WOW
well, MAJOR thanks for that link. Even though I've already done about 9/10 of those things on the list, there were several things I hadn't even considered! BIG thanks electro! sadly my sub is expired and thats why i haven't posted on OF yet. But this weekend it'll be back up, and I'll see what can be done (if those tweaks I made don't help). Hopefully overclocking my geforce will help out.
btw, i do play other 3d games. C&C generals uses directX 9.0a and I get a typical 60 fps in it when I'm not attacking with 200 tanks (literally). I'm assuming thats just because of the strain put on my processor.
I am fully upgraded in all drivers of all sorts too btw, including DX 9.0c, nvidia geforce version 6.6.93, and BIOS. I dunno why PS takes such a big performance hit.
THX again for the link to the list...