Putting it all together
Overall system performance needs to be the end goal
of any computer upgrade. Any system that is stretched beyond its
capabilities will slow down or hang, causing user frustration. The
tricky part is getting the correct solution for the correct problem. To
ensure that the upgrade really improves performance, make sure that the
problem you want to solve is at least partially caused by the current
graphics card.
Slow switching between programs, chunkiness in game loading:
This is generally perceived on the monitor as you wait for the screen
to refresh, but is probably actually a lack of system RAM. The system
can't hold all of the programs that are running, and has to resort to a
hard-drive-based scratch disk. This is a much slower performer, and
additional RAM can really perk up the system.
Jerky movies, poor sound sync:
Again, this looks to be a video card problem, but in most systems the
handling of movies is done with the CPU before being passed to the
video card. Some video cards come with DVD-decoding hardware, but it is
no longer as popular as it was a few years ago. General problems with
movie watching probably denote a need for a faster processor or more
RAM, or possibly a faster hard drive. In the case of sound getting out
of sync with visuals on a few particular movies, it may very well be
the fault of the player, or poor encoding on the movie itself (this is
particularly true of some of the proprietary Web-based players out
there).
Jerky visuals, poor frame rates:
This really is a direct video card issue. The card has to render more
details than it can handle, so the number of frames it can complete
each second is dropping below about 24 frames per second, which is the
rate at which the eye begins to see it happening. Keep in mind that the
parts of the game that are the most exciting--combat with lots of
special effects going off--are also the hardest on the processor and
graphics, so it is possible to have a good experience normally, but bog
down once the action begins. 
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