AMD Phenom V.S. E8400?

Seems you already know what the problem is. Why are you concerned about your processor?

Spend the money on updating the graphics.

E8400 (@3Ghz) is a better chip for the speed but a AMD 6000+ (@3Ghz) will run games the same and is $50-100 cheaper depending on when and who you buy it from.

If I myself was building a unit to add to my LAN today the extra money would go into a 8800GTS (G92) rather than the CPU.

Exactly what i did, i got the 6000+ @ 3 Ghz and opted for the 8800 GTS 512 (G92). I have had NO problems at all, i say stick with what you got instead of switching platforms and wait for the new stuff to arrive, Intel and AMD are both planning new platforms...

The E8500 is a bit faster but at 800X600 ~1024X768 will you notice much. quads get advantages in new games when you get the resolutions at and above 1280X1024. The first test makes the E8500 look good but who plays at 800X600. The other 2 show that an E8400 would slip at or below a phenom 9500. Crysis would be better with a quad.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page6.asp

COD4 does show better performanceon for the E8500 than stock quads but a stock Q6600 is right on its butt. These are low clocked quads and no question the Q6600 has more to gain from OCing. The Q6600 has 1.4GHz head room to its max while the E8500 only about 1~1.1GHz. The E8400 on this benchmark would fall right at the Q6600 and phenom 9850.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] page10.asp

I would suggest you buy a mid high end GPU with the $200. I think the best bang for the buck is the 9600GT or 8800GT but wait for the new GPU's as this will lower price or give you a better GPU. ATI's 4850 and Nvidia's 200 series are to release in June.

I think not

at this hour of the product cycle game, get a new gpu...first week of july. also bear in mind, amd systems like ati graphics. i'm not bagging on nvidia framerates...but as a filmmaker, i occasionally do dis their image quality.
just my couple pennies...

I'm old and get confused between 2's and 4's , E8400 @ 3.6 and a pair of 8800GT's @ 600/1500/900 on an Abit IN9 32X-MAX Wi-Fi with 2GB of OCZ Reapers powered by a Corsair 620HX. I'll have to dig out COD2 and fire it up, if I can remember where I put it.

Sort your GFX card first. I got to SLI GTS512s before I upgraded from E4300 to E8400 (and my OCed 4300 got almost the same 3Dmark05 as the stock 8400).

These days if you're gaming, you should be spending twice as much on the GPU as the CPU, as that's where most of the processing goes on (unless you play a lot of RTS and have thousands of units in-game).

The E8400 is one hell of an overclocker. A 33% overclock from 3GHz to 4GHz is normal with even midrange cooling, and the magical 50% can be achieved with good cooling. I'd like to see any modern 90nm chip manage that, as they're already pushed to the limit.

I agree we most here ,change the gpu the Phenom 9500 is not the issue.My 9500 is oc to 3ghz on an MSI 790fx with 4gigs of G.skill 1066 ram,with a HD2900pro oc to 750/860.Just waiting for the new gpu's.