big help needed please

[alexbaker1983]

Im in abit of a dilema, To start with my system is

athlon 64processor 3200+
1.99ghz, 704mb ram.
i have 20 gb free hard drive space left (120gb total)

and my graphics card is ati radeon xpress200 memory size 64mb.

My problem is i cant play any recent rpg shooters i.e Call of duty, ghost recon. Some games wont even install as it says my graphics card is not supported, and the ones that do i get very slow patchey game play. (i move the mouse or walk and it moves a step every 2 seconds)

I really want to get my computer to play new games and enjoy the experience, the info i need please is-

What should i change first? (graphics card, memory, hd)
Whats the best but not too expensive graphics card? (around ?50 if poss)
What is the recommended memory for good gaming?

Thankyou in advance i know its alot but dont know where to start.

[jiggy]

alex you should check out toms hardware its got all the info on pc hardware and it has a best buy for your money section on grahpic cards with benchmarks on various games

[alexbaker1983]

cheers mate will do.

[Raven]

The first thing to change out on your system for gaming performance is your video card and your RAM, ideally you want 2GB of RAM for gaming, the good news is ur CPU speed rate seems fine for gaming and I am assuming it's dual core ? - the other bit of good news is that RAM is inexpensive these days even for 2GB of high quality RAM.

There is a flipside though, as always.......if you are looking towards gaming on the PC for the latest games which judging by your post it seems so...then I'm afraid you will be looking at spending at least 60 quid on a card that is sufficient for the job, give or take 40 quid it will more likely be the 100 pound mark, depending on the card and deal.

The other piece of bad news is that in upgrading all this, DON'T forget or neglect your power supply unit. because there would be nothing worse than upgrading and then discovering your psu doesnt have enough juice to supply all ur hardware. And again for a good make, and therefore reliable, power supply that will supply enough stable power, you are looking at about 80 quid.

One thing I have learned is that whichever way you slice it, it is expensive to game on the PC but thank God upgrading isn't just for gaming. Otherwise you're better off buying an Xbox360.

One word of warning though......if you are going to buy a modern card and it says PCIE 2.0 anywhere on it, check wether or not you have the VIA chipset on your motherboard and also check to make sure your motherboard is compatible with it.

The reason being is that the VIA chipset is not compatible with PCIE 2.0, long story.

I hope this helps, and good luck.