win7 Performance Test Subscore is only a 4.9 !

Windows 7 64 Pro
8GB DDR2
Intel Q6600 Quad 2.4 GHz
MSI - MS-7345 Platinum MoBo
Nvidia GeForce 8600GT
Total available graphics memory - 4095MB
Dedicated graphics memory - 512MB
Shared system memory - 3583MB
DirectX 10
*Pinnacle studio 15 HD Ultimate

I have been experiencing poor performance with freezing issues in my studio* video editing software. I went to Performance and Tools > I performed a PERFORMANCE TEST to see what was happening, and here are the DETAILED results. I received a BASE SCORE of 4.9 from a total score of 1.0 - 7.9.
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SUBSCORES >
Processor ------------ 7.1
Memory (ram) ------ 7.1
Graphics -------------- 4.9
Gaming graphics ----- 5.7
Primary Hard disk --- 4.9

What would cause me to have such a poor graphics score, or an overall base score of only 4.9, if most people tell me that my 512 MB Nvidia 8600GT PCI-E is far better than some of the newer 1GB GPU's on the market today?
I was thinking (sometime in the future, not right now) of upgrading both the GPU, and my MoBo to an INTEL Sandy bridge i5 or i7 CPU, which would allow more RAM and use the newer DDR3 ram. When it comes to video editing, I was also told that the CPU is the most important unit to have, and not so much the GPU.

So basically, I will remain to have these poor scores until I upgrade?

I regularly perform a DE-FRAG every week, and after most daily computer sessions, I make sure to delete the .tmp, .tmp internet files, offline files, and recycle bin files. What other useless and unnecessary files are safe to delete? I was told these are fine....

COMPUTER >
WINDOWS >
TEMP FOLDER>
.SQM AND .TMP FILES - DELETE ALL
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WINDOWS >
PREFETCH FOLDER >
DATA FILES - DELETE ALL
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USER >
RECENT > DELETE ALL
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RUN > %TEMP% - DELETE ALL
OR
USER > LOCAL > TEMP - DELETE ALL

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USER > APPDATA > TEMP - DELETE ALL
I also see TMO and TM2 files, are these sage to delete?

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TOOLS . Options . Clear Recent history
Tools network . Offline

Hmm. Strange that!

My Experience score is 5.9. Held back by my hard drive and unless I go along the SDD route, my experience score will always be 5.9.

Why your HDD is only giving 4.9 though....

Graphics.
My Radeon HD5670 512mb gives me a score of 7.0 in graphics and 3D gaming.

Is your graphics card actually being used? Are you still using the on board graphics? It should auto switch in bios when a card is added but may be worth checking that you are set to use the graphics card.

For cleaning I use CCleaner. One of the options is to delete old prefetch files. A marginally better option than deleting them all in my opinion.

That's about par for the index score on that old GPU. I have a BFG 8400GT with same kind of score. I would suggest a new GPU provided your current PSU can handle it.

Mine Experience score is also at a 5.9 along with Elmer's, i'm not entirely sure what Windows bases that score on, and what every aspect is weighted for it's total.