Yeah, my parents won't do anything to the computer....they'll just wait until either the family or the computer dies. So...will it run ob?

I think so, yes. But certainly with most detail sliders set to minimum

I currently have

P4 2.8Ghz CPU
1.5 Gigs Ram
Geforce 5200 FX

I ran that 3dmark benchmark program and only got about 1000 marks for video so I think my video card has got to go....

I want to buy this before Oblivion...
Geforce 7800 GTX
This has been the cheapest I have found so far for top of the line stuff.

I just have to figure out now if my motherboard/powersupply will run it.

if i had that much moey to spend a graphics card i would just buy the 360.

a point someone made a while ago: playing OB in your office chair on a 16" monitor, or playing OB on a 52" (mine ) high def Tv with speakers that are 4 feet tall (mine also ) and on a very big couch?

Thats a good idea... If u lack some money and actually dont have that much money for all upgrades but want to play OB its better to just buy the 360

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1256478

Notice I overclocked my processor to 2.9 ghz on air also .

If anybody needs overclocking tips, Ill be glad to help.

Im Damn sure Ill be able to run Oblivion on high and then some.

I don't have the luxury of sraying at home too long, as I'm always on business trips, but think that Oblivion will own...

Just got 3G laptop the other day, it has the following specs

P4 3.2
1024 DDR RAM
Radeon 9700 128mb craohics card
80GB harddrive.

I know it isn't smoking, but it's a laptop.

All I want to know is will it run Oblivion at lower settings.

NB: A laptop is the only feasable option for me, so desktop and 360 are out of the question for now

Pretty sure it will manage to play Oblivion on low settings ye..

Um.... sorry but no.
Can you even play Morrowind decently with that set-up? Balmora must be a nightmare,lol.
I have heard rumors that the x-box 360 will play Oblivion fine but at low frame rates.

If anyone with a limited budget is planning an upgrade, I highly suggest upgrading your processor instead of your graphics cared. Why?

Because...

1.) Oblivion will be CPU intensive as oppossed to GPU intensive like Morrowind was.

2.) You want the game to be playable(ie. No chugging and low framerates)
instead of shiny and pretty which is what most graphics upgrades accomplish.

I had a 3.0 Intel pentium 4 processor with a ATI X800XL. I then bought a 7800gtx.
I noticed some improvements in frame rates with various intensive games and benchmarks but not much. I then Upgraded to a 2.4 AMD processor and WOW what a
difference! My performance almost doubled and this was on stock settings.

3.) A processor upgrade involves more work but it can be much cheaper than buying
a new graphics card.

A AMD2.0 processor. Which could easily be overclocked to 2.8 or even 3.0 with
the proper aftermarket heat sink.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103537
The best motherboard on the planet IMO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813136159
by the way, Intel sucks for games.

Gahahaha, there's no way this'll play Oblivion. Luckily, I plan on upgrading. Any advice? ;D

Pentium 4 2.5GHz
512MB RAM
Radeon 9200 SE [128MB]

Hmm... Well well, I'm pretty sure you could need another 512MB RAM to place in your slot. 2.5 GHz, I'm not so sure that its any need to buy a new CPU...

But I'm pretty sure you need to get a new GCard, how much money for a upgrading of your PC do you have?

I tend to save a lot, so I've built up £290 ($511) to use for this kind of thing, which I'm guessing should get me somewhere at least. I dunno.

Here's a very helping thread regarding system items, scroll down to post #2 for the Graphic card details.

Well I did some research finally regarding whether I can play Oblivion on my PC. My plans for getting the 7800gtx video cards are dashed since I only have an AGP interface. I don't plan on buying a new computer anytime soon. So here is my dilemma which I hope someone here can help me decide.

Option A: Buy a Geforce 6600... Still appears to be a decent card with 8 pixel pipes for about $120. I don't think I need to make any other changes to my computer with this option.

Option B: Buy a Geforce 6800GT or Ultra for about $280-$300. Seems to be much more powerful with 16 pipes and higher clock speeds. My concern here though is I checked with Dell and my comp only has a 250W power supply and the 6800 recommends at least a 350W.

I am not too worried about the price difference of the cards, but I dont want to sink another $100 into a better power supply too. Will the 6800 even run in a 250W environment? and if so, how much of a performance hit will there be?

I would be grateful for any help here...

I had that EXACT same dilemma once upon a time. My power supply in me dell went bad once so I called to get another one and they said the only kinds they had were the 250W variety, which wouldn't run what I was upgrading to. So I bought a new Motherboard, Power Supply, Memroy, Processor, and case.

Anyway, the guys at compUSA (never go there, they are terrible) said that only a dell Power supply will fit in a dell case. I'm not so sure about that. I once took my dell PS and put it into a Compaq case and it fit fine.

So... with all that said, I would choose option 'B' because the 6800 Ultra has 16 pipelines (as you've already mentioned) and it has support for Pixel Shader 3.0. My Radeon x800 pro has 12 pipelines and only supports PS2.0. Buy yourself a new power supply too because it will probably benefit you in the long run if you ever want to upgrade more. Make sure it will fit in your dell case though, I'm not 100% sure it will but I think it should fit. Running the card on anythgin less could potentially compromise your entire system, I added a DVD Burner to my dell and that's what did my PS in.

Rosewill makes good inexpensive power supplies. All of these power supplies are under $35 USD.

A little late news, but not here Because some time ago I finished building my computer. Been sometime since I've looked up this thread - but did some last adjustments and that was that first of all I bought another case, a Lian Li. I got my oncles old 17" LCD for free and I bought 2 GB insted of 1...

Guess you would like some pic's too aye?



And here we got the old thing... Thrown atop on my drawing table Bought a green fan too for the case so it would look a little exotic.

Thanks Sir Radont... I hadnt found any power supplies that would work that were a decent price like those in my intial searches.... Guess its time to open my Dell and get the dimensions of the Power supply and see if one will fit.

Thanks Again... I think I will go with the 6800 then

GeForce 7900 is soon to come out, and this means video cards will get cheaper. i, for one, am waiting. meanwhile, is there any chance i'll be able to get oblivion started on a PCX5300? the rest of my pc will have no problems, i suspect:
cpu: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (939)
mobo:k8 Triniton (nForce4 SLI)
ram: 1024MB DDR400

gf7800gtx enough?

Alright well to start with let me add that I repair/upgrade/build/network computers for a living (alright I'm only 17, but still I earn enough for it to be considered a living). I am speculating my computer will be able to run it on med/normal settings, with a few extra things on high (such as view distance). Anyway, on witht the specs.

2.66 gHz p4 (overclocked safely to 3.1 ghz)
1gb (2x512) cosair memory with those dandy little heat spacer things
6600gt 128mb (pretty much the best price/performance ratio of any card)
and lastly a turtle beach: montego sound card sending Dolby Digital strait to my solid logitec z-680 5.1 system (nuthing like 505 watts rms to get the juices flowing)

Also I thought I might add that those of you thinking about skimping out and not getting a sound card WILL suffer some substantial performace loss because your using your processor to process the sound (basically) insted of a dedicated sound card. And if you are in need of one, go with Turtle Beach, you get the same sound quailty as sound blaster stuff at about 1/7 of the price for a comparable card.

Just my thoughts

(yes if I had to get a new processor I prob would go AMD so no bashing )

nice overall specs. and about bashing of the two titans (AMD&Intel): most games run better on Athlons while most office/media apps run better on pentium (sempron&celeron are not an option from my pov). what i just said strictly referes to the models still in production.
i'm in the 12th grade. right now, i don't have time for games: exam coming up. this explains the AMD and [bonk] video card.

wonder what pc i'll carry in my pocket 10 years from now? will i have to worry about it getting fat? (organic!)

I have a ATI 256mb 9800XT
2.8 intel cpu
1gb ram

I think the card will actually handle, (I read a dev post and he actually said that was the card he had working on the game)
Ram is fine, might get some more just to be greedy.
I am probally going to get a new cpu probally 3.4

I havn't seen anybody else mention ATI though, I thought they where better than geforce?

Does anybody know why exactly amd are thought of being better than intel for gaming?

Can anybody recommend a good mother board, cause I might just build a whole system for Oblivion and let the wife have the old box (she is a guild wars fanatic)

I am not much of a hardware person really... but I read alot! I think mostly people are talking about Geforce over ATI because of Shader Model 3.0.. Most of the Geforce 6000 series on up use it... while ATI use 2.0 right now, though a new card is coming out or is already out that uses it.

What I have read of AMD and intel is just differences in their error handling.. Intel uses a very long assembly line which allows for higher clock speeds.. but if there is an exception during the processing it has to dump all the work on the line and start over. AMD has a shorter assembly line so if something needs dumped less time has been spent on it overall. Hence, less clock cycles are wasted. Games tend to have lots of exceptions because of all the constant input from devices. I am sure someone could explain it better... but thats my best

Edit : btw... I just ordered my 6800GT and a new 400W power supply. Can't wait for them to get here *bounce*

Well... my goodies arrived 51 hours after I ordered them online... Newegg has really really fast shipping! I finally got to install them tonight after work... and after what I thought was going to be a problem with it not finding the card... I reseated it and now everything works great! Ran the 3dmark03 program again to see what improvement I have done.

Old 3dmark03 score with 5200 FX - 1109 benchmarks
New 3dmark03 score with 6800GT - 10812 benchmarks

Tomorrow I will install something and test this out but its 3am now and I am going to bed.

Thanks again Sir Radont for convincing me to go this route! Hopefully I will be all set now for Oblivion.

I just built my computer over the summer, on a tight budget... I hope I can play Oblivion on it I really do.

CPU- AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2.21 GHz)
RAM- 1.5 GB
Hardrive- 80 GB
Video Card- GeForce FX5500 256MB
Sound Card- SoundBlaster 24-bit

I'm going to show my age a little with this one... (37)
(and I'm not trying to thread-jack, just can't resist posting this)

Anyone remember back-in-the-day when you could use a special boot-disk that loaded just the bare minimum needed to play a game?

It'd be nice if Oblivion for the PC would make use of that old trick.

Not everyone would know off-hand how to boot from a DVD (since I doubt it's very many people's default setting) but it wouldn't be all that hard, either.

If one could bypass most of the OS bloat, a lot more machines could run Oblivion without choking.

It's too bad that Microsoft didn't offer "bare-bones-no-frills" as an option next to "safe-mode"

You can do that, to a certain extent. It is possible to set up different boot profiles; I have two: normal and gaming. A special menu at system startup allows you to choose which profile you use to boot. The gaming profile disables services that won't be missed and removes most of the visual effects from the gui. I had to do this to get Morrowind to run nicely on my computer (I'll definitely be building a new one for Oblivion). It definitely made a big difference, most obviously in FPS.

Also... about a week before Oblivion is released I plan to do a clean re-install of the OS. MS actually recommends doing this one a year anyway just to get the registry squeaky clean. This will help your performance as well.

Would that make me lose anything?

Reinstalling doesn't necessarily mean reformatting. It would be simple to resize the current partition and install the new OS on another partition.

While we're dealing with partitions, anyways, something that others have taken to doing in order to make the transition easier is install the operating system on one partition, and, POSIX-style -- but obviously for entirely different reasons -- install all programs in a seperate partition. This allows them to completely erase the OS partition while keeping the data that should be persistent intact.

Of course, the simpler, although perhaps more radical, solution that I suggest is to just keep any non-trivial data off the Windows machine -- that way, you could wipe out the entire hard disk without much loss, and install games, &c. as you need them. This has the pleasant side-effect of making security a negligible thing.

Very good tips here! I am only sad that I can´t do all that building, reinstalling, rebooting stuff, even though I really do need to have it done on at least 4 of the family´s comps......So I guess I´ll have to get in touch with the nice young man who built 2 of them and see if he can help me hot them up....

The one I´m using right now is a pretty powerful lappy, and I really hope Oblivion will function on it......I´ve been told to upgrade my graphics card.....

Four networked desktops? If the people behind them don't have any software requirements that tether them to DOS or NT, something you might look into is substituting the machines with thin clients -- ones about the size of a paperback book can be built for around $US250, and if you aren't so adventurous, you could get one pre-built at a fair price. If you want cheaper, then thin chients are the perfect application for any Pentium Pros or K6s you have around.

This would also implement the better part of my "dealing with triviality" idea above, and would mean that system-wide software updates, configuration changes, &c. applied to one machine would take place on all thin clients instantaneously. Of course, I can understand if it's, at the moment, too late to implement something like this (although, as I hinted at before, thin clients are mostly made out of PC hardware) -- just something that you should consider in the future as an interesting solution to a problem that seems to have gotten out of hand in your case.

yeah...my girls have each a pretty good comp, then there´s the tired one that hubbie and son use....and there´s my lappy....

But you see....it´s me being able to play Oblivion that matters just now....see me girls I don´t really bother, one of them is in US for a year, the other one is not a gamer....hubbie doesn´t understand a thing about neither comp`s or games....so it´s me ....and I just have to get it working!

The daughter who´s in US will get me Oblivion as soon as it´s out she promised!..yayyyy

Case/Power Supply
500 -watt ATX

Prcessor
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60

Motherboard
Asus A8V Deluxe

Memory
2GB (twin sticks)

Optical Drive
Pioneer DVR-108

Hardrive
500GB 7200rpm

Sound Card
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme

Video Card
Two GeForce 7800 GTXs


Play the game the way it's meant to be played.

I appreciate your generosity in listing your biggest mistake first. Just a plain ATX power supply won't work with this mainboard, unless you want to do a hack that'll earn you a geek Bar Mitzvah. It requires an ATX12V power supply, a hand-me-down from the server market that was obsolete before it was even suggested that K8 boards use it.

I also take it that you plan on using a generic part. Watch as it disappears in a puff of blue smoke, leaving only the charred remains of a sticker reading "hecho en Mexico."



Extra points for using an SMP system. Slight reduction for using something that, AFAIK, isn't even on the market.



With the VIA chipset? Meh. To each his own.



Extra points for taking advantage of the dual-channel capabilities of the board.



You're paying extra for a mainboard with RAID support. Why aren't you using it?



Why? Your mainboard has integrated audio. If VIA's audio is so dreadful that you have to use something from Creative instead, then you should've looked into using an nForce board.



What, in case one gets stolen by aliens and you really need an HL2DM fix? That board isnt wired for SLi, and besides that, it doesn't even have a second PCI-E x16 slot -- on top of that, it doesn't have any PCI-E slots besides that one, period. That'll limit your upgrade options. Then again, your prospects aren't too rosy anyways, with AMD set to ditch PGA939 and convert to a new processor socket probably before Oblivion is released.



Hypothetically?

What I gave you was a quote from PC gamer. If they have somthing wrong with their Dream system then I suggest you ask them to fix it by emailing them.

letters@pcgamer.com



Would you have it any other way?

I currently have an ADM ATHLOn X2 64 3800(dual core with a processing power of 2ghz. each core has about 994mhz) it is also a 64 bitsystem.

I have 1gb of DDR ram.

My graphic card is horrible. It is a ATI Radeon x200 64mb.

Any suggestions?

aye

buy a nuw 1

Ok, before you make another post, take a look at the rules for posting. Two word responses = spam. I've closed one (incredibly pointless) topic, and have showed remarkable restraint I feel in not jumping on some of your other two word posts. Including the one which started with the phrase "two words" I'm not doing any more than this, but in future, if you reply to a post, which we want you to do natch, make it a proper reply.

New computer or new graphic card? what kind of graphic card?

The computer seems fine... at least the processor seems plenty fast.. but a 64mb graphics card is very very dated.

As someone who just updated their graphics card this is what you will need to do..

First find out what type of graphics card interface your motherboard supports. More than likely it will be an AGP or PCI-express. Once you know this you can start browsing for cards. I would recommend Newegg.com if you are shopping online. Just use their search feature to look for your interface type/amount you are willing to spend/etc. A 256mb card is going to be pretty standard now, but there is still a bunch of 128mb cards out there. You can even buy 512mb cards now, but they are pricey.

Then its just a matter of examining how much you want to spend vs. the features you want. Personally I would go for one that supports SM 3.0(Shader Model). The devs for Oblivion have said that they take advantage of it to improve performance.

Also be sure to read about any recommendations for the card. I just bought a Geforce 6800GT... and it recommended at least a 300mw power supply. I checked with Dell and found out mine wouldnt cut it. So i bought a new one of Power supply too at the same time.

The differences between 128 and 256 isn't actually that great. most of the system boils down to the amount of ram you have. i use just over 700mb ram and GeForce 6600GT and that pretty much rules any high-end games that i currently use.

The market is not as saturated with 256 cards as we may think - seeming as bench testing has shown that many current 128 cards even out-perform the newer 256 cards.

Oblivion will not be released with an ambition of forcing its players to upgrade vaste amounts - the intricacy of the game is completely scalable by the player anyway. The engine itself is going to be a damn sight tighter than the MW engine and so i can guarantee that it will run passably well on a medium-high comp. (med-high being the staple PC user diet)

Of course, if you have the funds - then upgrade to the very highest spec you can, but i really wouldnt do that until you at least test the game on your current system. No point upgrading if it runs perfectly well first time.

hey ive got the following

intel p4 1.4ghz proc
128mb ram
on board graphics
15" crt monitor with a hole in the middle from a screw driver(happened about 4 years ago)
a crappy key board with sticky keys from soda
a mouse with only 2 buttons(the kind that still has the ball in the bottom)
cd rom 48x
3.5" floppy
3.1 speakers
210w power supply
linksys cable modem
d-link router
on board sound card
and the mobo is what ever my dell comp came with
and the worst thing of all windows Me
one last thing duct tape to hold the case together

all right now after telling you what im usng at the moment i do plan on getting a new comp the main things that i wanna make sure i get is AMD and geforce are my preference and im hoping on getting a lcd monitor. any input on anything welse will be much appreciated. thx

My system meets the recommend requirements except for the gfx. I have a geforce 6600 gt pci express and they recommend the geforce 6800.

You'll meet the requirements fine . the 6600 is part of the 6800 family of cards. Since the 6600 is a step above the FX line, it should work great. I have a 6800gt AGPx8, not great, but it should be runnable with most details.

There's a reason why I'll have to buy an Xbox 360. I swore a blood oath I would not upgrade my PC until Longhorn arrived (now Vista)... and that OS has come along rather sluggishly in retrospect. My computer would die. Heck, nowadays my computer dies on full-graphics Rome: Total War session. I'm one of those "but if I just wait another month..." people.


And plus; I like third-person viewpoint enough that the Xbox 360 might serve me better this time around... ah, who am I fooling? I'm more of a console person anyway. *waits for crucification*

6800 should run it great. 6600 will run it fine. My brother uses a 6800 GT x8, and it doesnt even blink in any games today.

Im using
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
9800 256 MB x8
1.5 GB Corsair valueselect
Soyo KT600.

I better start saving cause Socket AM2 will be using completely different parts.

Can't say I've ever heard that term in reguard to a computer before...

meh...... ill have to do like i did with my old pc so i was able to play star wars galaxies.... buy a new one.......

my processor is a 1.7ghz.... that wont cut it

and ill have to get nvidia..... im more of an ATI perso but nvidia is cheaper....


ohh well beats having to buy xbox 360

Well, I would retire that PC entirely, the only things I see that you could spare is the router and the cd-rom drive, you don't even need a floppy nowadays (even though it doesn't hurt to have one).

Then remains the question, how much are you willing to pay for a new comp? If you want the top of the line (and don't buy it from dell or another crappy retailer) then you'll have to cough up approximatly 2000$-2500$. But for the recommended requirements I'd say approximatly 1000$-1500$. (Ok, I'm probably goign to get flamed for this, but hey it's entirely speculations from what the prices were when I upgraded, about one month ago).

I might just add now that I'm at it, I went for the killing comp . Had a rather new comp with Radeon x800 and 2500+ XP processor but wanted to upgrade to x64, so I had a huge makeover worth 1400$.

Motherboard, Crossfire compilant: Asus A8R-MVP - 150$
Processing unit: Athlon 64 Dual-Core 3800+ - 450$
Graphics: Radeon x1800xt 512Mb - 700$

Now it runs like never before .

Edit: Oops, forgot that I had to buy a new PCU since my old 350W wouldn't bear my new setup. Got myself a 12V 600W PCU for 90$

i upgraded my computer recently from:
- 1.7ghz Intel
- 512 mb (sd) RAM
- Old cheap motherboard

To:
- 3200+ AMD Athlon 64 €150,-
- 1024 mb RAM €75,-
- Asrock Motherboard (only mobo that has AGP + PCI-e, really good one too by the way) €65

my Radeon 9600 PRO 128mb wasn't really old enough to be replaced, so thats why i bought an Asrock motherboard, so in the future i can buy a PCI-e graphics card


so @ DaedraMaster

if you want to buy a complete new computer, and you look well, you can be very cheap
Processor 3200+ AMD Athlon €150,-
1024 mb RAM Twinmos €75,-
Radeon Sapphire x850 256mb €225,-
Mobo ASrock 939 €65,-
Case €40,-
Zalman Cooling €30,-
DVD Drive €20,-
Asus Power Supply €40,-

€645,- = $767


than you're computer is quite top of the line

o and @ Bofra:

I've had Windows x64 too for a while, but if you play alot of games, DON'T DO IT!
because ALOT of things aren't compatable ..it was driving me crazy
I couldn't play Battlefield 2, NfS Most Wanted, Mafia etc

so now I'm on Windows 32 bits again