I'm in doubt to upgrade from a D940 running with 10% OC to a Q6600 to get more fps and maybe to load the add-ons to the 3e and 4e core if possible. Now I use the affinity settings with the add-ons on the second core and both are running at 100%. I know the C2D is much more efficient than the older Dual but is this giving me a improvement of about a 5 to 10 more FPS ?I have in use the Gigabyte 8I945-pro with the D940 and 2x 1Gb 533 DDR2 ram and a Nvidia 7600GT. I can't upgrade all in one time so I was thinking about a new MB and the Q6600 and use the 2Gb 533 ram for a while and upgrade at the end og the year with a new generation videocard and faster ram.Any advice please....Cheers

The following link compares processors similar to what you speak of: http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/657/and specifically this chart says it all:http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_ne.../IMG0019376.gifLooks like you'd get your extra 5 - 10 FPS with average high settings, well 7 at least looking at the D945 vs Q6600. In fact, by the date of this review (20 Feb 07), the test would have been pre-SP1, so your 10+ FPS minimum at even higher settings is looking pretty good :-)Re your proposed upgrade stagger, that would work provided you bought a descent motherboard that could handle the eventual video card and RAM upgrade.Gary

Ok, Thanks for the info, I was planned to buy a P35 board but see now that my 533 DDR2 will not work so I have to switch back to the older 965P chipset. Do you think I will lost MUCH performance while using 533 DDR2 ram for the meantime or can I better invest in the P35 + 800 DDR2?Cheers...

I did an FSX benchmark test a few weeks ago where I compared running my system with memory set to 533MHz and then 800MHz, with everything else set the same. The result was 11.5% higher average FPS at the higher memory bus, which is nothing to sneeze at when trying to make FSX tick.You could go either way really. If you go 965P, you buy proven technology and better reusability of your current hardware, however performance would be 10-15% slower than if you bit the bullet now and went the newer hardware for more money. It's your call!Gary