[Martin]

So I've just started gaming again on PC, after more than a decade. I'm aware that the new architectures are probably around the corner (due to the new consoles with their trillion core CPUs and whatnot), and thus building an entirely new PC around an Intel i7 CPU or whatever would be a bad move at this point, especially seeing as my current PC seems to go through almost all the games I have for it like they're nothing at all, with one exception. The exception being Skyrim, which I can run at full everything with a relatively smooth 60fps - until I go into a town, at which point turning my head causes slowdowns. Knocking the texture resolution down to 'medium' (still max on everything else) did the trick, and now it's completely smooth no matter where I am or what I'm doing. Skyrim has the biggest requirements of my PC games. All the others run perfectly with everything set to maximum.

With all this in mind (my games run perfectly, building a new PC would be a bad idea right now), I'm simply interested in making some minor upgrades to my current rig. I'm thinking I should upgrade the RAM and GPU, but my level of knowledge on which hardwares go with which etc is very poor. I simply don't know what I can and can't put in my PC. I've Googled some stuff, but my lack of knowledge generally makes it all seem like gibberish. Here is my rig in it's current state:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
MOBO: Asus P5K-E/WiFi-AP
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM: 2x 2GB DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 (can't remember, don't know how to check without opening up PC)
HDD: Samsung HD502HJ 500 GB SATA
GPU: NVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

I'm not looking to breath a whole new lease of life into my PC experience. I'm basically just looking to get Skyrim rocking the hi-res textures again LOL! It looked extremely pretty, but the slowdowns in towns were off-putting. I don't really know what's happened to me. The slowdowns with hi-res textures were nowhere near as bad as on PS3, which I found perfectly acceptable. I think that it's just more jarring on PC because it'll drop from 60fps rather than 25-30. You notice it a lot more. I guess it'd also be nice to be able to play all current gen games (the sort of stuff you get on PS3 or 360) with confidence that I'll be able to jack all the settings up, no bother.

If I had to guess (which I do, since I'm clueless!) I'd say it's probably the GPU not being up to snuff for Skyrim's hi-res textures? Not enough VRAM, maybe? Educated guess. It was fine in the wilds or Skyrim, in caves, dungeons and whatnot. Just towns caused slowdowns. At the moment, with textures set to medium, my PC eats Skyrim alive. It's still a beautiful game (and as a piece of useless trivia, medium textures seem about on par with the console version's textures), I just want Skyrim looking as good as possible.

Maybe I already have the best GPU that is compatible with my mobo? I don't know. This is where I need help. Just looking the increase performance of my current rig mostly for Skyrim and other current-gen titles. We're NOT building a new PC, here! I guess I'd spend a couple hundred GBP on the upgrades? Not too fussed, but the less the better of course. Part of me thinks that any upgrades should be pretty cheap, considering the age of the computer (was built for me in the summer of '08). I could be wrong. Maybe parts for old boards are expensive lol?

BTW, I have no issues with used stuff. If I had a choice of two of the same GPU, but one was used and cost half as much - I'd get that one.

Thanks in advance, guys! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[Inspector Lagomorf]

At this point the only thing you will be possibly able to upgrade before maxing out is the RAM and the GPU. The amount of RAM you have in your computer is rather small given the rest of your specs, so upgrade to 8GB of DDR2 RAM if you can. As for a GPU, you're essentially limited to whatever fits in your motherboard. For an idea of which GPU to get, see the various "ATI Radeon vs Nvidia" threads.

[Person of Color]

The Q6600 is a good processor if you're willing to tweak it. It's a great chip to learn how to overclock with, since it comes clocked waaaaay below what the silicon can actually do, and doesn't run very hot. Since it's one of the original Core 2 Quads, it has a slower front side bus (FSB) than the later processors, which makes it much, much easier as well. Your motherboard also has the P35 chipset, which is a breeze to work with.

If you're short on cash, play around with it. You can't blow anything out unless you're a total idiot.

I just built Jimmy a custom system with a Q6600, and I overclocked it to 3.22GHz. It could have gone further but his motherboard had a crappy Nvidia chipset. It performed great, it was like jumping a generation. At 2.4 they are kind of sluggish by today's standards.

My advice would be to drop $30 on a Hyper212 Evo cooler, read a couple how to guides, and play with it over a weekend. You'll go up a generation in speed and then you can get a faster video card without bottlenecking. You can also get a few extra years out of your current system by doing this.

As for the video card, Polymer sucks on Radeons, but nothing else gives me any issues. My current Radeon is better than any Nvidia card I've owned. I've had better luck with everything including drivers - the two companies are the same with modern games, but Radeons seem to have better support with legacy titles. Radeons also have the new Mantle API, which is a port of the low level API's the PS4 and XB1 use. Within the next couple years you're going to see Radeons pull ahead in the benchmarks as a result, even compared to "equivalent" Nvidia cards. There won't be much incentive for companies to optimize their games for Nvidia now that consoles use AMD hardware. I mean, yeah, there's Steambox, but that's a niche market.

What's your budget for a video card?