New gpu or ram?

[Smith]

Ive got a x1600xt and 1 gb of ddr 667 samsung ram.

Now..games are not running like ide like them to. Would I benefit from buying a high speed 2gb ram kit..or a new video card more?

I play a mod for BF2 called Project Reality and the game play is really laggy for the first 10 minutes on big maps.

[Broken]

The x1600xt isn't that powerful of a card.

A newer card would surely boost your performance.
A 1950pro isn't a bad buy right now.

Tomshardware has a good brake down of performance for the buck.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/06/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/

Also there is a good performance chart. To get some idea of what your current card gives you compared to what could be.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

[Smith]

See the thing is..im gonna end up spending 3-400$ on 1 thing, wont it bottleneck the other?

Ive got a am2 4200, ive heard I can OC it like crazy with proper cooling, so im not worried about my cpu.

How would a lower end 8800 compare to a high end 7950?

[Broken]

a 7950 GT will run about $200 USD.

a 8800 GTS (320 mbs) will run you about $270 USD. It performs near par with it's more costly brothers. It's DX10 and scores about 30% better than the 7950GT on benchmarks.

It is currently one of the best buys on the high end of things.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/12/the_amd_squeeze/page8.html

I'm not going to tell you that more ram isn't better. We both know the more the merrier, especially with Vista in the future for almost everyone. Right now, to run your game in XP, your weakness is your card.

[neorth]

Yep, maybe you could also try to find used stuff. I bought both my current graphic card and ram really cheap that way.
That could also be a god temporary solution if you're planning to update your whole system later on..

[Seedler]

GPU for sure.

Either grab a 7900GS or 1950pro, best bang for your buck period as of april 2007.

The 1950pro isn't a very good OCers, however the 7900GS is.

A 1950pro outperforms a 7900GS by roughly 10-15%, while also pricing at $250 CAD while the 7900GS is priced below $200 CAD.

It's your choice.

Source: Search Tom's Hardware, too lazy to be arsed to pull up the benchmarks again.

[Smith]

Ide like to spend the extra cash if it lasts me a bit. What about my ram, will it effect performance at all? Bottle neck?

Also..OCing my cpu..will I see a performance increase?

[Seedler]

both your CPU and RAM are fine... as of now they are not bottlenecking ur system.

Heck, mine setup is almost exactly the same as yours, except my CPU's single core and that's about it.

Upgrading to a 7900GS saw almost double the FPS in most games.

[das31]

get a new video card