Poor Game Performance May Mean Different Upgrades
If you're an avid computer gamer, keeping your computer up to speed with the latest games may be a confusing adventure in computer parts selection. Although the gaming industry understands the costs of gaming systems and has a variety of different settings to accommodate different computer strength levels, your computer may be running slower than expected with your new game or a new update. By understanding a few failure points, you can get to the root of the problem and work towards the most affordable fix.
Software And Virus Issues Come First
Before touching any hardware or shopping for any replacements, you'll need to make sure that your computer isn't under any unplanned stress. Other programs or processes running in the background can reduce the resources available for your game and ultimately ruin your gameplay experience.
On the more innocent side of the issue, you may be running too many programs. This could be by accident, such as leaving too many tabs open on your web browser or having another processor-intensive program open. Some programs may even start automatically as you turn on your computer, which can be a surprising drain on resources.
Viruses or malware (malicious software) contribute to the same drain on resources, but can be more difficult to get rid of. If you're unsure of whether or not you have a virus, run a virus scan anyway. Many virus scanning software suites can catch a lot of problems and even correct other issues such as unwanted automatic software startups.
Some viruses are too difficult to remove for all but the most attentive computer technicians. If you're still noticing slow performance after a virus removal attempt, a computer repair professional may be able to help.
Know Which Parts To Upgrade
If your computer isn't using too much of its resources without the game running, it's time to look at the hardware. The hard drive, memory, processor and video card are your key inspection areas. Although there is no required order for troubleshooting in this overview, the hardware order represents a rough balance of cost versus contribution to the gameplay process.
The hard drive holds the information for not just your games, but your computer environment itself. The game is installed to the hard drive, and when the game needs to be loaded, the information is sent to the memory and to the processor. Memory exists to hand commonly used files to the processor at faster speeds than searching the hard drive, while the processor converts the files into what you see and play in the game.
When a hard drive begins to physically fail, retrieving the information can be slower. This is because some parts of the data storage can be fault, requiring the hard drive to search for the same information repeatedly.
Memory doesn't often fail, but you may not have enough for a new game or update. It's rare for memory requirements to go up within a single game update, but be sure to check the system requirements. The same goes for the processor, but processors can be more difficult to replace and more expensive if you're getting a new, better processor.
Contact a computer repair professional to plan for upgrades and repairs to play all of your favorite games with amazing performance.
