Shuttle

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

Most def

[Death_Dealer[CotC]]

prety much anything from 2004's Farcry forward if you have a current video card ex: 6800 or higher you will see just how much your proc holds you back, current video card make the processor the bottleneck. You can find many, many bench marks to back this up. There are also lots of benchmarks to show that a sound card can greatly improve FPS especialy on a older proc.

[Neophyte]

I made a quick video demonstrating the difference between a Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi when compared to an Intel PERL i865 On-Board audio SoundMAX AC'97 chip. It's pretty significant. Latest drivers installed for each card. The demonstration was recorded in Serious Sam 2 demo version.

Just the X-Fi: http://www.sctf.net/media/CotC/Demo-Xfi.wmv 12 Meg
Just the AC'97: http://www.sctf.net/media/CotC/Demo-AC97.wmv 12 Meg
X-Fi (left) vs. AC'97 (right): http://www.sctf.net/media/CotC/Demo-Xfi-AC97.wmv 12 Meg (pan left / right to hear the difference.)

[Serpent]

Just out of curiosity, how much did this run you?

if you are talking to me, and mean the whole system, i got it for 1045 or so, plus tax...