Recommendations on upgrades, concerning skyrim, BF3

So the skyrim runs pretty well on my current pc that I built back in 2007 to run crysis, the current specs are:

e6750 dual core intel cpu 2.66 ghz

evga 8800gt gpu

2 gb's gskill ram ddr2 800mhz ram pc6400

Now, I was thinking of getting more ram, the game runs pretty good and looks pretty good even on low/medium settings, but figured more ram would help with the occasionaly 3 second pauses when traveling across the map - however Im using xpsp3 so I won't be able to utilize all 4 gb's since it's a 32 bit system, but I do have a copy of windows 7 64 bit that I could install, so my question is - which would be better, installing 4 gb's total of ram and installing windows 7, OR, keeping xpsp3 and installing the ram and letting the system use as much of it as it can. I figured since windows 7 uses more ram to begin with, it might cancel out the extra gig that it has the ability to use anyways and the game won't run any faster

lastly, I'd be down to buy a new video card as long as it's under ~150 - I'd prefer to stick with Nvidia EVGA but if ATI has taken over the bang for your buck spot on the podium then that's good, I'll leave it up to you whiz's to know, as I've fell out of the loop over the past few years. I saw the new Nvidia cards on newegg, the gta 450-550 cards and those seem like they'd be significant upgrades over my 8800 gt, but what do you think?

Also, my power supply is 700 watts and 56 amp I believe, and my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L so Im not sure if that will limit me on what kind of GPU i can even upgrade to. Example:

would this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

work with my current motherboard?

Thanks for any help!!!

-Erik

If you want BF3, you have to get W7, wont work on XP. Get another 2GB RAM.

Also, I wouldn't look at the 550 Ti, its a mid range card. Look at 560 Ti or if its too much, the 6870/6850 from AMD.

I don't think you can find a better deal than this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

If your mobo can handle it I'd throw a quad core in there (q6600-q9xxx) I don't know if they can be had for a reasonable price though. Windows 7 is a good idea to install it'll probably run just as fast as XP. The GTX460 1gb is a great card that won't break your bank and will play all current games almost maxed out. FYI I'm pretty sure the skyrim .exe is 32bit so unless you modify it it can't utilize more than 2gb ram (or some number it might be 4).achilles614

It's probably that the game itself can only use 2gb, but since I only have 2gb, part of it is already used for other processes

If you want BF3, you have to get W7, wont work on XP. Get another 2GB RAM.

Also, I wouldn't look at the 550 Ti, its a mid range card. Look at 560 Ti or if its too much, the 6870/6850 from AMD.

GTR12

good to know - So the 550ti is midrange...compared to my 8800gt?

what should I be specifically looking at in the specs for the card? The shader clock on the one i linked is far faster than my current card, but I really have fallen out of the loop so I dont really know

thanks for the help everyone!

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

If you want BF3, you have to get W7, wont work on XP. Get another 2GB RAM.

Also, I wouldn't look at the 550 Ti, its a mid range card. Look at 560 Ti or if its too much, the 6870/6850 from AMD.

edubrules

good to know - So the 550ti is midrange...compared to my 8800gt?

what should I be specifically looking at in the specs for the card? The shader clock on the one i linked is far faster than my current card, but I really have fallen out of the loop so I dont really know

thanks for the help everyone!

Dont look at specs for cards, its more confusing at times.

The card numbers are a better indicator,

1st number is series - eg 5xx (5 series) or 6xxx (6 series)

2nd number is range within series - 54x to 55x is midrange for Nvidia, 65xx to 67xx is midrange for AMD.

Low range for Nvidia is 52x to 54x, and 62xx to 65xx for AMD.

Mid-High range is 56x for Nvidia and 68xx for AMD.

High is 57x to 59x for Nvidia and 69xx for AMD.

3rd and 4th number is within that range even more.

so is the ati 6850 card linked above a really good deal? based on what you say it does seem better than the one I linked

Compared to my 8800gt, which is really a great card considering it is still ticking 4 years later, how much better will the above ati 6850 the poster linked be?

so is the ati 6850 card linked above a really good deal? based on what you say it does seem better than the one I linked

Compared to my 8800gt, which is really a great card considering it is still ticking 4 years later, how much better will the above ati 6850 the poster linked be?

edubrules

6850/460 > 550ti, and price/performance wise, the 6850 is superior to the 460. It's $120 after rebate (today's the last day for the deal).