Hey guys, i just downloaded and played through the crysis demo with FRAPS on, heres my specs:

Windows XP 32-bit SP2
ASUS P5K Deluxe
EVGA 8800 GTS 320 AS3 KO edition (586 core, 1840 memory)
E4300 @ stock settings
2 x 1GB Patriot DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12
Corsair 620HX power supply

at 1280 x 1024 ( my lcd's default screen size, and what i like to game at) i get between 25-30 fps at all settings on high, except when in combat with 5+ enemies, when it drops to around 10 fps.

I've had my computer for about 6 months and i want to a SMALL ~ $300-$400 "refresh" to keep things smooth until penryn/Geforce 9 comes out.

Here's what i was thinking:

Vista Home Premium 64-bit
2x 1GB more Patriot DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12
Thermalright Ultra-120
Scythe S-Flex SFF21F
Arctic Silver 5
Total with tax anf shipping (all newegg) ~ $350 before rebates
The plan is to use the 64-but OS to get that supposed 20% performance boost, double the ram, and OC the hell out of the CPU. How big a boost do you think i can expect?

not much cuz from what i've read here on the forums is that crysis is very GPU intensive. sounds like you might be better off selling your gts and getting a gtx. or saving ur money and waiting for more GPU's and CPU's to be released in the future. nobody seems to be getting good frames with crysis so waiting till it's full version is out might be a good idea too.

Thats true, but i think the boost a GTX would give me over my OC-ed GTS isn't worth the money or the trouble.

But since im not going to be getting a new GPU or CPU until next gen, i thought i'd spend some money now and get my computer ready to make the jump to vista. 4GB's will be plenty of memory for vista until i'm ready for an entire new computer in a few years, and the HS and fan would be good for the E4300 and whatever CPU i swap in down the road and O'C.

If you believe the tests that VR-Zone did your problem will be only having 320 memory on your GTS if you turn on all the eye candy it was not even close to the other cards including tomorrows release of the new GTfor under $300

ok, i get that, but im not changing GPU's for a while, so how many more frames can i expect from the changes? 5? 10? 15 maybe?

not even five, in fact prolly less than ur getting now because of the switch to vista from xp. mine FPS went down when i played it on vista.

My advice to you is lower the SHADER Q as that has a HUGE impact on FPS. I am amazed that other people are getting lower FPS then me with my rig in my sig, a 7800GTX 256MB. On XP I ran the setting on the left (in advance graphics settings) on LOW and the graphics setting on the right to all HIGH. My FPS is 30-53 with the above settings at 1280x1024 native.

I think everyone is expecting to be able to turn all setting to max Q, and then they say that they only getting 30-40 FPS. Lets be realistic people Crysis is designed for future hardware, so it will be difficult to run everything at max Q. I do realise that with Vista playing Crysis is a hole new ballgame.