Upgrade, or not to upgrade - that, is the question.

Sorry for the corny title.

Well, at the moment I play Guild Wars smoothly, but sometimes when I run maybe a bit too many windows and Adobe Photoshop CS2, and music, it'll lag quite a bit, but if I just have GW and maybe 1 or 2 windows, it's fine.

But I still lag alone with just GW Open with full high quality and music, without music it's a little bit.

At the moment I'm using:

ATI 9250 Sapphire Radeon Graphics Card
^ It was cheap, bought it a few months ago, graphics are just perfect, so I don't need a new one.

AMD Athlon 2.4GHz Processor
^ I've had this since I bought this Computer quite a few years ago, I'm planning on buying an AMD (Venice) Athlon 3.5GHZ processor, think I should?

768MB RAM
^ Originally had 256, bought 512 to make 768 for when I bought Guild Wars under a year ago when I started playing Guild Wars, also because my PC was quite slow anyway, I'm planning on buying another 512 (my pc has only 2 ram slots) and removing the 256 and putting in another 512 to make 1024MB RAM, think it'll be worth it?

So overall, should I go from AMD Athlon 2.4ghz processor and 768mb ram to AMD Athlon 3.5ghz and 1024mb ram? Will it be worth it? Will my PC run a lot more smoothly, Guild Wars no lag? Etc...

IS IT GONNA BE WORTH IT?


Thanks,
Josh

There is no 3.5Ghz Venice core processor. It is up to 3700+ and some 4000+'s have it. The FX-57 doesn't even reach 3.0.

And your eating up RAM like a fat kid eats up cake! Get an even gig, especially with CS2 running, GW, and music? That's insane.

And 9250 is kinda old, maybe look into a 6600GT or something.

Processor is fine.

There is, lol.

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3500+ 939pin 512Kb L2 Cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor With 3 Year Warranty and Fan Included.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=88107

I never said I had CS2 and GW running, I don't even have any CS games lol. I meant the program Adobe Photoshop, the actual full program/latest is called "Adobe Photoshop CS2".

And I said I'm getting 1024MB ram...And I think I might need a new processor, quite a lot of my programs running a bit slow.

did the performance degrade over time? u sound like u have descent power there, i would say video card like the 6600gt as well, processor will handle the the 6600gt, just make sure u have a 350 watt PSU. Maybe a simple HDD Defrag will help?

Yeah it degraded over time, before (when brand new put in) I could have it all nicely maxed detail and open and such and no lag, but over time, as I did it constantly, day in-day out, it just began to lag and it processed program opening and actions a lot slower.

I might be getting a new graphics card, not sure.

Also, how can I check if i have a 350 watt PSU? And I think I might just put on a defrag while I'm out tonight and tommorrow.

Josh, that isn't 3.5 Ghz. It is 2.2 Ghz.

It is the equivalent to an Intel 3.5, but by no means is it 3.5 Ghz. The FSB and multipliers do not equal 3500mhz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103533

Oh and 350W is the bare minimum, I would highly recommend a 400W+ PSU with 24A+ at 12V rails.

NewEgg only deliver to USA I think? I'm UK, plus isn't that the same thing I showed you? Also, I know pretty much even if I look at an AMD Athlon 4.6Ghz, it won't BE 4.6, as it's 2.4Ghz as in Clock Speed.

Like my current processor (AMD Athlon 2.4GHZ) is actually running at 2.0GHZ

I'm thinking though of just buying the RAM and if that is better, I won't buy a new Processor, and rather get a decent Graphics Card than my ATI 9250.

WAIT

if you yank that 256mb just to put in a 512mb you are only gaining 256mb which is peanuts compared to what you have already.

for a bit more you can pick up a 6600GT (GT is important) card.

you will not notice much if any improvement with the ram.

if you had only 256mb to begin with that would be different but you already have 3/4 gig

Loviator,
This one?
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=87624

By the way, I think your kinda right on the RAM thing, might just only buy a new Graphics card.

Although I am still lagging (on GW) with just this open:

Guild Wars (max detail, music of) and just 2 or 3 Mozilla Firefox tabs of GW Guru webpages. (i swear it's the flash smiley adverts that lag me, lol).

Should I get that extra 256mb ram? (I only got 2 slots, and I yank out my 256 and put in 512 to make 1024)

Or...should I go from AMD Athlon 2.4 to a AMD Athlon 3.5/3.7GHz or whatever processor?

In terms of performance I think you'll get more bang for you buck if you get a new vid card. The processor might need/would greatly benefit from a new motherboard as well - in which case getting dual channel memory would be worth it as well.

So I would say get vid card first, bump up ram next, get new mb/cpu if you can afford - but then also get ne memory as well. All depends on how much you can spend.

So, in this order?

1. GeForce 6600 GT Graphics Card
2. AMD Athlon 3.5GHz + New MotherBoard
3. More RAM

..?

Also, can you tell me what Dual Channel Memory is?
+ What Motherboard, processor etc etc do you recommend me getting?

Here's my current: