Need advice on new processor

[demonbrawn]

It's been about 4 years since I bought my laptop and I'm looking to upgrade it since I'm using more and more brand new applications that are starting to stutter. Does anyone know if the Sony Vaio VGN-FW390's processor is upgradable at all? I currently have a t9550 processor installed and would like to get the best possible processor (t9800 most likely?).

 

[OnePostWonder]

What applications are you using that are starting to stutter?

 

[demonbrawn]

Music and video editing software. I'm doing a lot of projects for my school in my leadership project. I'm hoping I can just drop a couple hundred bucks or less instead of buying a whole new laptop

 

[OnePostWonder]

I would look to see if any sites use the same software you're using as a benchmark and note whether or not the change in processor frequency improves performance remarkably.

Also, do yourself a favor and get this tool:

DPC Latency Checker

If when your laptop sits at idle you're getting a lot of yellow bars and especially red bars, the stuttering may not be an issue with the processor.

I just have a hard time believing that changing to a processor that is only less than 200 Mhz faster is going to make a huge difference.