You know the drill.

Windows XP (latest updates)
Intel® Pentium® D CPU 2.66GHz
2.5 GB RAM
GeForce 7950 GT (SLI)
DX 9.0c

I hover between 15 and 22 FPS on average, sometimes as high as 29 indoors, but seldom; can dip as low as 9 during combat. V. Sync is off, no anti-aliasing, HDR enabled, medium texture quality, all distant objects enabled, low shadow filtering, tree canopy shadows on, grass shadows off, self-shadows off, water reflections and ripples active, as are window reflections. Water doesn't appear to affect my performance at all whether or not these options are activated, incidentally, and I have no graphic-enhancing or process/script-intensive mods installed.

Any thoughts?

Weak-ish CPU, probably holding back the Geforce 7950GT. Although that graphic card isn't exactly top end either, at least not now.

In agreement with Níeh?ggr here. That processor is the bottleneck to your system and holding that card back. If you're running two in SLI as you indicated, that probably makes the bottleneck worse.

You know, I suspected the CPU might be bottlenecking me a bit, though it far exceeds Oblivion's recommended requirements. I could upgrade to a 9800 GT for practically nothing right now, but there may be no point in doing so.

Anybody got any recommendations as CPUs go?

Depends on motherboard. What ya got?

Ah cripes, I knew I forgot something. EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR ATX Intel Motherboard? I'm not terribly computer-savvy, I fear.

That's it....and a shame to be putting that board to waste. You could get quite a powerful processor, but what do you want to spend for one?

I'd prefer to stay below $250 if possible, preferably $150-175 or less. Thanks for the help, by the way! I feel a smidge lost.

The http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036 would be a massive upgrade.

This game doesn't make use of quad-cores, but if you want one, your board will support Kentsfield Quads, which are 65nm Core 2 Quads. These aren't easy to find these days. One of the more common ones though is the http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=Q6600&title=Intel-Core-2-Quad-Processor-Q6600-2-4GHz-1066MHz-8MB-LGA775-EM64T-CPU-OEM

I personally would for the fast dual-core though, either the E8400 or E8500.

Oh, and you may need a BIOS update for one of these CPUs, so make sure you do it before popping it in or you won't get a post until you do.

Once again, I truly appreciate the assistance. I'll upgrade my processor (probably to the E8500, if it's at all a tangible improvement over its predecessor) and likely acquire a 9800 GT. Keeping my fingers crossed here to see an improvement, but I undoubtedly will, heh heh.

No prob. If you missed my edit, just be sure to flash your motherboard with the correct BIOS so that the E8500 will be recognized. Latest BIOS can be dl'ed at EVGA's website and there are instructions there and in their forums as well to do the BIOS flash/update.

IMO go for the e8400 and just overclock it a bit, you should be able to push to 3.3ghz without a problem, mine goes to 3.7 without having to change voltages and the advanced stuff. will svae you a bit of money and you have basically got yourself a e8500 there.