Forum

Valve's also porting Steam to OS X.

Sorry Knight, I'm gonna have to disagree. If his GPU wasn't performing, he probably wouldn't even be able to open 3D applications. A question would be, do the other sensors work? Memory controller and all that? I just opened BFBC2 and set it's affinity to 2 cores and it had no affect on FPS. So, effectively using a 4GHz dual-core CPU, the bottleneck was still my graphics card (even overclocked). Keep in mind I the highest settings and run at 1680x1050.

For RMA, I'm sure they'll have plenty of stock and if not, I believe the 9800GT is the same thing, just different firmware and stickers.

i3/5/7 is pointless for those who have a solid 775 platform (good RAM/Board). For those that have a lower end (such as OEM) and older 775 (65nm dual), going to a quad on the new platform would be more worthwhile if you have the money. But, it's just not in Killaman's budget. It's certainly a tough choice in Killaman's shoes. If it were me, before buying, I would whip out task manager and GPU-Z and see which is pushed harder and upgrade that. I haven't had any experience with SetFSB but if it does what Knight says, go for it, you can usually go pretty far on stock volts and I find OEM's to use slightly higher than stock volts. I don't think 2.7 or 2.8GHz is out of the question.

You should figure out what you're using the most of. You might be maxing out your graphics card more than the CPU. The CPU will be an upgrade, it WILL help FPS and when you go to sell it to get a new rig, you'll get more since it's a newer high-end chip.

Yea, I kind of wished I tried the full retail version on my dual before I popped my quad in, I could give you a more definitive answer as to whether or not you would see a huge difference. The beta ran like crap but it's hard to tell what was going on in there. Look at it like this though, maybe by the time you upgrade, a i5 or i7 could be in your price range (not saying you're poor, but they're still outrageously priced).