I can't figure out why I'm lagging.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 128MB DDR MEMORY graphics card.

The only problem is that I have 256 MB of RAM. I should be receiving 1 gig of RAM anyday now.

I have a Compaq Evo with a Pentium 4 processor.

Currently, I lag when loading areas. It can take me up to 2 minutes just to load Ascalon City and 30 seconds - 1minute to load Droknar's Forge. It takes around that time to load outside areas too. I don't seem to have much lagging after the area is loaded.

My question is, Will I still lag if I get the 1 gig of RAM? If so, what type of graphics card should I get?

I'm asking because I ordered a 256 MB Graphics card from GeForce and it didn't fit my computer, literally.

well the 1gig of ram should help, but i am not one who knows a great deal about videocards...note that i posted a topic about videocard help.

Also, do you have a program that checks your fps, is there someway that i could check my fps in gw?

If you right click on your shortcut for Guild Wars you can add a -perfs to the end of the path, this setting shows your Triangles/Sec, FPS, and Bytes/Sec while in Guild Wars.

As for load time, yes going from 256MB to 1.0GB will result in a very noticeable difference. Video card doesn't effect load times.

Loading times are largely dependant on the amount of RAM you have so getting 1gb will give a big improvement.

For the fps display right click on your GW shortcut and go to properties, put -perfs at the end of the file path eg "C:\Program Files\Guildwars\GW.exe" - perfs

:EDIT: Beat to it

Thank you everyone for your help. Now to get unbanned...

Sorry to hijack, but it is related.

Would a faster chip help loading times? My ancient AMD 1800+ thinks that he needs a rest. I also have slow loading times on Battlefield.