PCTech Forums

First off let me say this right up front, I do not play games so my answer will be in theory only.

The fact that you say some high poly count games shudder leads me to think that your graphics card is reaching its limits.

Although ram is cheep right now, I think you would be better off saving the money towards a new motherboard, CPU and graphics card.
As newer games come out all the ram in the world on your current system will not help.

From a gamers perspective, i have nothing to add

Ram wont help as Gecko stated. Newer games are eating older graphic cards alive. Its becoming necessary to have a nvidia 6800 and up (or the ATI equivilent) to play the new stuff. I've been playing on a 256 meg FX5500 OC'ed and im seeing lag in games like F.E.A.R.

Heres my specs so you know what your up against

Athlon XP 3000 Barton 400FSB
512 Kingston Hyperx DDR 400/PC3200
256 Nvidia FX 5500 overclocked 8XAGP

Im going to be looking at upgrading to keep up myself, however theres not much left for me to do with a 32 bit system so im looking into socket 939 64 bit boards and PCIe graphics.

Thanks Jason. Well its a cheaper option than buying a nre video card.