i am getting fps while playing games

hey i am getting bad fps while i am playing games. can someone help me. the specs of my computer are:

160Gb harddrive
amd athlon 64 2X dual core prossecor 6400+ 3.20GHz
nividia geforce 8400 GS 256MB
2GB RAM
550W power supply

i also have windows vista on the computer

 

Your 8400gs may be part of the problem you MIGHT want to upgrade that. The other problem you might be having is Windows vista is trying to run Windows Aero while you are playing those games. If you can tell us what version of vista you have... like home basic, home premium, Vista ultimate or business. Your processor is plenty fast. I can run vista on the Model under yours perfectly with 4gb ram. You may want to upgrade your RAM after a while because 2 GB might not be sufficient to multitask (well) in vista.
Try going for a 512 MB Video card. Try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130380 or if its not in your budget try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719
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My specs
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 6000+
7950 GT 512 MB (i think this is a KO edition)
4GB DDR2 800 or pc6400
Internal 250gb SATA
internal 80gb SATA
internal 60gbX2 IDE
External 500GB USB
External 160gb USB
External X-fi 5.1 surround with optical
550W PSU

 

the version of windows that i have is ultimate

 

Your making the requirements for windows vista Ultimate to run although i would recommend 4gb of RAM at least for Vista ultiamte to run smoothly and play games effectively. Your Graphics card is just barely making it on the fact that its 256 MB.... Windows Aero requires at least 128MB of Video ram to run, i would recommend a 256 bare minimum that is windows vista certified.

 

Windows Aero runs in the background while you are playing a game. THAT will add more for the video card to process and that will put more stress on the video card making it use more of its resources (RAM) till it can't find anymore resources to use. Not to mention your video card is probably only a 64-128 bit video card. 128 bit at most. Cards that have that low of a bit size will not be able to process as fast as a card with say a 256 bit or a 512 bit. The Bit processing that i am talking about as i was told in school means how many bits it process a second. 64 bit meaning the processor inside the video card can only process 64 bits at a time and so on. So that being said a Video processor with a low (i don't know if this is the right word) bitrate can't process large amount data (Windows Aero and Your game-the graphics) being thrown at it.


Sorry for the long novel i just Wrote here. Please don't shoot me for it. Especially if i messed up somewhere.

 

What games are you playing in specific. Some games are notoriously slow, even on recommended specs.

You might also want or need a power supply upgrade. It's likely to make the computer run better and provide more power to the components. 550W is kind of low for the power that modern computers draw. Make sure you have the x64 forceware for your card as well.