Alright, so I was gunna try to play a CounterStrike like game, but it was laggy, mainly because of my computer stuff. What would make FPS's run better? Please only answer if you know.
What's your graphics card? Most of the problem with fps and lag for me on games is because of my shitty graphics card...
Alright, so firstly you have a Dell computer, which are harder than custom made computers when coming to take apart and add stuff to. You definitely need more RAM for a good computer game. On the box of the game it specifies what is required to play it. 1 gb of RAM might do it, but if you want better gameplay a little more won't hurt. Also information on your graphics card would help, because that is usually the problem when coming to FPS. When looking for graphics cards make the the card will work with your Motherboard. The more bytes usually the better. GeForces are the usual graphics cards for games.
Yeah what they said. Only 256mb of ram isnt going to cut it. My comp has 1 gig and everything pretty much works fine.
its graphics cards people. Ram does effect the gameplay, but graphics cards is a big + when it comes to games and FPS. if you get a graphics card i recommend you get an nvidia one, since nvidia works perfect with intel processors and Ati works perfect with AMD. I have used ATI on my intel on my previous computer and boy did I make a mistake. Also get a decent sized graphics card, I have an nvidia Geforce 9600 GT with 512mb. RAM is basically how much processes your computer can handle at once. So the bigger the ram the more processes you can run. If you try to only run Counter Strike and turn off any other program like Instant Messangers, Web Browser, etc.. It may help the speed of your game. the only way RAM can slow down your FPS is if you have too many things running at once, but FPS is mostly controlled by your Graphics Card with basically manages the quality and perfermance of your game.
I looked at the nvidia website. It looks good, and theyre less than $100 are they hard to install, I have no clue. EDIT: lol, looks easy... YouTube - Tiger How-To: Install a Graphics Card in Your PC Now, does a GFX card, really help that much?
I think I recall reading something in the Forum Rules about posting to third party links but I'm not sure. I'm going to go ahead and put myself at the mercy of the FH staff and give you this link. It should help your understanding quite a bit. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm Or more specifically speaking: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card3.htm
Also, you only have a 1.8GHz P4 CPU, which is really not that good for gaming, I know, I've had one. A GFX card and RAM will help, but you will get to a point where your only performance bottleneck is your CPU. I'd get some cheap RAM/GFX, then save for an upgrade to dual or quad core, I upgraded from P4 to a Quad Core, and it makes SO much difference.
A better GFX card will definitely improve your FPS, if that's all you want to fix then just buy a new card. But to fully make your computer better try adding in some more RAM. Since you have a dell computer make sure you find a matching GFX card that will fit with the motherboard.