Upgrade path from here? (for gaming)

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Colonel Sanders

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Where would be the next logical step in upgrades for gaming? I'm thinking processor or graphics. I'm not sure what the best processor a P35 motherboard can take these days is. Also I'm not sure what constitues a reasonable bang for the buck upgrade from an 8800GT. Maybe a 260? (I'm not an ATI fan at all). I wouldn't consider this a "budget" computer build, but at the same time I'm far from a bleeding edge buyer.
 
I believe that the GA-P35-DS3L can use the latest Intel Core 2 processors -- the Wolfdale dual cores and the Yorkfield quad cores -- with a BIOS update.

The GTX 260 is a good choice for 22-24 inch monitors. For anything less, you could get away with the 9800GT/GTX; and for high visual settings on a 1920x1080 or greater resolution, you should look at the GTX 280.

How much are you willing to spend on the upgrades?
Which monitor/games are you using?
Which games/programs do you plan on using?
 
i agree, unless you are going to be doing a bunch of encoding or unless you have a ton of money to blow the only thing you really need is a new video card....i have the 4870 512 mb version and am very happy with it but the 1gig ver is the better choice now.....now if you are a green fan then yes i agree the 260 is probably the better route to follow
 
Right now my monitor is a 19" that runs 1440x900, but I'd like to upgrade that to a 24" very soon, a 1680x1050 model.

What I'd like to have is a system that cun run Crysis at high settings at a good framerate at at least 1440x900, having a small amount of antialiasing would be nice but not required... Right now with the specs below, I can run it at 1280x768 at a reasonable framerate, but 1440x900 is too choppy (even without AA or AF).

I play a lot of different games and I like games that push a system to its limits. I do also play a lot of WoW, and in certain areas like Shattrath City the framerate is too low for my liking unless I turn draw distance way down.
 
24" that uses 1680x1050? weird

Suggestions
You don't need to upgrade your CPU. Games are mainly GPU driven, so better video card is all you really need.
 
I guess I'll go with a GTX260 then, or maybe even a 280.

For the CPU I still haven't tried overclocking that much. I was able to run at 3.0ghz on the stock cooler, I may be able to push it a lot farther with the Zalman that I still need to install. It just seems to me like the slower spots in WoW would be due to CPU more then graphics card, because it's mostly just long draw distances combined with lots of geometry.
 
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