I'm looking for your opinion on how much of a bang for the buck I could get performance wise if I upgraded to a new(er) graphics card -- here's the rub -- with a budget of around $100 or so.My specs:E6600 slightly OC'd to 2.69 GHz at stock voltage (am I being too much of a nervous nelly to not push higher?)2 Gig Corsair PC2-6400FSX running on it's own drive -- 10K RPM Raptorand... a 7600GT with only 256 MB of memory.I'm getting OK performance -- hitting my FPS limit of 30 in quiet areas and usually able to maintain at least 15 FPS (with occasional stutters) in most crowded areas, even with REX2 HD clouds, ASA and UT2 running.So, from a cost-benefit perspective, are there any cards around $100 or so that would be worth upgrading to (assuming I can still find such a card new).

The only card close to that price range that I would recommend would be a 9800 GTX+ and the price will be slightly higher than $100.http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....iption=9800+gtx

I'm looking for your opinion on how much of a bang for the buck I could get performance wise if I upgraded to a new(er) graphics card -- here's the rub -- with a budget of around $100 or so.My specs:E6600 slightly OC'd to 2.69 GHz at stock voltage (am I being too much of a nervous nelly to not push higher?)2 Gig Corsair PC2-6400FSX running on it's own drive -- 10K RPM Raptorand... a 7600GT with only 256 MB of memory.I'm getting OK performance -- hitting my FPS limit of 30 in quiet areas and usually able to maintain at least 15 FPS (with occasional stutters) in most crowded areas, even with REX2 HD clouds, ASA and UT2 running.So, from a cost-benefit perspective, are there any cards around $100 or so that would be worth upgrading to (assuming I can still find such a card new).

How about sink the money into a more than halfway decent heatsink with a good fan or two and with a bit of effort a nice overclock well carry it a lot further. I think your result will be much better than plan A, as a $100 GPU wont improve things that much over what you have.. Though the 9800 is a good low budget card for FSX...just a thought.

That 7600 GT is more of a bottleneck than your o/c'd Core 2 Duo. sargeski's suggestion is the best. $100 for a much faster graphics card is a far better purchase than $100 for cooling which might net you 10-20% more out of your CPU than the stock coolerThat being said, in all likelihood you can overclock your processor more, which should also provide more performance. I don't think there's a Core 2 Duo out there that can't hit 3GHz on stock cooling even. Try for that. You may need to bump up your vcore by a notch or two, but that's hardly enough to damage the CPU.

That 7600 GT is more of a bottleneck than your o/c'd Core 2 Duo. sargeski's suggestion is the best. $100 for a much faster graphics card is a far better purchase than $100 for cooling which might net you 10-20% more out of your CPU than the stock coolerThat being said, in all likelihood you can overclock your processor more, which should also provide more performance. I don't think there's a Core 2 Duo out there that can't hit 3GHz on stock cooling even. Try for that. You may need to bump up your vcore by a notch or two, but that's hardly enough to damage the CPU.

Thanks -- I've begun creeping up toward 3GHz, and I'll put my birthday money towards a GPU.

To further illustrate my point, I have an E5200 @ 3.33GHz on stock cooling in my G/F's gaming machine.

I am in the same predicament but mine is a 9600GT. My other specs are quadcore Q6600 4MB Ram Windows 7 I use Captain Sims 757 and 767 and find the GPU takes a bit to load the Flight Deck. My current bottleneck it the 9600GT so I am looking at the GTX 260'sThat should do for now until I do my next rebuild.

...in my G/F's gaming machine.

:( Wish mine had a 'gaming computer' :(

I've got a tower case with good, unconstricted airflow between the intake and outtake fans (only 2 internal HD's and a DVD drive), so hopefully, temps won't be an issue -- idle temps have only risen thus far to 34-36C and max temps of 50C (no benchmark -- just FSX, REX2 textures, ASA and UT2 running, at 2.72 GHz, compared to about 30C and 42C at stock (2.4GHz).

:( Wish mine had a 'gaming computer' :(

It's mine actually, I just keep it there in case we ever want to play PC games. I have two other gaming machines at my place, including the one you see in my sig, and a second one with an E8400 @ 4GHz and an OC'd GTX 275.