Attempting to determine bottleneck

[David (PassMark)]

What's best depends on the particular game and your budget.

If game frame rates are your only concern think new CPU and new video card. I would get a faster video card and CPU before considering SLI.

[highc1157]

Would upgrading to 64 bit with my system benefit me?

[highc1157]

I think my CPU is good, phenom II x2 550 3.1GHz stock (I have it to 3.8GHz OC'd). Would a new PSU (currently 450W) + new HDD + SLI GPU help ? Maybe more memory too?

[David (PassMark)]

Your motherboard supports newer faster CPUs. So a cheap upgrade would be a Phenom II x4 965, or the x6 CPUs, but going from x4 to x6 doesn't add much for gaming.

Switching to 64bit would mean you can use all of your 4GB of physical RAM. Would might help a bit.

Your drive is also fairly old (and small). But a bigger HD won't help the frame rate much.

It somewhat depends upon the particaular game as to what make sense as an upgrade.

[highc1157]

Hi there,

This is my first post on the forums , so if I am not including any information that could be of value to whoever checks this out, just let me know

System specs below along with passmark performance test results. I am attempting to figure out the bottleneck in my system causing my gaming experience to not be what I would like it to be (higher fps), but in general, I am very satisfied with the speed of my computer, however I would like it if you guys can interpret my test results and conclude what (if any) hardware I should add, such as a new HDD or another 9800gtx+ to go SLI

---Test results link for my system below----

Test results here

also, if anyone can give me a general sense of how good my computer is according to my score I would appreciate it . Just fyi too, my overall score from an earlier test was 1100, but the one i uploaded now scored 1000 :/
System Summary

PerformanceTest 7.0 1018 32-bit
Windows 7 (32-bit)
AMD Phenom II X2 550
3326 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
149GB HDD
CD/DVDRW
System Information

System Name: COLIN-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 (32-bit)
Motherboard Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Motherboard Model: GA-MA790X-UD4P
Motherboard Version:
BIOS Manufacturer: Award Software International, Inc.
BIOS Version: F6
BIOS Release Date: 08/05/2009
Memory Information

Total Physical Memory: 3326 MB RAM
Available Physical Memory: 2009 MB RAM
Slot 1: Unknown, 1024MB, 800MHz
Slot 2: Unknown, 1024MB, 800MHz
Slot 3: Unknown, 1024MB, 800MHz
Slot 4: Unknown, 1024MB, 800MHz
Virtual Memory: C:\pagefile.sys (3326 MB)
CPU Information

Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
Type: AMD Phenom II X2 550
Number of CPU's: 1
Cores per CPU: 2
Hyperthreading: Not capable
Measured Speed: 3717.0 MHz
Multiplier: 19X
L1 Instruction Cache: 2 x 64 KB
L1 Data Cache: 2 x 64 KB
L2 Cache Size: 2 x 512 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Disk Information

Drive Letter (Number): C (Physical drive 0)
Model Number: WDC WD1600AAJS-00M0A0
Disk Size (Free space): 149.0 GBytes (12.3 GBytes)
Disk Cluster Size: 4 KBytes
File System: NTFS
Video Adapters

Description: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
Chip Type: GeForce 9800 GTX+
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Memory: 512MB
Video BIOS: Version 62.92.89.0.70
Driver Provider: NVIDIA
Driver Version: 8.17.12.5721
Driver Date: 6-7-2010
Monitor 1: 1280x768x32 85Hz (Primary monitor)