Peter wrote:
Is there a formula for upgrading video cards on a gameing machine. Is there
a point where an 8800gt or 9800gx2 or other card would be a waste ie not a
significant improvement, let say if you had a dualcore AMD processor.




That depends chiefly on your choice of application and what resolution
you run said game, plus the level of texture filtering applied to the scene.

Current cards are more than capable of running moderate resolutions at
almost any level of IQ for current DX9 and OpenGL titles, gains must be
measured against that adequacy.

Then, you must take the overall performance level of your PC, {if it is
already unbalanced, gains will be minimized} but a balanced PC will
always demonstrate the most gain with an upgrade.

There is no magic formula, only the algorithm above where you plug in
your specs, compare the price/performance ratio to the future specs,
factor that against your expectations and then divide by your budget.

You do the maths!