BleepingComputer.com: What is the next upgrade I should do?

Ok here are my specs......
MB: ASUS M4A77D
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512MB
CPU:AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
RAM:3072MB RAM
HDD:750 GB
PSU:500W
I am pretty sure I should buy a quad core for my PC because everything else is pretty good & im not interested in buying any sound card because my MB has some HD audio built in

This post has been edited by NuckenFutz: 29 August 2010 - 04:47 PM
Reason for edit: Moved from XP to System Building & Upgades ~ Hamluis.

Well...what would be your reasons for this upgrade?

Louis

I think my CPU is slacking & I can't play games like crysis very well I get about 27FPS in it in Left 4 Dead I heard my video card got like 70-100FPS I get about 60-32 but ya my reason for a upgrade is so I can play more demanding games

Few computers can play Crysis very well to begin with. You have a couple of issues that could be causing a slowdown. First, your CPU, as you mentioned, isn't that good. It's got a slow clock speed and isn't using the latest architecture. I would go for the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz CPU if you are using demanding, high performance games. Crysis is one of the few games that can use 64-bit technology, therefore, to squeeze every last bit of power out of your system, you should be using a 64-bit version of the operating system and 4GB or more of RAM. Compared to the current generation of graphics cards, the GeForce 9800 GT is getting a little old. If you have cash, I would get a new one, such as the SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB. If you want a little more power, the HIS iCooler V H583FN1GD Radeon HD 5830 1GB could be consiered, however, it is a big card so make sure you have room for it and it is at the limit of what your power supply can handle.

RAM and Video RAM could be increased is my first thought.

Unfortunately you can't get more Video RAM without getting a new card and your current GPU is quite good. I am a proponent of maxing out your system RAM and like at least 4GB because I don't believe in too much RAM. Also keeping the same amount of RAM but upgrading to DDR3 wouldn't be a bad idea either. If you do want to do that though I would get a Mobo/Proc while you are at it.

What I just did to my computer is the following:
AMD Phenom II X6
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
4GB DDR3 RAM

I have an XFX Nvidia 8600GT, 256mb DDR3 video card plugged in. The choke point on my system moved from the CPU in the previous setup to being the video card for me.

The Asus M4A77D is one of those backwards compatible motherboards with DDR2, the only reasons to replace it are to do DDR3 or a multi-GPU setup. That motherboard still supports the Phenom II's all the way up to X6 processors, however, it is unlikely that it would be backwards compatible when the AM3r2 sockets are released.