Advice on Hardward upgrade apppreciated

[daveywavey]

Hi Guys,

Firts off, I'm failrly inexperienced but would really appreciate your advice.  I'm running FSX on a fairly old machine but it's just about coping, specs are:-

Intel P4, CPU 2.93GHz with 1GB memory and an NVidia 8600 GTS card.    My funds are somewhat limited so cannot afford to upgrade the CPU/motherboard yet. Can you advise if I would noticably see an improvement in performamce if I upgraded the video card; I was considering a used card (E Bay for approx

[Sean Grenyer]

I'd suggest upgrading the RAM first. Depending on your motherboard, another 2-3Gb wouldn't cost more than

[daveywavey]

Thanks for the reply.  The ASUS motherboard can only take up to 2GB so I could add another gig.  It's either that or upgrading the video card, as I mentioned.  What do you think guys?  Which option would give me the greatest benefit?   Many thanks in advance.

[Slotback]

Upgrading the memory to 2gb and getting a faster videocard might help a bit. however the main problem with your PC is the processor. Consider upgrading it to a dual-core, or quad core of some kind, however to do so you will most likely need to replace your motherboard and memory too, which basically means an entirely new computer.

I would upgrade the RAM if I had to choose between RAM and videocard.