Dell I9100 Performance issues...

I've had my I9100 for a while now, and while it does get much better performance then my old Pentium III desktop, I'm a bit interested to know why, somtimes I feel as if, I'm not getting what I should out of the thing.

I do alot of graphic work, using software like Photoshop, Open Canvas, Alias Sketchbook pro...etc

However, I also do ALOT of gaming on the same notebook. I play games like Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004, Painkiller, Tribes: Vengeance, Battlefield Vietnam, Clive Barkers Undying, Mafia, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Morrowind...just to name a few.

My issue is, that while the games, while they all run, I seem to get pretty shoddy framerates at times. Some of these games, I realize I can't run at full blast with my specs...but shouldn't I be able to play a game designed for a Pentium III 500mhz at max settings?

My specs are-

Pentium 4, 2.8ghz
Radeon 9700 64mb(using the Omega drivers, though not the newest ones...they screw up UT2k4 and other games)
60 gig hardrive
512 DDR ram

I realize that more ram would probably help, but right now I can't afford it...same goes for a video card update(400 dollars for a 9800?!) The question I have, is quite broad, but I'm hoping someone can answer it. Will an upgrade to the 9800 or adding more ram really improve things?

I wasn't really worried, but I recall playing alot of games on high settings, and them working fine, and now, when I play games, the framerate, and quality overall, seems to have dropped. The strangest thing is, in Morrowind, I get a very consistant framerate...which I hear is not usually the case.

New stuff like Doom 3 runs pretty good, but there are points where, the framerate will just die...and other times when, it will run like a dream. Half-Life 2, on a medium/near high setting, ran very well also...and Brothers in Arms, runs fantastic on high settings...settings my friends faster desktop doesn't run as well(no explanation here...it's just very strange).

Bear in mind, I never overclocked the video card...or anything. I also don't know much about this topic, or monitering the heat in the unit, only what I read here. The only thing I did do, was clean out the fans, which did very much improve my gaming experience, but now, I'm back to where I was before, wondering why my performance has dropped.

Anyway, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading...and if this is in the wrong place, forgive me, I had no idea where to put it XD

Took me a while to get back here, but low and behold, here I am.

I've discovered that, while I didn't go nuts with options, like a more powerful video card...more ram, that for the money I spent, I got alot of bang for my buck...and yes, this is kinda sappy, so be warned in advance XD

Recently was called out to fix a friends desktop, which was a Pentium 4, 1.5ghz, with a gig of ram, and a very new graphic card. What I discovered was, compared to my laptop, his desktop was a joke. Instead of buying a 300+ graphic card, he should have just bought a new PC..or maybe, a Dell notebook? :P

Anyway, juding the specs I have here, how long I've had it, and how things run, I found that, despite what I thought, and minor drops in performance, it's not the notwbooks fault, it is my own. This of course, is what I get for gaming on friends PCs and Notebooks, usually of the 3-4k price ranged Alienware or Voodoo classification. Looking back, I paid about a grand, and while it doesn't scream, my notebook keeps up, and puts out it damn best for me. The clash came from me, figuring that if a 3ghz Alienware, can run so smooth, a 2.8ghz Dell could too. Not always the case. Not to mention, I learned YESTERDAY, that they all overclock.

Of course, after hearing about how many notebook's they burned out, I still refuse to do such a thing, but yeah, I guess you could say, I'm happy again. I just need to embed the concept that, I can't set everything to max in the newer games(hard to do...since they looks so damn nice on max settings!)

Considering I got this thing in less then a week, it ran everything, takes me about 2 hours to format and start clean with, no dead pixels, AND I've never once had a system killing error...I can't really complain anyway, but I was curious to see if maybe, it wasn't just my imagination. The only thing I don't get is why some older titles don't go so well, but I have to guess, based on what tech support told me, new hardware, not very well supported in now ancient titles.

I did install that fan program btw, and I'm usually running between 50-70 at most times..never once seen it hit 80, but yeah, it does get hot.

You could say, I was becoming somthing I really don't need to be, a computer nut. I was worrying about a few frames lost, or a few games running bad...when really, this thing was a godsend. For far too long, the best I had was a Pentium III, and when that died, a Pentium 166 X__x

I look back on the day the I9100 showed up, opening the box, playing Mafia...all the way to laughing as my friend said FarCry would run like crap, and on high settings, ran quite nicely.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped out on this!