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I thought I knew everything about hardware to get for gaming but I think I am wrong about somethings and I just wanted to clear some things up and get some questions answered from actual gamers not bench markers.

First off How effective is Ram for gaming? and how much is considered enough?
I just decided to upgrade my computer to have 6gbs of Ram to help improve my performance on games and gaming. But I am not sure Ram is really needed.

What is the Difference between a quad-core CPU and dual core CPU?
I currently have a dual-core CPU that is overclocked to 3.0ghz but I am noticing some lag on higher end games. Is this just because my CPU is older or do I need more Processing power (higher clock speeds) and potentially a quad-core or higher

If a Video Card has enough Vram to run a game but is not listed (or is an older card) will it still perform as well as Newer card with the same specs or a different card?
I bought a new Graphics card sometime in December that has 1gb of Vram, but when I look at system requirements for games and even canyourunit? I see that my card isn't supposed to be compatible with a game but it generally works fine. Unless I use heavy PhysX effects.

Anyway any questions you can answer would be helpful

My Computer Specs are:
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.0ghz

Video: Nvidia Geforce 9800 Gt
Video RAM 1.0Gb
Pixel Shader version 4.0
Vertex Shader version 4.0

Ram: 2 gbs (upgrading to have 6 gbs)

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

I have been running most games fine except a few newer games and more graphical games