I was wondering if my cpu was bottlenecking my graphics card which is a 2600XT GDDR4 version. I wouldn't even ask but in a review of tf2 i've seen benchmarks of other peoples 2600XTs getting a minimum of quite a bit higher than mine and at a way higher resolution. I'm only running at 1280X720 with AA @ 4X and all high and going out in the open is 30fps with heavy firefights in the mid 20s

While the Pentium D is not a great CPU, I highly doubt that it's bottlenecking your HD2600XT. The CPU could be overheating, though. The P-D is a hot-running CPU, and Compaq probably topped it with the smallest compatible heatsink that they could find. Try monitoring your CPU temperature as you play the game. The Firewall/Print/File Server: 1.26GHz PIII-S 1GB RAM Radeon 9700 Pro 2 x GigE Remote on/off 4 x 750GB HDDs Storing 200 DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/Laserdisc faves

Other people's benchmarks can also be skewed. You should take into account their exact settings, clock frequencies, and even the rest of their set up (e.g., raid array w/ fast cpu). If you're fine with how your system is performing, then don't worry. I used to worry about benchmarks myself. My system would be much better than everyone's else, yet my overclocked video card would perform less. Specs are nice on paper, but having it perform great in real life is much better.

it's about 55C in game. and yea i'm kinda satisfied even though it's slow on paper it doesn't feel that bad at all. (espically when compared to my dads computer with his X1300)

The 2600XT isn't a high end card, but it's considerably better than the X1300. You don't have to worry about the CPU bottlenecking it. You'd need a much higher performance card before that becomes a concern. "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

Set up a perfmon log and see. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10