Updating my rig to play latest games

[Sheps]

Hey all, I have a mid range rig at best that started out as an office PC and was turned into a gaming PC. I'm not planning on making this last forever but I want a short boost so I can play games like BF3 before I can afford to buy a new rig.

What part of my system should I upgrade, saying that I only have enough cash to upgrade one part of it.

Vista 64 bit
Nvidia 9800GT 1GB
4 Gig ram
Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5 Ghz
Motherboard : Gateway MS-7399
650W TX Corsair PSU

I can play games such as Bad Company 2 and ARMA 2 and get a steady 30-40 FPS, while I can play games like Crysis 2 with everything on high and get around 50-60 FPS. Anyway I'm looking to just get a small charge for RO2 or BF3.

Any input would be appreciated.

[Alex Bakke]

Hmm - Honestly, you will probably be fine for RO2. Not sure about BF3 though!

I think you should upgrade the GPU. You can't upgrade the CPU without having to upgrade the motherboard as well, which will add expense. The PSU is great, and the RAM is probably fine as well - assuming it's DDR3 and not DDR2.

What was your price range?

[ComradePenguin]

I'll agree with Alex. The PSU is very good, 4 gig of ram is plenty and replacing the CPU would involve a new mobo and so essentially building a new computer. I'm guessing the ram is DDR2 but again replacing this would involve a new mobo etc. etc. So graphics could be the way forward. A 9800GT is still fairly decent and I think you'll want something 5770 or 550ti + to get a noticeable improvement. Probably more like 6850 or 560 territory if you want all the fancy stuff turned on.

That all said if BF3 is your concern it may be worth waiting for the recommended specs to come out. The Alpha requires fairly little out of the GPU but a quad core CPU (http://battlefieldo.com/bf3-alpha-and-system-specs-emerge/) so it may be that this is the place to invest. You're above all RO2's recommended specs so I think I'd just wait.