Computer Hardware Spec Help ( Please? )

Hello all.

Im currently having some issues getting 3 boxes running smoothly, FPS dropping down to 15 range on each box, although 2 seems to run fine.
I have a outdated computer, however cannot currently afford to build a completely new machine.
This is with running all 3 boxes on absolute minimum settings of course, due to the quality of the computer I am using. All effects off/minimum running 800x600 resolution.

My current specs are :

Pentium Dual Core 3.0 ghz
4g DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD 4600 Vid card

My question is simply this, if I was to upgrade to 8gb RAM, or to upgrade my video card, which would have a bigger impact, and WOULD it have a impact enough to allow me to run 3 boxes smoothly at 20-30 FPS on minimum settings?

Thank you for your time ahead of time.

[lax]

The answer to your question is actually provided in the HOWTO: Tweak your framerate guide. To tell you what to upgrade, we necessarily need to identify the bottleneck ([url=http://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Tweak_your_framerate#Identifying_framerate_bottlenecks]HOWTO: Tweak your framerate, part 5, Identifying framerate bottlenecks[url]). Then it's a matter of choosing an appropriate upgrade for the bottleneck ([url=http://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Tweak_your_framerate#Hardware_upgrades]HOWTO: Tweak your framerate, part 6, Hardware upgrades[url]).

Based on your description, my current assumption about your best performance bang-for-the-buck upgrade, is going to be a processor upgrade. (This can be verified by following "Identifying framerate bottlenecks".) Here's why: You have a dual core CPU. This means that if you're playing 2 guys, then each of your 2 CPUs can fully power one of the two windows. But when you start running 3, now you're probably doubling up one of the CPU cores, meaning it has only half of the power per game instance on that core! Because of this, you might be able to improve performance by selecting an "All windows on all CPU cores" CPU Strategy, as opposed to the default Round-robin CPU strategy.

But either way, your CPU has a total of 3000+3000MHz for a total possible of 6000MHz, and even the best case will divide that 6000MHz 3 ways instead of 2. For 2000MHz per instance. If you went 4, you'd drop to 1500MHz per instance instead of 3000MHz per instance. I believe this effect is going to be more dramatic than your GPU.

Thanks for your reply lax.

It is in fact my CPU bottlenecking, peaking to 100% when a few graphics are on screen. RAM sits around 75% on the usage scale, but the actual free is 0.

Changing the settings as you stated did seem to help a bit, but still have issues with multiple effects.

Upgrading processors without buying a complete new system is beyond my technical know - how, so I must ask, theoretically ( Im not going to hold you to your answer in any way shape or form if I make decisions upon your educated guess ) would increasing my ram give me any benefits in FPS during high CPU usage points?

Edit - typo.

[lax]

Sadly, no.

There are 2 times when new RAM may improve framerate:
1. When you're adding RAM to stop running out of it (which you're not; you're at 75% at the moment in question, which is going to be pretty much the same performance as at 1% or 95%)
2. When you're replacing slower RAM with faster RAM -- this is highly dependent on your motherboard and what RAM models you currently have, and you might need to consult the manual and/or an expert, but it is entirely possible to speed up your CPU to some degree with faster RAM...

I am going to say that a standard RAM upgrade is not going to be worth the cost in this case. You're just going to need a much bigger boost than it's going to offer, even if you replaced slow RAM with faster RAM. This is to say that if I were you and if I had a limited budget and I was forced to choose between one of these two upgrades, I would choose a quad core CPU and be happy with my decision.

Again, thanks for your time.

As far as multiboxing is concerned, would having a lower GHz quadcore outperform a dual core with 3.0 GHz?
Think that should be my last question, since it looks like ill be upgrading CPU and see if that raises my bottleneck up by a significant margin.