CookieGuy wrote:What would you say the performance would be, if I applied the RAM only? Would I be able to run this game flawlessly on all low settings until I get that graphic card? Without any lags or stutters?
It's hard for me to see how your performance would be overall after the upgrades, compared to your current performance. Other factors such as HDD capacity and speed, HDD and RAM fragmentation, running processes, etc all come into play as factors of system performance. In general though, increasing your GPU and RAM will give you a decent performance boost, but won't magically enable to you play all the newest titles.
And by paired you mean, it has 2 sticks that I can apply into each red slot? If so, aren't they 2gb each? wouldn't that make it 6gb ram in total? Or I'm mistaken and in total it is 2gb? I'm confused a little, thanks for your help once again.
"Paired" memory, aka Dual Channel, are sets of memory modules (RAM) that are of the exact same make/model/speed/etc and usually made at the same time (same lot #/etc), and sold as a pair/set. When you see a 2GB DC paired set, they are talking about a 2x1 set, or 2x 1GB modules. Those that I linked for you are such modules, two sticks of paired 1GB.
You currently have 2x1 installed (in your "yellow slots"), and by adding another similar 2x1 paired set into your "red slots" you'll have a total of 4x1 modules, or 4x 1GB for a total of 4GB RAM, the max supported for your motherboard.
And one more thing, did you catch any other graphic cards, that could run BF2 better? At same price or maybe lower?
Based on the age of your system, the motherboard, etc you probably can't do much better than a 1GB GPU (Video card). I would highly recommend you not go with anything below that, nor should you waste money trying to go higher. As for PCI-E 1024MB (1GB) GPUs they will come in 3 flavors: Budget/Generic, Standard, and Pimp. Your budget/generic models get the job done, but you get what you pay for. Standard models are those that perform a little better than the budget models, but not good enough to compete with the higher-end units. And the "Pimp" models are the ones that look so damn good you'll bust a nut during a game's opening sequence (I've seen high-end 1GB cards selling for over $1000 as an example).
The only major difference between those two cards (the one linked above and the one linked in previous post) is that one is ATI and the other is Nvidia. Both are rated at 1GB VRAM, both have the same ports, both use DDR3, both have the same max res, etc. But the Nvidia (GeForce GT520) is showing 810 MHz core clock speed, while the ATI Radeon HD 6570 is only showing 650 MHz.
You won't see a huge difference in the performances of either card, although the Nvidia might perform just a wee bit better. I've also seen several games that have issues with ATI drivers. So just looking at the specs, I'd suggest the PNY model over the Sapphire. Not to mention, the PNY is about 20 cheaper (Euro?).
As for running games in high settings, that's just not going to happen with your PC no matter what RAM and video card you buy. Newer games or those with high system requirements will require better processors, RAM, video, etc. You'll basically need to get a new PC. You can still run games with the upgrades mentioned above, but don't expect to compete with some $4000 USD new system.
My advice, get a new video card first. Your 2GB of RAM isn't "bad", but by today's standards, a 256MB video card is like having a monochrome monitor or using a 1200 baud modem.
There's 2 the same in 2 different sockets)
this PC is 5 years old for me, dunno when made, maybe even older :L but it's time to upgrade, so help me out please!
R) all on high smoothly with that graphic card and maybe even upgrading the ram to my max capability (4gb)