Thanks for the help!
2007-02-14 05:54:26 · 9 answers · asked by Jose 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
You won't see that significant difference from a XP 2800 to XP 3200. Your CPU and graphics card should handle the game without problems. The only thing that I can see is your RAM that toward the lower end. You should upgrade your RAM to at least 1 GIG instead. Do you also run a lot of programs in the background? Turn off all those background applications and free up as much memory as possible. Run a virus checker & spy ware checker (AVG and/or Ad Aware) . If you notice that your hard drive is constantly running even when you're not doing much on the computer could be a sign of either low RAM or a background application causing you problems.
2007-02-14 06:07:29 · answer #1 · answered by scslmd 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My suggestion would be more RAM. At least 1gb. 512 is the minimum to run Windows XP. The problem you are having is not because of your video card or processor. The difference between a 2800 and 3200 would not be significant.
2007-02-14 06:00:21 · answer #2 · answered by Jinx 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The slight increase in spped won't make any difference in the games. What you need to do is upgrade your actual RAM from 512mb to 1 or even 2 gigabytes. Then upgrade your video card.
Sims 2 is notoriously slow anyway in loading on PC's, but you might see some improvement.
2007-02-14 06:25:44 · answer #3 · answered by vgordon_90 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I used to have that exact system I built it in 2000. The upgrade in processor is not going to help you much. You are being held up by the data transfer rate on your front-side bus. The most effective upgrade you need to make is to ram. Although, if you still are using SDRAM you would be better off building another computer.
2007-02-14 05:59:20 · answer #4 · answered by Wyleeguy 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Don't bother, you will NOT see any big change in speed.
Sims2 is a system hog.
I have an AMD 64, 3200 overclocked to 2750Ghz, 1GB of RAM and using a Sapphire X1900 GT card, and it still takes too long to load Sims2!
2007-02-14 06:41:10 · answer #5 · answered by Venom 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The processor will not be a big difference. I would upgrade to 1gb of RAM. (todays computers need atleast 1GB of RAM) I would upgrade your card to atleast 256MB or better. Processor I would recommend in the 3.0 range. With todays games you have to have higher end stuff. If you go for a high end processor i would go for a dual core processor. 1GB of RAM. 512MB Video card.
2007-02-14 06:06:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's better to increase the RAM,the speed do not help any if the memory is not there,with todays programs coming out and the way the computer's memory is divided among programs running,RAM would be the best bet
2007-02-14 06:06:25 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I dont know the system requirments of sim2 but the first thing I would upgrade on your system is the ram. You wont gain much on upgrading the processor.
2007-02-14 05:57:53 · answer #8 · answered by jmoislhluear 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, the CPU upgrade won't help much. Instead, upgrade to at least 1GB of memory and a 256MB video card.
2007-02-14 05:57:45 · answer #9 · answered by non_apologetic_american 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋