Windows 7 question(s) and hardware upgrade advice

I'm currently dual-boxing and will shortly be advancing to triple-boxing.

My current problem in Windows 7-64 bit is that I have unpredictable fps in the game. Sometimes when I login to play the graphics are stuttery and in the high teens to low 20's fps. Other times (this is all totally at random, doesn't matter if I've rebooted or not), it's smooth and around 30-35 fps. Back when I was still running XP32 on the same rig I was constantly at a smooth 45-60 fps, no choppiness at all.

So my first question is: what things can I verify in Win7 are set properly for good framerates? The following items I've already done:
* got latest nVidia Win7-64 drivers installed
* turned *OFF* ambient occlusion in nVidia control panel
* set nVidia to optimize for single-display mode
* turned *OFF* Aero
* set windows power options to 'performance' mode instead of the default 'blended' mode.


Second question, in order to alleviate some of the choppiness and unpredictability I'm thinking of doing a small upgrade in the near future. Here is my current rig, what parts would you recommend upgrading?
* Core2Duo 2.8GHz CPU (really don't want to upgrade this, it'd be a $$$ loss even if I resold it, and it's perfectly good plus I highly doubt CPU is the bottleneck, it isn't pinned when dual-boxing or even single boxing WOW)
* 4GB single-channel DDR2-800 RAM (board only has two slots, only supports 4gb and single-channel)
* nForce 6-series chipset m/b
* XFX nVidia 9600GSO 768MB PCI-E video

I do want to upgrade my primary display to a 22" LCD, and thus I want a graphics upgrade to handle the higher resolution. So already on my hit list is the new LCD, a new GFX card, and a 1TB HDD (need more space)

Would it be worth it to also upgrade my m/b to an nVidia 7-series chipset board or an Intel P45 chipset m/b that supports more RAM and dual-channel RAM? Again, I highly doubt RAM is a bottleneck, I'm not using nearly all of it even triple boxing and I'm sure that even at single channel the RAM speeds are more than sufficient for boxing WOW.

Core2Duo 2.8GHz CPU (really don't want to upgrade this, it'd be a $$$ loss even if I resold it, and it's perfectly good plus I highly doubt CPU is the bottleneck, it isn't pinned when dual-boxing or even single boxing WOW)
+This CPU should be sufficient for 3-boxing just be sure to get rd of useless bloat programs, it by no means is optimal but should be good enough for awhile

4GB single-channel DDR2-800 RAM (board only has two slots, only supports 4gb and single-channel)
+4gb is a little on the low side for multiboxing in general but for 3 boxing it could get you by
* nForce 6-series chipset m/b
a motherboard upgrade with dual-channel ram capability and the option to go to 8gb would greatly enhance your performance, you may not see max memory useage as your bus is saturated with data and your thrashing your harddrive (page filing)

XFX nVidia 9600GSO 768MB PCI-E video
good architecture video card unfortunately its like a v-8 with a governor on it, a lot of horse power with no gas pedal etc. id recommend a 9800gtx or better if nvidia or a 3870+ if ati, keep in mind when you upgrade the video card the cpu can become more of a bottle neck in the system, its easy to balance a system when ya have moneyt o throw at it, btu finding the right balance vs price ratio is definately a challenge.

Yeah, my budget is only about $500cdn for this small upgrade (which is even more than I spent on the system upgrade four months ago - bought the m/b, cpu, RAM, and video all for $460 back then)

Since the LCD and grafx are going to blow most of the budget, plus needing the bigger 1tb HDD, I probably won't have room for a m/b and RAM upgrade this time round.

My plans are the 22" LCD, a GTX260 nVidia card, Seagate 1TB SATA drive, and the DVI cable to hookup the new monitor. Priced out at $560 w/ shipping & tax from tigerdirect.ca.



Still seeking some tips on how I can get my Win7 to perform at least as well on my current hardware as the system performed in XP32...I had wow on max there and had nearly double the framerates. Everybody else is reporting a performance upgrade going to Win7, so I'm curious why I saw a performance decline...