The Oblivion Hardware Thread...

[yin26]

O.K. I think I've maxed out overclocking at 570 core and 1670 memory. I'm also playing smoothly at a resolution of 2040x1536! Some screenshots to follow in a bit.

It looks like I can run oblivion after all abet just barely. 2.4 Ghz processor, 512 ram, and I a128 mb ATI Redeon 9700 AGP. Since I'm so close to the minimum specs I'm wondering it would be worth the $39.99 to try it out.

The great thing about this game is even at low level graphics, it's just a blast. In your case, it wouldn't cost too much to move up to 1 gig of RAM and a 256 MB ATI card. Once relieved of most of the graphics' burden, your 2.4Ghz processor should do fine.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I decided to turn off the grass... aside from helping out the framerates, it makes things easier to find on the ground. I definately prefer it. The grass looked wierd as well... prefer the green covered ground... it was just deer who ate it down to the ground .

[yin26]

I tried no grass as well. It's not bad, actually. However, I just ordered more system memory. I'm at 1GB now but am adding 1GBx2 cards in the remaining two memory slots = 3 GB. I've read all over the place that the jump in memory all but takes care of any remaining stuttering in games like Oblivion. Let's see!

[snoopy369]

Oblivion seems to not care much about memory and more about video card/video memory. My GF's computer runs it nearly as nicely as mine, and she has 1gb, I have 2gb; she has a nearly equal video card, but a far worse processor.

[yin26]

Did you do the memory tweaks from TweakGuides.com? There are some 2GB specific recommendations to make better use of the memory. In any event, I'll be reporting my findings soon!

[Solver]

[yin26]

Speaking of TweakGuides, there is a small retraction on a particular tweak. If you have 1GB of RAM or more and did the tweak:

bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=0 - If set to 1, this setting attempts to unload cell data it thinks you won't need. This can help those with less than 1GB of RAM, however with 1GB or more of RAM, I recommend leaving it at 0 for greatly reduced stuttering.

I set it to 1 based on the guide's earlier suggestion, so perhaps setting it back to 0 will help on some of my stuttering.

[bonscott]

Originally posted by yin26
Speaking of TweakGuides, there is a small retraction on a particular tweak. If you have 1GB of RAM or more and did the tweak:

I set it to 1 based on the guide's earlier suggestion, so perhaps setting it back to 0 will help on some of my stuttering.

Yep, saw that as well. I still have some stuttering here and there even with 2 GB but I think a lot of that is my slow CPU (2.8 ghz) but I'll try this as well to see what happens.

Other then that I'm pretty happy with my upgrade now that I've played with it over a week. I'm also able to overclock the x800 quite a bit with no heat increase (still only 51 degrees max during playing).

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by bonscott


Yep, saw that as well. I still have some stuttering here and there even with 2 GB but I think a lot of that is my slow CPU (2.8 ghz) but I'll try this as well to see what happens.

Other then that I'm pretty happy with my upgrade now that I've played with it over a week. I'm also able to overclock the x800 quite a bit with no heat increase (still only 51 degrees max during playing).

Yeah, I OCed mine quite a lot, from 400 to 520 core and 490 to 600 (ddr, 980 to 1200) memory. Using fan speed controls, it gets up to 70 playing, but that's because the fan doesn't really kick in until 70; it's not gone over 70, so i'm not worried about it

Just did the tweakguide tweaks, had done some of them before but not all ... will see how it goes

[snoopy369]

wow ... tweakguides

60FPS often, 30FPS always (no dips below 30 for more than a second or two while loading areas). Might turn grass up more, but it looks

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by yin26
Speaking of TweakGuides, there is a small retraction on a particular tweak. If you have 1GB of RAM or more and did the tweak:

I set it to 1 based on the guide's earlier suggestion, so perhaps setting it back to 0 will help on some of my stuttering.

No wonder it was doing that so often!

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by Solver

well if this is over NOT having the hardware needed, don't worry. I suspect in a month or two yin+others will post that while fun for a while, Oblivion isn't all its been cracked up to be
So in this case you could try this:

http://video-games.search.ebay.com/Daggerfall_Video-Games_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8QQsacatZ1249

followed by this:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212018

and general looking around. You should end up with a game that will keep you hooked for years

Sometimes superior graphics dont mean superior game.

[yin26]

Actually, Oblivion plays great on low-level graphics settings! Thanks for those other links, by the way.

[bonscott]

Yep, it does play fine on lower settings, you just got to be willing to play on them.

And if I get a couple months out of this game it would be well worth the money.

[Quillan]

I payed $60 for the PC Collectors Edition, and with over 120 hours played, I'm now under 50 cents an hour. It was well worth the money, and I'm not finished yet. I expect this will keep me busy for a while yet, though at least I'll be taking a break in a couple weeks, when Half Life 2: Episode 1 comes out...