Should I look for a new computer?

[bgast1]

I was wondering with all the talk about newer games bringing computers to their knees, I was wondering if mine might last me for a little while, or if I should consider getting a new computer. Specs are as follows:

Pentium 4 Processor 540 with HT technology. 3.2 GHz
- 1MB L2 Cache
- 800 MHz Front side bus

ATI Radeon X1950 Pro PCIe graphics card

1 Gig Ram. Can probably upgrade to 4 Gig.

It seems to me that this still meets the minium specs on all of the newer games, but I really hate playing a game if it bogs my computer down.

Can someone recommend some good FPS and RTS games that you can still enjoy without playing on line.

 

[taper]

Half Life 2, Rome:Total War, lots of other ones more than a year or two old should run fine. Just because they're older doesn't mean they're not fun if you haven't played them before. Another gig of RAM could help, anything more probably isn't worth it for this system. Maybe an 8600GT to 8800GTS if you need a better video card.

 

[bgast1]

Well, I am going to put 2 sticks of 1 gig ram in. I looked at the specs on all of the new games and it doesn't look like there is a game out there that I can't run. I seriously doubt I need a better graphics card. It still is probably pretty cutting edge. 256mb GDDR3. Although, I haven't really looked at anything newer since I bought this one earlier last year. Heck, even then it set me back over $300.00. I had to buy a new power supply when I added the card. I play Doom 3 with the graphics maxed out and I hardly even notice a blip.

 

[GVBN]

You should get a dual-core processor

 

[Aramazd]

You should get a dual-core processor

I think that depends if the dual core fits in his socket, fine, but if not I wouldn't recommend him buying a new motherboard

 

[bgast1]

Yeah, I tend to agree now that I have checked out the specs. on most newer games. It still looks like I am OK for a while. The only reason I would buy a new computer would be for dual core processing. Then I still would have to probably buy more ram, transfer over my video card and hope that I can find my old video card to run in this computer. Also, if the computer is cheap I might even have to replace the power supply to run my video card. Guess it isn't worth it yet. Thanks for all your replies.

 

[mdwh]

Maybe an 8600GT to 8800GTS if you need a better video card.

I don't think there'll be much difference from a Radeon X1950 Pro and an NVIDIA 8600GT - in fact, IIRC from Tom's Hardware, the Radeon does significantly better than the 8600GT (the latter has the advantage of supporting newer APIs though - DirectX 10).