Is it time i upgrade my CPU and Motherboard?

[Holypowah]

When My computer was first custom built in 2009, I got a:

AMD Phenom 9600 Quad core Processor
Nvidia 9100 GT? (Replaced with GTS 250 last year)
4 GB of RAM
Asus M2N68-AM SE2 motherboard
320GB Hard drive.

I was wondering, since Christmas is creeping around the corner, would it be a good idea to get a new CPU and motherboard? Reason that I'm curious about it is I noticed that the age of my CPU was showing when games that I play were slow as hell even though I had gotten a new graphics card. And wandering around the internet I found a program that disables a patch on the CPU that apparently limited what it was intended to do. After disabling said patch my games sky rocketed back into the 40-60 fps rate. But now I'm wondering if it's time to get a new cpu since after all it'll be about 3 years that I've had this processor.

[Xuvial]

You can get a new CPU but it won't be of much help if games if you're running a GTS250, the graphics card will ultimately become your bottleneck because it's basically a revised 9800GT.

I *think* a better GPU will do you more good than a CPU upgrade, may also work out cheaper. So if you go for something like an HD7770, HD6850, HD6870 or GTX660 (which are all leaps and bounds better than a GTS250) then you should see better some better framerates. Probably not in 25man raids if you do them, but in open world it should be an improvement. However a GPU upgrade like that will leave your CPU as a big fat bottleneck. Looking at benches your CPU is about as fast as an AMD Athlon 64 or an Initel Q6600. But you also need to have a powerful enough PSU to handle the new GPU.

[Holypowah]

Well, I'm not sure if I can get a new graphics card since I got the 250 last Christmas. And I got a new PSU to handle it so I think I'm good with PSU problems. But I'll have to see if it'll be possible to get a new one.

[Confined]

A new mobo/CPU will do you wonders in 25man raids (Recently upgraded from a q9400 @ 3.3ghz myself) however once you do so your framerate WILL be capped by your GPU.
Think of it like this : CPU Sets the minimum FPS the Rig can pump while the GPU sets the maximum fps the Rig shows up (60fps with vsync on).

TLDR; If you need 25man Raid performance, yes by all means upgrade. If you need Performance while doing dailies, 10man raids, arena, BGs, etc. Go for the GPU.


EDIT: Btw, Your q9600 will very rarely be the bottleneck in your system whatsoever before your GPU.
If you care about other games other than MMOs and 25man wow raids. Go for GPU first.