Anyone that knows anything about computers and oblivion come here!

**NakedBarbarian2** · May 04, 2007, 12:48 AM

Whatsup?

I'm about to pimp up my computer; gonna swap my 128mb gcard with a radeon 9600 256mb card and add an extra 512 ram for a total of 1g of ram. what sort of performance can i expect if i buy oblivion?

2nd question - what is the difference between 128 anda 256 mb graphics card? call me noob but does only mean that the graphics are slightly better

cheers

**Rhinosaur** · May 04, 2007, 01:06 AM

The GPU is the main part of a Graphics card to improve preformance AFAIK, the VRAM is secondary. Another 512 of RAM for your comp will only do good things for your gaming experience, but all total your Oblivion should only run on medium to low settings.

**Freddie** · May 04, 2007, 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by NakedBarbarian

Whatsup?

I'm about to pimp up my computer; gonna swap my 128mb gcard with a radeon 9600 256mb card and add an extra 512 ram for a total of 1g of ram. what sort of performance can i expect if i buy oblivion?

2nd question - what is the difference between 128 anda 256 mb graphics card? call me noob but does only mean that the graphics are slightly better

cheers

Your upgrading to a 9600 256Mb……….you can expect the performance in Oblivion to be a touch faster then an MS PowerPoint presentation.

The amount of Ram on your video card doesn’t effect the graphically quality directly, what it does mean however is that cards with more ram can run games at higher resolutions and expect better performance.

Personally I wouldn’t waste your money – reading this thread is like watching some trying to fight an elephant with a pebble then thinking he would have more success if he used a stone, when in fact he needed a catapult that could hurl half a tonne boulders.

**Markas** · May 04, 2007, 04:35 AM

Originally Posted by Freddie

Personally I wouldn’t waste your money – reading this thread is like watching some trying to fight an elephant with a pebble then thinking he would have more success if he used a stone, when in fact he needed a catapult that could hurl half a tonne boulders.

Brilliant... who'd you steal that analogy off? Eric Cantona?

Tis true though Naked Barbarian, Oblivion hardly ran on my 9800pro and even upgraded to a 6600gt it ran only on meduim. Do you have a budget for upgrading?

**NakedBarbarian2** · May 04, 2007, 05:10 AM

Well i was either gonna get the upgrades mentioned earlier, or fork out for a xbox 360. i kinda preferred the pc upgrade as consoles are for children, n money is an issue being a family man i just can't legitimise spending a grand to update my box. prob have to look at a 2nd hand xbox i guess...

**Markas** · May 04, 2007, 05:21 AM

Well I should think you could get a 6600gt cheap enough second-hand and memory isn't too much... A £150 upgrade would allow to to play oblivion on medium settings with 1gb ram... but you'd need a p2.8 I reckon.

**NakedBarbarian2** · May 04, 2007, 05:30 AM

sorry im a noob whats a 6600 gt? and p2.8 is that the cpu i've got 3ghz. Im Australian so tech's bit more expensive here than in merry ol england, thanks to our backwards government, btw australian internet is slowest in the world, most western countries broadband is 40X faster we get totally ripped off...
for any aussies out there what sort of graphics card can you recommend for about $400???

**Markas** · May 04, 2007, 05:37 AM

Ah sorry A Nvidia 6600GT is a very decent graphics card from a few years back. It was £120 when I bought mine new and I don't think they make them anymore so second-hand is the way to go if you're tight for cash. Your 3Ghz (pentium I assume) will need at least 1gb (pref 1.5 or 2) and a 6600GT to run on medium in my opinion.

Assuming your motherboard is PCI-E, a decent card for your budget would be...um... a 7800GT? To be honest, you'd be best off going to the basement section and looking at the stickied guide (PC hardware buyers guide, page 1), it's very useful.

**Aristocrat** · May 04, 2007, 05:46 AM

Give us a budget and we will give you the best possible upgrade you can afford. Currently your upgrade plan is downright silly though (sorry, but I wouldn't want to get your hopes up for no reason).

Though the extra ram is a start, the graphics card you list is pointless.

So, what do you currently have (your cpu, your video card, your ram), and what is your budget for an upgrade, and where are you living (what country).

**NakedBarbarian2** · May 04, 2007, 05:57 AM

OK im in Adelaide, Australia

I have a Radeon 9250 128mb graphics card, 3ghz CPU n 512 MB of RAM. Looking at spending around 300-400 Australian dollars all up.

**Aristocrat** · May 04, 2007, 07:56 PM

Hmm, I don't know if you will know any of this, but what type of mother board do you have (Is it a socket 775 motherboard? Does it only take DDR Ram? Is it PCI express or AGP?).

**Incinerate_IV** · May 04, 2007, 08:38 PM

This thread seems to be more hardware related than game related, I'll move it to The Basement.

Before you even start upgrading your computer, you have to check if your computer supports DDR or DDR2 memory, and if it has an AGP or PCI-E interface for your graphics card.

I suggest you download CPU-Z and find out what motherboard you have. Then we'll tell you your options.

**kshcshbash** · May 04, 2007, 09:25 PM

I run Oblivion on 128MB Gfx and 512RAM machine on low. Doesn't run half bad.

Edit: It's a laptop at that.

**Erik** · May 05, 2007, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by NakedBarbarian

Whatsup?

I'm about to pimp up my computer; gonna swap my 128mb gcard with a radeon 9600 256mb card and add an extra 512 ram for a total of 1g of ram. what sort of performance can i expect if i buy oblivion?

As mentioned it's not going to be any good.

If you can't afford an upgrade there is a way to boost performance in Oblivion: download and install Oldblivion
It's a mod that removes some of the eye-candy, but makes Oblivion playable even on very old graphics cards....works great, I used to play oldblivion on my Radeon 9600 PRO.

If yo uare going to buy a new graphics card for Oblivion I recommend one from ATi or a nVidia 8xxxx series.
Older cards from nVidia can't have HDR and AA switched on at the same time, and for Oblivion you really want them both on because they bring huge improvements to image quality.

I have a 8800GTS 320MB, and I play Oblivion on max settings with HDR, 16xAF and an improved 4xAA mode that nVidia calls "16xAA" (go figure).
All settings on max, except for grass which I switched off completely.
Gives me good frame rates in any situation. (the grass caused big slowdowns in some areas, and I didn't really like the looks of it anyways so I disabled it)
Problem is that 8800 cards only come in a PCIe version so you'll need a new Mother board to use this card.

**Justinian the Great** · May 05, 2007, 08:53 PM

the 256 will mean that the cards can perform a bit better, it doesn't mean that the graphics will be any better though... a 9600 probably won't even run oblivion at all. HOWEVER, there is a mod called oldblivion at www.oldblivion.com I blieve, and with it installed you should be able to play oblivion on fairly high settings (with reduced graphcis of course, because oldblivion decreases the quality of some graphics files and makes it easier to run).