Computer Advice--its a long one

Regnus

My friend is normally my tech support, but he sent me here for this one.

I play Warhammer Online, and am looking to increase my pretty dismal framerate. I believe its a hardware issue. I was previously under the impression that it may have been a CPU concern, but according to an in-game performance monitor test, the CPU doesn't really go above 80% capacity during gameplay, even at graphically-heavy moments. My next best guess would be the video card, but I'd like to know what you guys think.

I'm using an Acer Aspire desktop (AM5100-U5301A), though I upgraded the video card to a GeForce 8500 right when I bought it. I've since been told that this probably isn't a good enough card for what I'm trying to do. The salesman also sold me a "better" power supply, because I guess the default one wasn't good enough. So my question is: could my terrible, terrible in-game framerate be caused by my video card, and if so, can it be fixed by upgrading or putting in another?

I'll admit that I pretty much exhausted all of my technical knowledge for this post, so talk to me like I'm 5 years old whenever possible. Thanks a bunch.

lowlylowlycook

Yes, your video card really isn't designed for playing games.

For $60 you could get an ATI 4670 which would be decent. For $100 you could get an ATI 4850 which is pretty good.

But before you do anything, tell us more about your powersupply, just so we can make sure whatever you get will work.

Regnus

Those are way cheaper than I was led to believe. My friend was warning me to be prepared to drop over $100 for a decent video card.

The power supply is an Antec PB500U. 500 watts, one fan, active PFC. Its listed as a "ATX12V version 2.01" for the type, but I haven't been able to figure out what that means or its relevance for you.

lowlylowlycook

OK, cool. Google failed me in looking for that model but Antec makes good PSUs and 500W is likely to me more than enough.

The cheapest I'd go is something like this:
Gigabyte 4670 $60 after 10 rebate.

But really something like this is almost too good a deal to pass up it will play most games at max setting for most resolutions:
MSI 4850 for $85 after $15 rebate

If you have a 1080p monitor (I feel for that poor 8500 GT if you do) you might want to splurge on:
Powercolor 4870 for $135.
A few weeks a go these were cheaper but still a good value now.

Regnus

Don't have a 1080p monitor, though I like to run max resolution (1680x1050 for my monitor), in-game especially. I'll be checking out the MSI 4850 for sure. Thank you very much, you've been extremely helpful.

mechaThor

I can play Warhammer at a decent framerate with the HD 4850, so its definitely a cost-effective way to increase your FM while maintaining decent graphics. The MSI is really cheap for what it gives to the point that I'll probably end up getting another and running them xfire.