A Silly Question

Hello  
I can't tell you the exact time,but a GTS 250 can run games(including all current new games)on decent settings with your resolution

well the fan boys will scream at you for having a dual core CPU, a year old GPU, and a small LCD (that was large 4 years ago), which is an affront to the video game gods!!

the reality is PC gaming is slowly drying up. If you look at 2000-2009 PC games, the biggest leap in PC gaming graphics came as the next generation of consoles switched from xbox/PS2 to xbox360/PS3.

most PC games are simply console ports or MMOs. Only Blizzard and some small European companies make exclusive PC games, and you will notice they all scale well.

So to you answer your question; at medium to high settings you should be good for the next 18-24 months. A video card upgrade will add more time, as will a CPU upgrade.

The pc gaming is not dying, "they" have been saying that over 10 years now, look where we are today.

It will never die, simply because PC is where the big gaming tech is.(then transported to the consoles...DX8/9...pc is at DX11 already...

Is true that a lot of companys has migrated to xbox360 exclusive as they line up much more money.

Just think that Microsoft and Sony went for the best way to get a lot of money, and that's a mid range PC(console) with 200$ cost for it, so parents will buy that instead a pc of 1000$ for the kids....

Playing shooters with a joystick is a no-brainer(even more in multiplayer pvp).

Getting off the off topic:

Your CPU is just fine, don't believe in bottlenecks etc.

Nobody can tell you exactly how much you will be able to play with your current card, as there will always be games that requires a lot of power, as well as games that requires less, but you have a good enough card for the resolution so, take all the juice out of it, and when you want to play a game that requires more than what you have, start thinking about upgrade in that time.

no one said PC gaming is dying and to look where we are today from 10 years ago, you have the following facts

1) less new PC games are available each month, 10 years ago we got a new 1-2 PC games each week. Now we get that each month.
2) we get more console ports and less exclusive games. Look at the list of the best PC games of 1990-1999, we had exclusive FPS, strategy, and RPG games! If you wanted to play Fallout 1&2, Tie Fighter, Baldur's Gate I& II, Starcraft, Deus Ex, etc., on a console....tough they are all PC exclusive.

Now if you want to play Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Call of Duty, Bad Company 2, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, etc., on a console...no problem at all. Even Crysis 2 is going console...