What you need to really do some damage is a trojan that loads a driver that overvolts the CPU/GPU. It's possible, since there are plenty of programs for adjusting CPU/GPU voltage while a computer is running. Depends on whether the motherboard or graphics card is capable of doing it, of course.

I'm waiting for my new GPU (GeForce 8800GT), then I'll replay Oblivion with OOO. Can't wait, and have been waiting for weeks on the pre-order of my card

PhysX is a physics platform by Ageia, a company that produces a PPU (Physics Processing Unit), just like a GPU only for physics. With one of these cards it's possible to render this in real time.

I'll say yes, because you have the same GPU, CPU and Ram I do.
HOWEVER - You might need a better PSU - 430 is a bit low.
Also, I would recommend that you check out the Asus P5NSLI MoBo. It's a great board for the price (< $100 USD), especially considering that it's 775 pin socket supports the quad-cores and has SLI capability for when your 8800 gets old.

It's all cool buzdos. I would have said hardware issues as well. I also would have tried a different card, but Walmart doesn't exactly carry high-end graphics cards. If there was a computer shop in town that I could just walk in and pick one up from I would. I talked to the TS again, and the guy told me (the 3rd level guy that I got to) said they've escalated my case to their "top tier" tech support for investigation. Apparently my case is the epitome of what is being reported as wrong with this game.
And just in case you were wondering, my GPU does heat up to about 10 degrees higher than when idle, but that should be expected.

You sound like a noob! Don't be so self-righteous with tech support. It's a big company, they can't give their personal e-mails out to every ninny who has trouble following standard procedure.

From the screenshot you posted I'd say your video card is dying. Likely either the GPU or the video RAM is overheating. Try a different video card.

I don't have your kind of problems, but Crysis is the first game in a long time that has caused my computer to hang or reboot without warning. I'm thinking it might be pushing my power supply beyond limits. This is the only game that causes my video card coolers to spin up to maximum. I'm gonna put it aside until Crytek releases a patch and ATI releases a new video driver.

My specs:
X24400+ Oc'd 10% to 2.43ghz
4GB OCZ PC3200 400MHZ
X1950XTX CF Edition in Crossfire with X1900XTX
SB x-Fi Platinum
Dell 3007

My computer is so slow for it. I get 10-13 FPS from GPU benchmarks.

^true
loads of stupid weapons do not equal fun.

also i think realistic biology is important, i hate the "energy suit" idea where you can take ridiculous hits without dying.... also it's cool if a shot to the leg means you can't run, shot to the arm means you can't hold a gun... etc
those things make a game so cool for me.

i liked RTCW with the different character roles, that totally rocked.

ahhh anyway they don't make FPS games for me. FPS games are all about having a l33t GPU and showing your friends your amazing framerate... playability be damned... zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The reason it's so effective when running on the GPU is that the GPU is optimized for the types of calculations that a physics engine requires. (Except instead of static geometry and transformations, it's just doing dynamic positioning and collision detection, which is an extension of what a GPU was made for.)

Also, since the physics calculations are a lot simpler than the graphics calculations (it's easy to calculate a ball bouncing on the ground, but harder to calculate what a surface with normal maps, specularity, and a complex mesh would look like) this wouldn't necessarily require a very powerful card to deal with the calculations. An old Voodoo 5 would probably have no problem doing these calculations. Where it gets difficult is when you get a lot of objects, which would definitely require a more powerful card, especially if you want it to draw your pretty graphics as well.

An important note: while the new DirectX 10 (or should I say Direct3D 10) cards definitely have the power to do the more complex physics calculations, it doesn't have anything to do with DirectX. (A lot of people I've spoken to recently seem to be under the impression that DirectX 10 = "OMG L33T PHYSICS!")

It is mostly marketing hype. The "big thing" about the PS3 is its Cell processor. But in essence, all it is is a combination of an ordinary CPU and a GPU. (Well, it's a bit more than that, but that's a good way to summarize it.) Sure it does some mathematical computations faster since it doesn't have to send the data out to the GPU, but the speed gained is offset by the fact that you have to communicate it back to the remote server (for the Folding application). So in the end, a high end PC using both the CPU and GPU (as ATI cards can now be implemented to do) for folding will be on par with a PS3. Add to that a dual core processor and you're easily going to beat the PS3s calculation speeds. (And now we're moving along to quad-core computers, so . . . yeah.)

Add to that what was mentioned above, about leaving the PS3 on while not in use, and it's pretty clear that this is mostly marketing.

Oh, and the whole thing about the PS3 being a supercomputer is more marketing hype. Some planned supercomputers will use MODIFIED cell processors (plural), but the PS3 is nothing like that.

the 613 post goes further than the "Wow, there is no way that is real-time" statement. See 40min into the 613 vid. Its definitely scripted, but it is real-time rendered by the game engine itself using the PS3 gpu.

What the clip demo was trying to say was that the ps3 is capable of real-time game rendering of such quality