I've recently got a new pc with Intel 1.8 dual core, 2gig ram, 256 Nvidea ge-force card. While playing games like Jericho, Hellgate London etc. it's not performing as it should and the games are slow. All the requirements for these games have been more than met. I've installed up to date drivers for the graphics card but still it does'nt make a difference. I am running NOD32 virus program and windows xp, could this be the cause or what?
yeah, that's a low end video card. It will struggle with newer games like Hellgate. I'm going to guess it's a prebuilt system like an HP, Dell or Advent?
No someone built it up for me. Anything I can do to speed things up or is a better card the only option? If so, any recommendations?
Neither Windows nor NOD32 (I, too, run it and it is a great anti-virus) are causing your issues. And you have 2 gigs of RAM which is good. The issue is your video card. The 8400GS from what I have researched carries only a 64-bit memory interface and it also has the slower DDR2 memory as opposed to the faster DDR3. This card is fine for older games and general computing tasks and then some, but newer games are graphics intensive. Some like Crysis are so demanding that they even bring down high-end rigs to their knees. Anyway, if you were to upgrade do you know what your budget is? That would help us to help you. Also can you please give us your system specs like your cpu (Intel 1.8 what?), motherboard make and model, and power supply. Meanwhile go into your gaming options and turn down the resolution,etc. to see if your gaming experience improves.
Fortunately since your PC is a custom build it should be easy to upgrade. Find out what power supply unit it uses (the wattage, but more importantly the brand) then give us an upgrade budget so we can prescribe something relevant.
