Choppy Graphics on a good system

[wick]

My current setup is a P4 2GHz, 256mb ram, 256mb ATI Radeon 9550. I ordered an additional 512mb ram for my computer that should be arriving soon. Currently I can run HL2 but the graphics become choppy every 10-15 secs, then eventually go back to smooth. I recently installed the radeon 9550 and havn't configured any of the setting in the ati control panel.

Does anyone have any suggestions on configuring the graphics card, if the added ram will help much, or any other idea? Help is appriciated.

Thanks

 

[^Ben]

That seems like another problem,

Try driver cleaner and do a good ol' spyware and virus check.