Well, it so happens that I manually increased the performance of my GeForce 8800GTS/320 by more than 100% without relabeling anything, just a little bit of reverse magic. Instead of throwing pixie dust on it I sucked all the dust from its fan and the one of the CPU. Looks good as new now. Almost sparkly. Silent again, too.

It turned out that a GPU temperature of 110° Celcius due to all the dust (mostly in the CPU's fan) was considered critical so it powered itself down to a crawl after 20 seconds of playing, which meant only 1/3 of the usual FPS in games.

Otherwise, nice, almost exactly my system specs. I wonder if it's still doing fine when it's considered "low class" …

I guess my 8600GT laptop doesn't even qualify as 3rd class. Still, there hasn't been anything I haven't played yet, so I think I'll be fine on modest settings.

By the way, I was shocked at how much GPU prices had fallen. I'm pretty sure that with the 9800GT, my rig is now CPU-bottlenecked (and the CPU I have in it is already nearly the fastest available for the socket), so there wouldn't even be any point in getting something much faster -- and I paid a few tens of euros for it, although it was a factory refurb. The difference is dramatic -- now I can run Crysis at 1920x1200 and quite decent quality (or could, if the game didn't make me so damn angry that I refuse to play it), NWN2 at everything maxed out except bump-mapped terrain, Half-Life 2 episodes at everything maxed out, and so on and so forth. It made a much bigger difference than I would have imagined.

I think it partly depends on how much VRAM the graphics card has.

In my case, it's only 256. Thus Divinity 2 is playable, but not too shiny. It looks still good, imho, though.

Which CPU do you have?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, socket 939. There are a few Socket 939 CPU's that are even faster (like the FX-60), but they're not all that much faster, and I haven't come across any on the used market anyway.

The new AMD Phenom II CPUs are pretty cheap, you can get the newly released Phenom II X4 965 (Quad Core 3.4GHz) for just over $200. Of course you would have to get a new Mobo as well.

And new RAM; mine is DDR2, and it'd have to be DDR3. And, because I like 'em quiet, also a new CPU heatsink and cooler, since mine won't work on the current ones. That adds up to the better part of a whole new computer -- I could still keep the case, disks, and PSU, of course.

I was planning on upgrading my rig, but since our home improvement project went way over budget, I've decided to cut down on discretionary spending until the family finances are looking better again. I figure that with the new GPU, the ol' box is good for another year, if not more.

I am thinking of upgrade as well, but the P35 motherboard only upgradable to E 8600. I intended to get a Direct 11 GPU in the last quarter. However, i don't think could afford those extra spending.

I might do it next year; upgrade together with a new mobo and DDR 3.

There was actually a dual-core chip that fitted on my mainboard, but the store's website that I always buy from doesn't list anything for that socket (939) anymore. I think it will be very hard to find new.

And don't you believe it. My 50 euro graphics card would have the same relative power as a 200 euro card 4 years ago! I bought my last (high-end) graphics card for 450,-!

I am not alone! :P I could track down a 939 CPU on the second-hand market, but I'm a bit wary about fitting a CPU myself when I've never done that before. Of course, I could bring it to work, or the shop. Anything should be an improvement over the 3500+. I can play most things I want except a few that are mostly CPU bottlenecked (strangely, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is one of them).

Nope, the new AM3 CPUs are fully backwards compatible with AM2+ mobos. You don't get a big improvement with DDR3 anyways, not with AMD CPUs.

As you said though, the system you have now should still be good for awhile. Right now isn't the best time to upgrade a CPU anyways, not with Intel's new i5 lineup right around the corner. That launch going to introduce some new options, as well as lower the prices of their i7s.

I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but my local ebay equivalent had nearly a dozen dual-core socket 939 CPU's listed, from 3800+ to 4800+. Some of 'em pretty cheap, too.

Swapping a CPU is easy, I'd say it's easier than fitting a GPU, and certainly easier than installing RAM -- less force involved. As long as you don't attempt to force it in the wrong way (and take the usual precautions related to messing with the mobo), it's very unlikely that you could screw it up. They just basically drop into place.

Eh? I agree swapping a CPU is simple, but easier than popping RAM into a DIMM slot? You still have to apply thermal paste to the heatsink, and attach the CPU & heatsink first.

Some RAM slots I've dealt with were *tight.* I was really scared of breaking the mobo when wrestling with them. Perhaps it was just bad luck, though.

I've put in graphics cards and RAM on most of my computers, but somehow I'm scared of swapping out CPUs. It's the thermal paste thing, I think. I usually wrestle a bit with video cards and RAM as well, because I'm just not very good handling small electronics with my large fingers. :P

And you're right about second-hand availability. I just never considered it.

Whenever you buy a new CPU, at least a retail boxed one, (I'm not sure about OEM) it always comes with a quick install guide that shows the step by step procedure, along with illustrations. Even a person with zero computer knowledge could do it by simply following the instructions.

@Prima Junta, I know what you mean about those tight RAM slots, they can be a real pain sometimes. I usually put more pressure on one end of the DIMM first, until the latch on that side snaps into place, then I move to the other end.

That's part of the reason why I always wait 2 generations to upgrade. From 6600 to 8800 and eventually next year to whatever is there. (Main reason being, it's not really needed)

If you don't have the official instruction manual, there's plenty out there on the Net. This one is way more detailed, for example:

[ http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles…92&cid=19&pg=4 ]

I know that at least AMD ships short CPU installation guides in their boxed releases. Because I have one.

The performance shouldnt be a surprise to anyone who has seen the graphics, it doesnt look any better than NWN2.