I was reading some posts and I came across one were someone Had a big P3 Processor, It was more then a 1.5 MHz. Now he was told he should upgrade... Hmm, well I have a pentium 3 497MHz proccesor... I thought that was a little below what is needed for most games, Now I want to be able to play The Sims 2 (wich needs at least P4 600MHz) So I have 2 questions, What is the normal proccessor needed for most games? and Would a game requiring a P3 600MHz and a 32MB campatible 3D video card work well on a P3 497 with a 128MB compatible video card? I have the amount of Ram needed, no concern there.. But will my Better video card speed up and help my slower proccesor?

Even the minimum requirements for Sim 2 are not enough to play the game smoothly at decent fps. And getting a better video card would not help as much because your processor will hold it back. Might as well replace your motherboard for about $70 and get a new processor(perhaps AMD XP) for about $80 as well. Aspire X-Dreamer II Thermaltake 480W Silent Purepower PSU Asus P4S800 MoBo Pentium 4 2.6ghz @ 3.0ghz eVGA Geforce FX 5900 SE Creative SB Audigy LS

Sounds to me like your computer is rather getting obsolete! Mine is a P3 733 mhz and it's getting really slow for the new games coming up in the world. If you want to be able to keep up with new games, you will need a new computer! I'm going to replace mine shortly! ~~ÐÐuT

Obsolete! Ha! ... Well mabe, but im not the rich type that can just go out and buy a new PC, Dont laugh at me... but I kinda built this PC from leftover parts, Couldnt i just buy a new proccesor? an new mother board is too much, I doubt i will even buy a new Proccesor, but do you think it would run even playable? It doesnt have to be perfect. Hmmm I have a 80gig hard drive and my computer cant handle the newer games, heh. Well i dont realy care about any other game on earth besides Sims2 and SimCity4 (im a maxis fan) Actualy when I first got into computers I was quite young, I though all computers worked the same, exept that if it was new it worked (untill it became slow) LoL just thought id give ya a laugh.

lol Cory Get like a Pentium IIII 1.8Ghz, that should play games decently -Avarik nomoresnsleft3 - AIM

You need to find out what your current processor socket type is. Then you will know if and how much you can upgrade the processor. If you upgrade the graphics card and keep the old processor, look for a 'budget' card. Your current motherboard and processor will not utilize the features and performance of a high-end graphic card. I upgraded from an Nvidia GeForce 256 to an inexpensive GeForce4MX 440 on an 800mhz computer. The difference is dramatic in some games. In general, the minimum system requirements for games are often not enough to make the game enjoyable. Or perhaps the game would be playable, but only on the lowest settings. You really should go by the 'Recommended' requirements instead. Happy shopping, Bob

I'd have to say, go out and spend the money on a new pc. For about 500$-600$ you could get a pc that could play the sims for years...