Here goes nothing. So I have a somewhat crappy system(3.2 quad core, a 500w psu 4gb ram) Sounds ok right? nope

nvidia 210(yes the almighty)

20 maybe 30 fps in games. *Sigh

Is there any possible way that I don't know of already which can give me at least like 10 fps more?

I would gladly burn this gpu and buy a better one but my budget is really low atm. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Play at low res, check out the low requirements games more often and tryout highly acclaimed older games, like fallout.

There's a lot of things to do on PCs.

Update: emulators + mods

What kind of games are you trying to play? The 210 isn't really a gaming card.

NVida 210 was a discount card when the 200 series was new something like 5 years ago. It will not support many modern graphical features that games have today.

so there is no trick to boost my fps a little. Guess ill have to start saving some cash for a new gpu...

I'm not familiar with the 200 series so this may not apply, but does anyone know if it's possible to overclock the OP's card to get a little extra FPS? If so, this is a quick beginner's guide I'm going to use to overclock my new card and it may help the OP.

@bonorbitz thnx for the suggestion but i already searched for overclocking and its underwhelming regarding my gpu(only boosts by 2-3 fps)

Well since we concluded that its is close to impossible to squeeze more out of nothing lets change to a more aboardable subject.

A new and better gpu. I want something good but not hell of expensive. Like a gpu with a decent price and good performance. Also i would like the gpu to last like 4 yrs. Im more than content to have it for 4 yrs with a performance of 40 fps on each game. I dont want to buy a gpu that im gonna need to change 2 years later cause it cant handle the games anymore. Any suggestions are appreciated

@bonorbitz: He could overclock it, but in a calculation of efficiency, he probably loses out on it. The time and effort he would have to put down is a lot larger than any output to expect, I'd be surprised to see any real noticeable increases in fps for newer games even if he overclocks it perfectly. Also the card is old and has been used, let's not drag the lifespan down to "about tomorrow at noon" if he can't immediately afford a new one anyways.

@raspharus: I'm European, so I dunno about prices or general market for you. (American?)

Either way, if it's dropped significantly in price already, the slightly older powerhouse Radeon 7970 (my card) should most likely be fine for a couple of more years, but if it's still expensive in your area, then there should be more cost efficient options. I don't stick close enough to the hardware scene to know offhand, especially not if you intend to stick to Nvidia. But someone more knowledgeable should be lurking around the forums with some luck

@raspharus said:

It'll depend on your budget. I recommend Nvidia. If you can swing it, I'd get the GTX 970. It's $350, but that's a really good price for such a powerful card and should hold you over for four years. Its PSU requirement is 500w, so that'll work for you. I'd offer to sell you my GTX 770 but the power requirement is 100w more than your PSU.

GTX 750 or 760 ($150 and $220 respectively) are definitely budget cards, but I doubt their longevity. Their PSU requirements fit within your specs as well.

Also, I'd recommend getting another 4GB of memory. That may help. What resolution is your monitor?

@bonorbitz I'm from eu. My monitor has a 1600x900 res which is enoguh for me. I'll geck the prices for my country and see with what I'm dealing.

Edit: just had a quick glance over the prices and im gonna go with the gtx 750. Can you describe me the gpu a little? im gonna search for reviews and stuff but atm im on my droid so its gonna take a while

@bonorbitz: For the price, the 750ti is a hell of a card; I'm using them to run three displays each at work - admittedly not for gaming, though benchmarks look decent in that regard. It's worth keeping in mind that the 750 is built on the more recent Maxwell architecture, which should hopefully give it some legs; it may not have a lot of power, but hopefully its efficiency will let it last a bit better than the average budget card.

@raspharus: As everyone else is saying, your graphics card seems like your big bottleneck. You can try installing GeForce Experience to see if they have a profile for your existing card to min/max your game settings, but you'll likely want to upgrade. Sorry for the bad news! Building a proper gaming PC can be a bit of a journey, bouncing back and forth between upgrades over the years until you have a solid foundation. Good luck! It took me a few almost-complete rebuilds before I got to where I could just swap out parts every few years.

@raspharus: It's not what you're looking for but you might want to consider a new console. From what you posted, you'll likely need more than just a new gpu to get what you want, and a 750 already underperforms compared to the consoles and won't be getting you 40fps with newer games.

If you're feeling super thrifty and are willing to put in a lot of time, here's some stuff you can do to squeeze every last bit out of your computer

• back everything up
• reinstall windows (assuming you're on windows, right?)
• get latest BIOS, motherboard, graphics, and sound drivers (ideally in that order)
• only install the stuff you actually need/use
• set you desktop background to a solid color
• in control panel > sounds, turn off all notification sounds
• turn off the chrome/transparency/"aero" stuff
• go into the registry and disable everything you can from starting up automatically (don't install some crap to do this step, look up a guide)

Then if you're feeling really adventurous, look up "tweak guides" online. I'll admit it's been a while since I've looked at one, so they might suck now-a-days, or knowing the internet, they're a billion pages long and full of ads. You can really mess things up if you're not careful (usually not bad enough that a windows reinstall won't fix it), but it does slightly improve performance. Ideally you want to find a guide that explains what each thing does, then decide if you actually wanna change it. It's usually stuff like "disable transparency on this thing" or "turn off animation for that thing", and it can make windows look really crappy (but actually perform much snappier).

Even if you only get one or two extra fps, at least you'll learn more about your computer messing around with it :D

what about a radeon 7790?

Don't go with AMD. It's just constant problems with pretty much every game.

Then again I have had a 7850 for almost 2 years and have had no problems with it at all.

@raspharus: Unfortunately you are faced with a Sophies choice here (Edit: An American idiom that basically means that either choice is not what you want). When you are buying PC parts you can either have a low price or longevity, but having both is rare.

Recommendations:

• This is completely out of your price range, but the 970 or better are the only cards that might have a 4+ year lifespan. For a more affordable option, there are rumours going around that the GTX 960 is going to be released soon, but for now, the best bet is a GTX 760.
• Also, knowing what CPU you have is important. if you are still running a Core 2 Quad, any recent GPU is not going to perform as advertised. I have tried putting a 680 into a Core2Duo system, running at 3.6gHz, and the new card made Skyrim run worse than my 8800gt (Edit: By this I mean that the game became choppy and laggy, even if the resolution was set to 640x480). So if you are using an older CPU I recommend just building a new PC or getting a PS4.

yeah after more through searches i found gtx 750 ti to be really nice.

If you want a graphics card that will last you four years at 40 fps then the 750 is NOT the card you want. It won't even hit 40 fps with most current games at higher than medium settings. Plus it only has 2 GB of RAM I believe, which combined with your 4 GB of system RAM is going to leave you with a major memory deficit going forward. I would say that a 760 will last you four years if you get the 4 GB model and are willing to play at medium/low settings. To put things in perspective, I currently have a 560 ti in my computer, which is four years old now. The ti model is slightly more powerful than the normal 560 but it is mostly comparable. None of the major games released this month are playable at above 30 fps on my card with most settings set to medium, low, or even off. The most recent game I was able to play through was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. At a mix of medium and high settings with AA off and AO off I was able to get around 40 fps on average. With all settings maxed out I rarely broke 20 fps. It might take longer to save up for a 970 but I would HIGHLY recommend that card. It is an amazing value and will last you four years without you having to drop down to low settings in the final year. Again, the 4 GB model may cost a bit more but regardless of what card you settle on make sure it has at least 4 GB of RAM. I would also add another 4 GB of system RAM to your computer eventually.

EDIT: Also, follow CatsAkimbo's advice. Update to the latest drivers, either reinstall Windows from scratch or at least uninstall all programs you aren't using, and only have programs you absolutely need to be running at all times to start with the computer. So basically that means your anti-virus software and Windows Updates. As long as you remember to check for updates regularly with other programs you can turn off all the automatic updates. No other application needs to always be on.

@raspharus: If you're on a budget, both cash wise and power wise, I'd go with the nVidia 750ti. Make sure it's a ti and not a regular 750, there's a sizable performance difference. They're like $130 USD on Amazon. Otherwise, 970. But if that's not feasible, the 750ti is probably the best you can do in a small form factor that sips power.

I'd ditch AMD. I've been using AMD for quite a while and I'm really tired of "Catalyst Control Panel has stopped working" every time I update my drivers. It's not a matter of uninstalling the drivers and installing new ones, either. I always have to jump through some huge ass loop to get the CCP working again for a few weeks before it crashes on launch again.

well afaik a 970 in my region is region is equivalent to a ps4 :s

but how long would a gtx 750 ti last? Does it last at least 2 years?

offtopic : i always disliked this when it comes to gaming, the fact that it is expensive.

If you're sticking to parts that long as you are the 970 wins out in vram but a 750ti should be fine for two years at sub 1080 resolutions with lowered settings. But even then it would be the bare minimum for gaming even in today's standards.

If you can find a good place for second hand nv cards something like a used 770/670/680 even with the small vram their power should help you along later. A 7950 could be an amazing value if you can find a non miner but it would be hard to trust it wasn't used for mining.

I would suggest a used 670 if you can swing it and find one at a good price.