thanks for the replies. I was referring to Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare but wan to play Apocalypse series and upcoming Ghost.
I see a Gigabyte GV-R795WF3-3GD HD7950 online, used but with almost full warranty for $225 OB, tempting.
I've ran a Phenom II x4 965 in my machine and saw no difference in performance with COD4, Mass Effect Series, etc so I figured a CPU/ Mobo upgrade would not do much so I have been focusing on a graphics card upgrade. Also, the current Athlon II x3 I have installed can be unlocked to run four cores and OCed to 3.4GHz so that's not an issue for me in the near future. I use a memory monitor and have never maxed out system memory in the past 10 years of gaming.
I hate hype, don't you?
I run Windows XP x32 but will be upgrading to Win7 x32 Home Premium soon. I also can run Ubuntu and STEAM has compatibility and, they sell the COD series. I wonder if STEAM will have a Ubuntu version of Ghost?