7900GS underperforming due to CPU?

[mcwildcard]

Currently loving my new 7900GS, got it up to 635/775 and it's stable (my original teething problems seem to of sorted themselves out somehow).
Getting 3DMark 05 scores of around 8250, which is much less than some on here, so I'm guessing my Athlon 64 3800+ (So939 & single core) is holding it back.
Question is, what CPU should I be looking to get to get the most out of my card?
(but without any overkill, as I don't want to spend any more than I have to)

 

[paradigm]

4400+ X2 seems to be a sweet spot of price/performance for s939 at the moment

 

[=assassin=]

3D Mark scores aren't everything, although, saying that, in the applications that matter (i.e. graphics intensive) it'd be more realistic to compare how your 3DMark06 score was to similar cards with those clocks. If everything feels smooth in games, then I wouldn't bother upgrading your CPU. You could always overclock it a little too.

 

[mcwildcard]

@ paradigm: What sort of gains would I see out of that?
Ideally I'd like to get close to 10,000 on 3DMark 05, or is that a little too optimistic?

 

[BarryJillett]

Currently loving my new 7900GS, got it up to 635/775 and it's stable (my original teething problems seem to of sorted themselves out somehow).
Getting 3DMark 05 scores of around 8250, which is much less than some on here, so I'm guessing my Athlon 64 3800+ (So939 & single core) is holding it back.
Question is, what CPU should I be looking to get to get the most out of my card?
(but without any overkill, as I don't want to spend any more than I have to)

overclock your 3800 i score 9347 3dmark05 @ defalt settings with a athlon 64 3700 @ 2.6ghz and a 7800gs+ (7900gt)

 

[mcwildcard]

overclock your 3800 i score 9347 3dmark05 @ defalt settings with a athlon 64 3700 @ 2.6ghz and a 7800gs+ (7900gt)

I stuck it up to 2.6ghz to test and I got an extra 500 points out of 3DMark 05, but I don't like messing with my CPU, for some reason I always struggle to find a stable level and whenever my PC crashes it screws up my net connection for 3 days (BRAS Profiles suck).
By the time I can afford it the 4400 X2 will probably be a bit cheaper, although I see the 4600 X2 is the same price.
Is the bigger cache worth getting the 4400 X2 over the 4600 X2?