Question:
Do I need to upgrade my gaming pc? It hasn't given me the best performance, namely in graphics & speed, along with some rare freezing.?
GamingGuru
2014-11-27 15:36:05 UTC
Skyrim runs on high settings with little difficulty, but I frequently find games like the recent Assassin's Creed's, Lord of the Rings Online, and Star Wars: The Old Republic not running so smoothly on the settings I want. It's always either the graphics being laggy/stuttering or the game performing slow altogether. Any advice? Below are my specs:

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Athlon II X4 645 18 °C
Propus 45nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A87TD/USB3 (AM3) 26 °C
Graphics
VO320E (1024x768@75Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (ATI AIB) 30 °C
Storage
465GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device (SATA) 26 °C
Optical Drives
ASUS DVD-E616A3 ATA Device
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device
Three answers:
tumbleweed_biff
2014-11-27 17:36:24 UTC
You need to look at your motherboard - which socket does it have and will it support an FX processor - if it has the AM3+ socket. If so, you should consider getting an FX-8320, 8320e, 8350, 8370, 8370e processor. (The 'e' denotes a 95 watt CPU instead of a 125 watt processor.) If possible you should replace your RAM with faster RAM. If you upgrade the RAM, get two - 4 gb modules in order to take advantage of the dual channel memory speed.



Removing malware:

How to remove a virus - by Tumbleweed_Biff at Yahoo.com



Top free AV products

Qihoo 360 Internet (arguably the best), ZoneAlarm Free, Adaware Free, Commodo Free, Avast, Avira, AVG



Best Paid:

Kaspersky, eSET, and BitDefender are the top paid AV products.



(Links to four rescue disks are at the bottom, but there are many, many more out there. Most AV providers have one, usually free.)



I) The best solution is to back up your data and perform a factory restore. Install a reputable AV program after the restore and download the latest updates for Windows and your computer before restoring your data.



II) That not being practical for many, try either of the next two methods:

(Please note that it is important to use one of these two methods as you need to boot and scan knowing that no viruses are already in memory. If you try and install an AV product on a machine already infected then there is a decent chance that the virus will be able to hide/relocate from the scanner.)



A.

1) On a clean computer, download 1 or more free bootable AV products. Five I know of are Avira, AVG, Avast, Kaspersky, and G Data but most AV providers offer them, most of them for free. These are often referred to as a Rescue Disc.



(There is a handy product called sardu (www.sarducd.it) which will create a flash drive/Cd capable of having multiple AV products built into it. It isn't perfect yet, but it does do the job pretty well. I keep a copy on a flash drive for whenever I go to someone's house to help with computer problems and I have a number of other diagnostic tools included as well.)



2) Create the bootable media and include the latest virus definitions

3) Boot the infected/suspect computer by using the bootable media and run a full/complete/deep scan of the computer using preferably at least two different ones. No AV product gets them all, but 2 different products should find and remove just about anything.



B. Alternative method:

1) remove the hard drive from the infected computer

2) slave the drive to a clean computer which already has at least one AV product already installed with the most current definitions. You can do this by installing it into the case (for a desktop) or by putting the drive in an external drive case which you can get for the low teens $. These can come with USB (get at least USB 2.0), eSata, or Thunderbolt connections.



3) From the clean machine, run a full/complete scan of the slaved HDD. The computer should already be booted when you connect the external drive, with the AV product already resident in memory (it will have an icon down next to the clock). Then open the AV and run it on the drive. In an ideal world, you should really use two different AV products. MalwareBytes Free is an excellent choice (and my preferred) for on-demand scans like this.



III) If you are unable to do the above, then download and install an AV product and then run it at its deepest level scan. This is not the ideal method as many viruses can hide from AV products if they are already in memory and running before the AV software is executed. There are numerous free AV programs. I strongly recommend two different AV products and one Adware/Spyware product. For free AV, I would typically recommend Qihoo 360 Internet, ZoneAlarm Free, Avira, AVG, or Avast as the installed resident (always running) AV solution and Malwarebytes as a secondary, on demand AV product which I run on a weekly basis. For Spyware and Adware, the two top performers there are AdAware (Lavasoft.com) and Spybot Search and Destroy (safer-networking.org) Both offer a free and paid version. The free version is good, the paid version offers more bells and whistles, just like with the AV products.



Once the virus(es) is/are removed, change any and all passwords having to do with anything important like e-mail, financial-banking logins, etc. as those have probably been captured and sent to the author of the virus.



http://support.kaspersky.com/us/viruses/rescuedisk/

http://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-create-a-bitdefender-rescue-cd-627.html

https://www.zonealarm.com/forums/showthread.php/72117-boot-disc-zone-alarm-scan

http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/support/supportcenter/how-to-create-a-rescue-cd



Separate from the others I will offer to you is Kaspersky's TDSSKiller. Not an actual Rescue Disk by itself, it is at the very top of the list of root-kit finders/eliminators. You should run this in addition to at least one of the others:

http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/TDSSKiller

Do you need better hardware?

Can I run this game …



Your first option is to go to a site like CanIRunIt.com, there are several. Enter the information of the system you are considering and it will tell you how the games you select will perform on that hardware. You should probably do a little research on which of the games you want to play is the most demanding.



Alternatively you can search for your most difficult game and “recommended hardware”.

Of the links that come up, use the one for game-debate.com. Scroll down the page to where you can enter the hardware you are considering and it will tell you how your hardware will perform with that game.



Freezing is usually caused by one of the following: malware, damaged/missing drivers, and over-heating. Run a program to monitor your temps to see how hot things are when it freezes. Try using the program Driver Booster to see if your machine has the latest drivers and then perform a full scan for malware.
anonymous
2014-11-27 15:42:31 UTC
The weakest part there is your graphics card, my daughter's got the HD7850 in hers and it really isn't very powerful..Athlon processors aren't ideal for gaming PCs because they lack L3 cache memory, the Phenom's are better in this respect but both are outdated. Dual channel memory is faster but it doesn't make a massive difference, this is unlikely to be the issue and your motherboard might not accept another 8GB module.



If that were my PC and it had an OEM copy of Windows (pre-installed, no motherboard swap allowed) then I'd put the fastest Phenom II X4 in it that it accepted and put a better graphics card in it. Upgrading the GPU will show the most dramatic improvement so you might want to do this first. If I had a retail version of Windows (just needs reactivating) then I'd plan to replace the processor and motherboard with something like a socket 1150 Intel Core i5, they're far superior to anything that's ever left the AMD factory.
?
2014-11-28 10:27:26 UTC
This site will scan your computer, to determine if your computer will meet the system requirements

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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