What is more likely to boost my gaming performance: a new GPU or more RAM?

Question

I would like to be able play GTA:4 on my PC, however my computer's specs are not the best.

I have an Intel Pentium R Dual Core e5200 2.50 ghz (Overclocked to 3.41 GHz) with:

ATI Radeon HD 4300 512 MB
2GB DDR2 RAM.

But it still cant support higher resolutions in some games. Which should I upgrade first, the GPU or RAM (I.e. which upgrade will give me the most benefit at this stage?) I think my CPU is OK to play games with.

Making a quick check on the provided specs - You are going to need to upgrade everything (CPU, GPU, RAM, motherboard maybe) if you want to really boost your performance. Your CPU and GPU are quite old and would greatly benefit from an update. Be ready to shell out around 500 $, if you decide to upgrade everything. — 5pike, Jul 31 '13 at 06:21
This question is quite specific, maybe you should rather ask something more general like "How to figure out which hardware changes affect gaming performance most?" — Zommuter, Jul 31 '13 at 06:24
possible duplicate of Which is better for a Gaming PC Graphics Card - more RAM, or faster GPU? and How can I determine the bottleneck in my gaming rig? and Determining if a game is CPU- or GPU-limited — Zommuter, Jul 31 '13 at 06:25
I'm afraid that "specs are not the best" is big understatement. — vartec, Jul 31 '13 at 10:04
Not really a duplicate - the linked questions aren't about system RAM, and they're vague compared to this question which lists specific hardware. — Daniel Lubarov, Jul 31 '13 at 23:46
@Daniel No, it's not a duplicate, technically. But for questions regarding system specs, everyone tends to have their own unique configuration. That makes it very difficult to help anyone else unless they have that exact configuration. Since questions are supposed to help more than just the asker, anything that specific doesn't cut it. That's why we have generic questions about what to look for, and determine for yourself what the problem is. That will help more people, and the asker, too. — Frank, Aug 02 '13 at 14:37

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

From the info you provided, your GPU is the more likely bottleneck. A lot of things could cause lag, but these are the most likely scenarios:

The game needs more than 512 MB worth of buffers to run at higher resolutions. If you're running at 1680x1050 for example, two screen-sized buffers with a 4-byte encoding will take 13 MB. But that's just the minimum; more buffers are required for textures, reflections, modern lighting techniques and so forth. As you increase the resolution, GTA might be trying to upload higher-quality textures to your GPU. Some buffers might end of up in system memory, which tends to be much slower for the GPU to access.
Your GPU just doesn't have the processing throughput required to run GTA's fragment shaders at a high resolution.

If you want to be certain about where the bottleneck is, try some GPU profiling software.

What is more likely to boost my gaming performance: a new GPU or more RAM?

1 Answers1