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current machine is a C2D E6600 with an 8800 GTS 640 and 2 GB RAM blah blah blah

I haven't upgraded any major parts in my rig for about a year and a half. It still plays pretty much any game I throw it but I do have to turn some detail down for optimal frame rates. Anyway, I don't want to spend a lot of money atm and I can snag a EVGA GTX 280 for $389.99 (canadian).

Will my CPU be OK for now, it won't hold back the power of the card? I figure it's a powerful card I should notice a nice increase in gaming, bang for the buck? I can always throw in a new CPU down the road...

Well to give you an idea, I'm running a Q6600 CPU (which 3DMarks the same as an E6600) and upgraded from an 8800 GT to a GTX 260 and I saw a big difference in performance.

The 8800 GT was doing the job just fine, but I was playing most games with no VSync and 4x FSAA. I could not enable VSync in COD4 or CODWaW multiplayer without feeling the framerate was noticeably suffering.

I now run every game I have at max eyecandy with 8x FSAA and VSync enabled. It was worth the upgrade just to be able to use VSync without feeling I was taking a noticeable framerate hit.

Yeah, the CPU is fine IMO. Just do the video card & you'll be fine.

I ordered the card and got 2 more gigs of ram, it's dirt cheap so why not? Maybe I'll overclock my CPU and see what kinda power I can get outta this thing...

Popped in the GTX 280, the 4GB RAM and OC'd the 6600 from 2.4 to 2.9

old 3dmark06: 9569
new 3dmark06: 13158

eh I'll take it

nice

The 3D Mark numbers don't tell the whole story. What I found was my 3DMark numbers were only 2000 points higher when I went from the 8800GT to the GTX 260.

HOWEVER this was with the default settings. When I cranked up FSAA to the max in 3DMark something interesting happened. The 8800's numbers plummeted to half while the GTX 260 stayed the same.

That's why I now play everything at 8x FSAA with VSync enabled.

I don't have a registered copy of it so I can't try that, anyone know of a demo program that's free that I can use to benchmark my system like that?

Also, DAMN this card is HUGE! It JUST fit, and I had to use 2 six pin PCI-E plugs into one 8-pin (plus another 6pin), which they only recommend for short term use, goodie, I have to get a new PS... AGAIN!

What games do you have? Many have built in benchmarks. Far Cry 2 has a pretty nice one IMO. Of course at this point you don't have a reference anyhow. I'd say that one way or the other, a thirty-something percent increase is pretty good for only upgrading the video card. Though it will feel like more.

Far Cry 2 came with the board LOL. I hear the game is crap but I'll have to install it for the benchmarker thanks!

The game isn't crap IMO. It certainly wasn't what was hyped about & it does have flaws, but overall, I enjoyed it. It's a good in between game. Only really annoying part of the game is the lack of fast travel. Thus, you get really good at driving & boating. It also has very good graphics & some of the best day to night transitions I've experienced. Oh & the malaria thing was totally annoying (just wondered if there was a patch for that).

This is the PSU I purchased: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182160

Still on sale for $50. It's an SLI PSU with a whopping 4 x 20Amp 12volt rails. Lots of connectors including a 6 pin and combination 6 or 8 pin.

No a particularly pretty PSU but it does the job, it's energy efficient, and it's quiet.

Wow, that's the lowest powered SLI power supply that I've seen. l like the quiet part, but could it handle a pair of 8800's or 4850's? I'm sure it's fine for one video card though.

The minimum power requirement for a single 8800GT is something like 36 amps so yeah, it could handle two 8800's - just.

I'm not using it as for SLI so I have plenty of headroom on the 12v rail for a single GTX 260.

Certainly looks like a good deal for one card, but wouldn't trust it for SLI (at least not on a newer pair of cards, maybe a pair of 7xxx series).