First thanks for all your help and advice its good to get other peoples opinions. Now umm i guess i will start with why i have a vista os thats a easy one our house burnt down last xmas and insurance ave my 4 vista computers not what i wanted but hey better than nothing. So I'm not crazy or ignorant just making do with what i have now. I can say that Civilization 4 works fine on this computer along with a few other games it just seems to be this particular game along with one other game called Bionicle heroes (my sons game) I can't have made any mistakes putting my specs here as i cut and pasted them into here using a programme called Belarc Adviser. Also before i go if my graphics card is not good enough what card do you recommend as i would need to save and get a new one but i do have to wonder even thou i can play other games with 3D graphics would getting 1 gig or ram be enough to make a big enough improvement to the computers performance ?