OK, just as I pretty much suspected, a 4550 is no good for gaming at all even if it had 10g of memory LOL.
Most of what makes a graphics card strong is the stream processors firstly, and then core clock. Memory bandwidth is next, and Nvidia cards have a completely different system but lets just focus on one thing at a time
Now, for that resolution, I would recommend a card with atleast 800 stream processors and you'd be able to pretty much play any game with any settings at that resolution. Cards with 800 are a 4850 or a 5770. The 4850 is VERY cheap right now, and is still a quite capable card.
With that said, your 4550 has 80 stream processors
Yes literally 10% of what I would recommend, it's a very weak card. The bare minimum you could get away with a card like a 4670, which has 320 SP's, you'd just need to run lower settings with some games. But you may be able to find a 4830 (640 sp's) for dirt cheap right now.
However, I highly suggest you get a decent power supply before upgrading your card. The 4850 (or 4830) can suck a good amount a juice and can take out a cheap PSU. If if a PSU goes out it can take the motherboard and other components with it...not good!
Lastly, for now, memory amount needs to be determined by the resolution you are running. At 1366x768, you'd never even fully use 512mb of vram. I have 1920x1080p, and have never gone much over 800mb with the games I play.
Most of what makes a graphics card strong is the stream processors firstly, and then core clock. Memory bandwidth is next, and Nvidia cards have a completely different system but lets just focus on one thing at a time
Now, for that resolution, I would recommend a card with atleast 800 stream processors and you'd be able to pretty much play any game with any settings at that resolution. Cards with 800 are a 4850 or a 5770. The 4850 is VERY cheap right now, and is still a quite capable card.
With that said, your 4550 has 80 stream processors
Yes literally 10% of what I would recommend, it's a very weak card. The bare minimum you could get away with a card like a 4670, which has 320 SP's, you'd just need to run lower settings with some games. But you may be able to find a 4830 (640 sp's) for dirt cheap right now.However, I highly suggest you get a decent power supply before upgrading your card. The 4850 (or 4830) can suck a good amount a juice and can take out a cheap PSU. If if a PSU goes out it can take the motherboard and other components with it...not good!
Lastly, for now, memory amount needs to be determined by the resolution you are running. At 1366x768, you'd never even fully use 512mb of vram. I have 1920x1080p, and have never gone much over 800mb with the games I play.
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