Urgent help needed!

I bought a really expensive computer a year ago, probably 2x the price I Shoulda paid and bought a monitor without thinking of native resolutions and my ability to play higher end games.

My system:

2.4ghz core2duo
4 gig ram (Windows XP Pro detects 2.75GB)
8800 GTS 320MB

Monitor:

22'' LCD Widescreen @ 1680x1050


I'm getting Age of Conan in a day or so and in beta I was pretty much forced to play at 1680x1050. IF I drop the resolution, the game gets choppier and choppier due to the LCD. My performance as really bad, lots of loading, stalling. Even on low settings.

My question: WHat should I upgrade that will fix this issue?

New monitor? New gfx card to support 1680x1050?

Im not sure what I need to upgrade.

hmm... that resolution is a bit high, but the system specs you described should be able to handle that, especially at low settings. So I don't know what to tell you. Wait for one of the VGA wizes to log in tomorrow morning, they might have a better idea.

On a side note, Windows only detects 2.75GB because you have the 32-bit operating system installed. If you installed WinXP 64 or Vista (in 64-bit) you'd be able to see all 4GB.

Hmmmm as drumz0rz said your PC should be able to handle 1680x1050 at low settings, but since you say it doesn't I would recommend getting a better vid card. with a E6600 (if that's indeed your CPU) and 4gigs all you need is a vid card that can hold the resolution. a 8800GT should be well over enough.

Then again being forced to use 1680x1050 might render the 8800GT a bit weak in a very short time span. Who knows if it will hold next year's games at that res, so if you want future proof you'll need a stronger card, and that's very expensive.

What i don't get is, my monitor is a 22" LCD as well, and the native res is 1680x1050 as well. BUT, I can play on different resolutions just fine, as long as their 16:10 resolutions... My card wont allow me to play Bioshock at 1680x1050 at high settings so I just play at 1280x800 (or something like that) and it all looks very good...Give that res a try.

I can use lower resolutions but it gets progressively choppier/blurrier.

I'm actually thinking about getting the latest video card. (9800 GX2 1gig video memory)

64-bit windows scares me because I keep hearing lots of programs not working. Is 4GB+ necessary for gaming?

i'm using

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

note windows detects 3.50GB RAM on my system, Win XP Pro SP3

I can put any game (including crysis, etc) on highest settings (that DX9 supports) at 1680x1050 and it's crystal smooth.

You do not need more than 4GB of RAM at this point in time for smooth gaming. You do NOT need the 9800GX2 to run Age of Conan smoothly. If you're on low setting and experiencing slow downs, you have more than just video card issues with your computer that you should address.

What about other games, how do they run? Which drivers are you using?