It might look something like this: Probably with a poor framerate too. BTW, the PC version is like $50 for the regular version and $60 for the Collector's edition. Though you might be able to find a place that sells the regular version for around $40-$45 or so.
That looks decent enough... ... ...and i'm not joking either. LOL. I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars on a new video card. And besides, you play the game for the gameplay not the graphics, right?
You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on a new video card. Just by browsing Newegg, I saw this card for $99 AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130011 I'd have to check some benchmarks, but I think this could run Oblivion decently (MUCH better than your current card). There might be some better cards for the price (especially for Oblivion, which I think runs better on ATI cards), but I'm too lazy to look into this at the moment. Of course, if your motherboard doesn't support PCI Express, then you're probably screwed. I think most of the decent AGP cards are overpriced.
Ah but dudeeee, I spent 99$ on my card a year ago, now I have to spend again. They change prices way too much. I'm not a spendaholic.
I'm not trying to push you into buying a new card. I was just trying to show that you could get a nice video card upgrade for under $100. Although budget cards don't typically last that long anyway, assuming you want to play the latest PC games. If you don't want to upgrade, that's fine. Just don't expect much from Oblivion, one of the most demanding games out there. As DoD said, your video card isn't the only thing that might be holding you back. The physics and AI in the game may be too much for your CPU, and you could probably use some more RAM. Again, it might be playable...but not playable if you know what I mean. Personally, I'd also try to upgrade...or at least wait until later on when it would be cheaper to do so. Trying to play Oblivion on the minimum specs isn't something I'd recommend.
Since we are on this subject... I have a Dell Dimension 5150, Intel Pentium D Processor 820 with HT Technology (2.8 GHz) and 1 gig of 533Mhz RAM. The graphics card that came with it sucks, obviously, and will need to be upgraded. Were I to upgrade to the card you linked to above, RC, would I be able to play this game decently? And how do I know if I have PCI Express slots? I know I don't have an AGP slot.
I'm guessing you have a PCI express slot. Your PC sounds pretty new, and the models I see on Dell with the same (or similar) specs all have PCI express slots. I'd have to look more into that card and any alternatives, but one of the reviews on Newegg says that you could get 60+ FPS on high settings with that card. Sounds good to me.
Sweet. I will look into this. What are some of the top of the line video cards these days and what do they cost? Can a top of the line one be had for around $150?
The top of the line from Nvidia is the 7900 series. The 7900 GTX is usually $500 on up IIRC, while the 7900 GT is usually $300-$350, although CC has a deal on a 7900 GT for $270 AR ($320 before); that's an overclocked version of the regular card too. FWIW, I have the same card (with slightly higher speeds), and I was able to max out most/all settings in Oblivion and get playable framerates (except for the huge battles in the grass, as mentioned earlier). The top of the line from ATI is the X1900 series (the X1900XT and X1900XTX). Both are $400+ I believe. Right below that is the X1800 series (X1800 GTO, X1800 XL, and X1800 XT). Those are between $200-$300 IIRC, with the X1800 hovering around $300 or so (sometimes a little less with rebates). I believe the X1800 XT competes with the 7900 GT, although I can't recall offhand how each performs while playing Oblivion. I think the 7900 GT is a better card in general, but Oblivion runs a little better on ATI cards. Then you have the midrange cards in the $100-$200 range, like the X1600 series from ATI and the 7600 series from Nvidia. I believe the 7600 GT is the best in this range from what I've heard. Right now, you can get an OCed 7600 GT for $164 AR at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283 It even comes with Age of Empires 3 for free. I've read some good things about this card and I'll try to look more into it later on if you're interested.
Absolutely, thanks. I used to be very much into gaming and gaming technology, but the last time I even looked at buying a video card, the top of the line was a Monster 2000 card (which I bought). I don't remember how many years ago that was... like 6 or 7. There haven't been too many games that interested me enough to upgrade my card since, but this one might just do it.
The X1800 GTO might be a better option than I thought. I didn't mention it earlier because I thought it was still in the $225-$250 range, but you can get one for ~$180 AR ($210 before) at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814241009 I believe this card is at least as good at the 7600 GT that I linked to, if not better. And that's without considering the fact that Oblivion runs better on ATI cards. Just wanted to point that out. So I guess you have the the X1800 GTO at ~$180 to look at, the 7600 GT at ~$160, and I guess the X1600 XT at ~$150 to look at given the price range you mentioned earlier (~$150). I'd probably narrow it down to just the X1800 GTO and 7600 GT though.
Cool, I probably won't be buying anything until late July (birthday money)...so I imagine by then a lot of this stuff will have changed. But thanks for the info.
So, I did the Dorian unlimited money trick and went on a shopping spree in the Market District. Spent over $25,000 gold....... now I feel like I'm not going to get the real, true experience of the game so I'm going to go back to another past game save and start again. Damn this game is good.
Don't do that man... you'll be bored with the game in no time. It's one reason I refuse to use hacks and mods unless they fix a game-killing bug or something. Play the game as-is. I had the chance to do the infinite money trick when you get the reward from the count who was a vampire. Decided against it. Play the game all the way through once with no cheats at least... otherwise you're missing much of the fun in the game. If you want to have fun... when you're strong enough, run around town and kill everybody... aggro all of them. Wipe the town out... oh, and don't forget to save before you do... It's a fun challenge if you haven't gotten too strong. And yes, this game is good... it's probably one of the 2 or 3 best games I've played in the last decade. Off the top of my head, only Baldur's Gate and its sequels *may* be better.
I was thinking about wiping out the villagers after I finished everything. Some quests and scripts are ruined if you do it, so their usefulness is the only thing keeping me from getting postal. I did kill that crazy elf and the ninroot dude....
Nice info, RC Cola. For those interested in specs for playing this game. The following link should be of help: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=924363&topic=27071162 BTW, that site rocks.
I have a 7800GT that gets bogged... down.... if I'm fighting in tall grass. Outside of that, no problems. I've heard that's an issue even with 7800GTX's, too... it may be an nVidia issue.
I think the grass is just tough on any graphics card. I think all cards suffer huge drops in framerate while fighting an enemy (or more) in tall grass. IIRC, the best cards from ATI and Nvidia only get like 30-35 FPS (depending on settings and situation) in the grass. Some grass mods and INI tweaks can probably give you some extra FPS though without really losing the quality.
The grass is very demanding, luckily there's a setting that may fix it, I think. From the walkthrough on gamefaqs.com: http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/oblivion_a.txt In game settings: Grass Distance ---- One of the most important settings in the game, period. In Oblivion, rather than using green textures everywhere, the developers have opted to place tall grass all over the place which is rendered in full 3D and makes everything look that much more beautiful. It's also one of the most performance intensive options you can select. People with weak machines should slide this down to almost 0 (left) if not all the way. If you can live without the grass (the ground textures still look quite good) then you will have an extraordinary performance boost. There are actually people out there with high-end machines who slide it all the way left for one of two reasons: to get a huge performance boost since it still looks really good, and second (to a lesser extent) because sometimes items and objects get lost in the tall grass. Make sure you select the right option to match your computer with the grass. You can slide it pretty far left and get a lot of grass pop-up, but if you kind of look down while you run it's not all that bad for lower-end machines. You should be aware that in the advanced tweaking section, I'll tell you how to change an option so that the grass is still there but not quite as dense (in a path of five grass stalks, it might only display three) but still render it for the same distance.
