How to make a computer game run faster?

Yesterday, I purchased a game for the PC called "Tropico 3". I installed it and updated the patch and what not. But then I actually got to the playing of the game to find out it has lag. Not a serious lag, just about 2-3 seconds behind. I have all my graphical settings to the lowest possible while this is happening. I was just wondering, how can I speed this game up without having to purchase software for my computer? I would appreciate some help, thank you for reading.

-MikeHow to make a computer game run faster?
If it's an online game, you can't. Lag is determined by the path from you to the game server.



If not, it's almost always the video card. (It's not lag - that's an internet thing - it's just "slowness".) If the video card can't handle the game's demands, the CPU has to and, since the CPU is a terrible graphics processor (it's not designed for graphics processing), the computer runs slowly.



Software won't help in that case, you'll have to get a better graphics card.