What should I upgrade to?

[HughTower]

Current specs are Athlon 64 3000+, 512mb RAM, and GeForce 5900XT. Game can be quite slow even on low settings, and I fancy a bit more punch. I'm not looking to the best of best, but what can I do that will make the biggest difference to my gaming experience? Can I just buy a new gaming card, or do I have to upgrade other stuff as well?

If you haven't guessed already my tech knowledge is as low-end as my machine......

Thanks.

[Bijo]

A better video card and some more RAM wouldn't hurt. At least 1GB of RAM or even more if possible.

You can get a cheap decent video card nowadays, but I don't have any links handy.

[Dutch_guy]

That Athlon, does that have something like 2.66 GHz ? Just for reference, as I don't quite know a lot about processors.

Other than that, I can only second Bijo's advice: go for at least another 512 MB Ram - if not more ! - and if you have the money go for another vid. card as well. A model like the 7600 (GT/GS), a cheap though sturdy card, 'll probably be what you're looking for.

Do keep in mind though, that with Vista and DirectX 10 on the horizon it may be worth it to wait for the better DX10 cards. That said, never trust the first batch of a new batch of (revolutionary) cards...And all the new (direct 10X) games will probably still run with a card like the 7600, so the damage 'll be limited - if of damage we may speak at all .

[sapi]

@dutch_guy, that athlon is (iirc) under 2ghz, but clock speeds are meaningless and it's still a reasonable processor.

Your adivce makes sense, but i'd seriously doubt what you're saying about current cards running dx10 - from what i've read there's no backwards compatibility built into the the new version of directx.

[Dutch_guy]

@dutch_guy, that athlon is (iirc) under 2ghz, but clock speeds are meaningless and it's still a reasonable processor.

Your adivce makes sense, but i'd seriously doubt what you're saying about current cards running dx10 - from what i've read there's no backwards compatibility built into the the new version of directx.

Thanks for that Sapi, had no idea/

Well, what I mean to say was that future games 'll not immediately demand DX10 compatible cards - as game-manufacturers 'll not want to lose a major part of potential buyers. However, what you're saying does make sense, and, that said, is probably true - come to think of it*

* I'm now totally confused, a while back I thought I read something about some sort of a DX10 mode which made it possible for current cards to run it, anyway, don't count on it...

[sapi]

You might be right, but if i was designing dx10 i'd certainly start from scratch with no backwards compatibility, especially considering what you pointed out about there being a phase in period over the next few years, where most games will support either dx9 only or both (the only exception i know of is halo 2 for vista)