Yo wassup bros i need some help upgrading!

Hey folks. Ive got a Sony VGN FW290 laptop. Its got an intel centrino core 2 duo p8600 at 2.4 ghz and an ati mobility radeon hd 3650 video card @ 512 mb.
Also 4gb of ram. I think i should upgrade my processor to run the newest games such as farcry 2, crysis, etc.
Is upgrading my processor the right idea? What should i upgrade to run these games smoothly? And specifically what component should i buy to upgrade it with?

Thanks, all help is much appreciated and ill be checking on here daily to answer any questions from you guys. Again, thanks alot.

 

Your primary bottleneck is your GPU, which cannot be upgraded. A better CPU will help but not as much as you might think.

 

That's a pretty nice laptop you've got there! Sure, I suppose you can upgrade the processor, but upgrading to, say, a T series will shorten your battery life. Are you using the laptop just for gaming? Your RAM looks pretty good. I'd recommend upgrading the video card and perhaps the hard drive (to a 7200 rpm) to boost your performance performance. Just my 2 cents though, others may have other suggestions.

 

Your CPU is enough to run those games. Buying a faster processor wont give you that much improved performance, definitely not worth the price. Shooting games usually rely on the GPU to do the work.

You can find optimized drivers and overclock the GPU, you will see about 20-40% more performance from your card.

 

Yo homie, Your CPU is probley fast enough to run those game. But your graphic card is the one letting you down which is sadly not upgradable, you might find playing on lower setting will be fine. But have a go at overclocking if your not happy.

 

Yeah, your best bet is making sure you have good drivers (Try Dox's) and OC'ing, if you really want to.

 

Hey thanks for the feedback. It seems like my games are especially laggish when i turn up the resolution which i heard relied on the processor, but if you guys think it wont help i guess theres no point in wasting a bunch of money. and why cant i upgrade the gpu? and how would u overclock a video card? lol im kinda new to the computer gaming scene, thanks for the help.

 

Yeah, replacing the processor will not help your gaming. The GPU is soldered onto the motherboard, so you cannot replace it. You can use certain software tools to overclock your GPU, but be aware that temperatures will rise a lot, so you may need to invest in a cooling pad. Too much overclocking can produce screen artifacts, and extended overclocking may reduce your GPU's lifetime.

 

You have that exactly backwards, as resolution increases the GPU takes more load. You *likely* can't upgrade because the GPU is either soldered to the MB or it uses a proprietary slot (so if Sony came out with other GPUs that your laptop supported, you could potentially swap yours with one of those).
To overclock you can use programs such as ATI Tool, AMD GPU Clock Tool, or ATI Tray Tools, using Furmark to stress test for artifacts and HWMonitor to check your temps.
I do recommend getting a cooler if your temps get high (80C+), as well as making sure you do plenty of research beforehand to make sure you don't destroy your GPU.
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okay. so ive decided to overclock my gpu because i cant upgrade it. ive found ati tool to overclock my system with, but i need to buy a cooling pad first. I found this and i wuz wondering if its a good cooling pad or whatever.

 

That cooling pad is only good for your lap. Real cooling pads use fans for active cooling.

 

ok what would be a good cooling pad then for hardcore overclocking?

 

Read here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=304671