Ok, here's the deal. Both computers run Vista. At my Dad's house, I have a Compaq that I got last Christmas.
Compaq:
Say for instance, Trackmania Nations Forever runs pretty steadily at 1366x768, (which is smaller than the 1440x900 at my mom's.) but it still has a few frame issues here and there, no matter the resolution or gfx settings. Which makes me believe it is a RAM issue. Now if I ran Unreal Tournament 99 (which uses Steam), the game would run slower than Trackmania (in fact, UT99 would run at about 12 frames.), and the same goes for any game on Steam (Source and Goldsource engines.). It also seems to run Warsow on medium at around 40-80 frames (non-Steam). I noticed that the amount of programs running in the background (like gadgets) affects the frame rate, as well. So, after shutting down a stuffload of programs and launching HL2 without the Steam window open, it was able to handle the Trainstation background with the settings on High, and was choppy but tolerable. I started the game, Gman was talking about nothing, but at a smooth framerate, and then my Video card failed, the game stuck, and I had to leave for my Mom's house before I could find anything else out.
Resolution: 1366x768 (My HDTV LCD Screen.)
Specs:
RAM: 1GB
Processing: ~2Ghz Intel of some sort (probably Celeron M)
Video: 256mb Intel 82845g
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic
Now for the one at my Mom's house.
E-machines:
This is where I get even more confused. Same amount of RAM, VRAM, and processing, but everything runs about 10 times better. Trackmania Nations Forever at the same settings as the Compaq will run at about 30-40 frames with a detailed track at 1440x900, and 60-80 frames at 800x600. It also kicks Blockland's ass, unless you have 10k round bricks in front of me.
It can also run BF2 at low, at 800x600, at 40-75 frames.
Resolution: 1440x900 (The monitor that came in the box.)
Specs:
RAM: 894MB (That's what DxDiag says, but I know it's 1GB.)
Processing: AMD Sempron LE-1250 @~2.2Ghz
Video: 314MB NVIDIA GeForce 6100 (Again, that's what DxDiag says, but it's a 256MB.)
OS: Windows Vista Home Basic
I'm very confused about how to upgrade the Compaq, because a Video card is expensive right now, and everything that is going on seems to be RAM-related, but I'm no expert on hardware, so I'm not 100% sure if it is a RAM issue.
