Lowest possible system Oblivion will run on.

[Schwaa2]

OK, I've been looking fowrad to this release for along time, but I don't have cash for a recommended minimum system.
I have

900mhz
geforce T1 4200 (pixel shading) 64MB
Windows XP
512 Ram

Is anyone running with this slow of a system? Or should I just forget about it.

[Komag]

I would say forget about it. Here's what I tried and my results (posted in another thread a couple weeks ago):

Okay, just for kicks I installed Oblivion onto my laptop, which is:
- Pentium M 1.4ghz
- 512 meg RAM
- GeForce FX-go 5650 w/128meg
- XP Pro w/SP2
Playing at 640x480 with rock bottom settings

I turned EVERYTHING down to the absolute lowest settings possible, and, while the game would technically "run", you couldn't really call it running. It took me forever to just pick the basic guy they give you because it wouldn't register my mouse clicks and the curser was moving at like 1 frame every 3 seconds so I kept overshooting the buttons.

Eventually I got it started and somehow managed to jerkily grab a skull of the ground and toss it over to the table, and it flew through the air in a slow slide show, eventually falling against the table and down to the ground, after about 20 seconds overall, when it should have taken about 2 seconds.

Then I forced the character to meander his choppy self up to the gate to hear the other prisoner rant at me - the game froze for about 15-20 seconds and I thought it was crashed, but then it started again and the guy's audio started, so it turns out it was just my computer pausing to load the audio clip.

That's when I turned it off and uninstalled it. That was just bad.

The lesson is that if you're hoping to get by on less than the minimum specs listed, don't even try, it's impossible. I'm betting that my bottleneck here is the processor, it just can't crunch the physics, the audio, etc. I'm sure the relatively low amount of RAM (and it's probably slow laptop RAM too) doesn't help either.

--------------

I would hazard a guess that the game would simply not work at all on the system you mentioned, that it wouldn't start up or maybe even refuse to install.

But for something like $300-$500, keeping your old monitor, you could get a whole new desktop system that would be powerful enough to run it. You could even do it for less if you just got new MB/Proc plus RAM and a new video card.

[RyushiBlade]

Unless you're a big gamer (with only 900mhz, you probably aren't, or atleast you're only just getting started), I'd go ahead and get the 360 version. It runs about equal to my setup, but costs a good $1000 less. But if the construction set and fan mods really mean a lot to you, upgrade your computer.

[Schwaa2]

Well, I have a PS2 so that rules out the XBox version, but the editor would be a big consideration, although at this point I'm not sure I'd use it much.

Sucks that games are getting so sweet that you have to drop a large amount of coin on a system to play. Oh well, thanks for the advice.

[MrSidnet]

I would say forget about it. Here's what I tried and my results (posted in another thread a couple weeks ago):

Okay, just for kicks I installed Oblivion onto my laptop, which is:
- Pentium M 1.4ghz
- 512 meg RAM
- GeForce FX-go 5650 w/128meg
- XP Pro w/SP2
Playing at 640x480 with rock bottom settings

I turned EVERYTHING down to the absolute lowest settings possible,

Okay, I have an
AMD 2000+ (1.67GHz)
768 RAM
RAdeon 9600 128mb
xp pro/ sp2 blah blah blah
dont remember teh playing resolution.
antialiasing turned on (bogs down when i see oblivion gates and those floating shade creatures)

so, its not much better than yours (other than maybe the vid card, I dont know geforce equivelents)

and I have pretty decent settings. LOD textures, nice water, I turned off the grass, its pretty, but annoying (hard to see through). Loading screens are fast, textures are at medium, all in all, I would say looks pretty decent. I usually pull a restart before I play, it helps a bit.

The only thing it chokes up on sometimes, is riding a horse, where it likes to load lots of terrain, and fighting enemies in teh woods, outside of any dungeon/Oblivion.

[Ultraviolet]

One thing I'm noticing not being stated here is memory speed.

MrSidnet: I suppose your memory is PC133, since you're using an AMD (Athlon XP?) 2000+?

[Komag]

get the 360 version. It runs about equal to my setup, but costs a good $1000 less.

No, that's just not true with today's low PC prices. You can get a PC that runs Oblivion pretty well for around $500 if you shop good, $600-700 if you're a bad shopper, only $100 more (or $200-$300 more) than buying an XBox 360.

[Fig455]

True, komag, ESPECIALLY if you can recycle monitor, hard drive, optical drives, case, soundblaster, speakers, and operating system from your old PC.

[ignatios]

No, that's just not true with today's low PC prices. You can get a PC that runs Oblivion pretty well for around $500 if you shop good, $600-700 if you're a bad shopper, only $100 more (or $200-$300 more) than buying an XBox 360.

Does that include a motherboard that does PCI-E and SATA? I wouldn't spend money on a new computer unless I knew that I could keep upgrading it in the future. AGP/PCI and IDE are on their way out.

[scumble]

There are quite a few reasonable boards with PCI-E and SATA. I'm a bit confused by the socket types, so I'm not sure whether dual core processors need a more expensive board - well, not necessarily, but dual core chips are still on the pricey side. As long as they don't change the sockets in the meantime, one can put in a dual core chip when they get more reasonable, and keep going for a few years at least.

Incidentally, there are reasonable boards with dual PCI-E slots for a bit of SLI action, not a bad future-proofing measure, but then I bet there will be some new hardware feature that makes using two old cards sub-optimal for some reason...

[io organic industrialism]

Sucks that games are getting so sweet that you have to drop a large amount of coin on a system to play. Oh well, thanks for the advice.

it's always been that way. back in 1993, when i wanted to play doom on our 486 sx 25, it didn't run very well... and it was necessary to upgrade to a 486 dx2 66....

in 1996, quake didn't run very well on the 486 dx4 120... had to get a pentium for that!

in 1999, unreal tournament didn't run very in software mode on the trusty k6-2 333! had to get a voodoo 3 for that!

etc..

[tungsten]

Does that include a motherboard that does PCI-E and SATA? I wouldn't spend money on a new computer unless I knew that I could keep upgrading it in the future. AGP/PCI and IDE are on their way out.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I don't count, but how many times have you actually upgraded your system? (And I don't mean either a bigger HD or more RAM), but some upgrade like a grahics board, or processor without changing the whole set? I usually end up replacing all. So upgradability is not a criterion for me.

[Fig455]

This PC, I am typing on:

3 video cards (Ti4800, 9600 256 MB, 9800 PRO)
added extra stick of 512 MB RAM
Added Soundblaster
Added 2 extra Hard Drives.

The first 3 were strictly to keep it a halfway current gaming rig. I finally bit the bullet and got a whole new AMD 64-based rig, w/SATA.

[ignatios]

I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I don't count, but how many times have you actually upgraded your system? (And I don't mean either a bigger HD or more RAM), but some upgrade like a grahics board, or processor without changing the whole set? I usually end up replacing all. So upgradability is not a criterion for me.

When I was a student, I would always upgrade by small amounts, snatching up good deals as I found them. Because my finances dictated what I actually got, I would usually look for a system with a good motherboard (generally one generation behind) and then upgrade the processor and video card at least once each. Being able to keep my hard drives throughout this process was pretty important.

Once I graduated and found a job it was less of an issue, and especially now that I've switched to a notebook from a traditional desktop PC, it's not something I worry about. Still, it's nice to be able to spend only $80 here or $100 there to breath new life into a desktop, especially if you're playing your favourite game near the minimum spec.

[tungsten]

I'm astonished! I always bought stuff that is upgradable, but to actually do it was always too expensive for me, and when I finally decided that I had to, the only reasonable way was to buy a cheap new box (what's the use of recycling the powersupply if the new set is cheaper than the components?). But I see that it actually seems to happen.

Back to the topic: is there any way of upgrading a laptop, so that O would run? Instead of buying a new 2nd hand, it would be cheaper to up' a laptop - is it possible?

[Komag]

Upgrading laptops is only sometimes possible, and always difficult. I upgraded my laptop vid card from a Geforce FX 5200 w/32meg to a GeForce FX 5650 w/128meg. It really helps with a lot of games running MUCH better (including Thief 3, Doom 3, and others), but it won't play Oblivion as mentioned above.

You'd just have to check with your exact laptop model and see if it can be upgraded. The best place is usually eBay - just search for your model and see what other configurations is sometimes comes with, and see if any of those have nicer components than yours

[RyushiBlade]

No, that's just not true with today's low PC prices. You can get a PC that runs Oblivion pretty well for around $500 if you shop good, $600-700 if you're a bad shopper, only $100 more (or $200-$300 more) than buying an XBox 360.

What I was trying to point out is that the XBox 360 runs Oblivion on more or less High settings. To get the equivalent quality, not playability, on the PC, you'd need to spend a great deal more money. You would be spending $400 on the graphics card alone.

[tungsten]

You'd just have to check with your exact laptop model and see if it can be upgraded. The best place is usually eBay - just search for your model and see what other configurations is sometimes comes with, and see if any of those have nicer components than yours

That's a no, then, as I feared. Or do you know anyone with a Sharp PC-AL70H?
I hoped there's some way of expanding with either PCMCIA or some graphics board that you cable in bu leave externally, dangling...
Thanks.

[Komag]

What I was trying to point out is that the XBox 360 runs Oblivion on more or less High settings. To get the equivalent quality, not playability, on the PC, you'd need to spend a great deal more money. You would be spending $400 on the graphics card alone.

I know what you're saying, but I disagree. You can get a GeForce 6800 on eBay for around $100-$125 these days, and that will run the game just as well as the 360 if you combine it with a gig of good ram and a 3ghz or so processor, which you can get as a bare-bones system for $300-400. You just gotta know how to shop

[io organic industrialism]

I know what you're saying, but I disagree. You can get a GeForce 6800 on eBay for around $100-$125 these days, and that will run the game just as well as the 360 if you combine it with a gig of good ram and a 3ghz or so processor, which you can get as a bare-bones system for $300-400. You just gotta know how to shop

my 7800 gs agp on my xp 3000+ and a gig of ram chops down to 10fps in fights with 3 monsters on screen @ medium detail, i seriously doubt the xbox 360 does that slow even @ high detail. there is no way a vanilla 6800 is comparable to a 360. 7800 gs is faster than a 6800 ultra and it's not even comparable to a 360

[scumble]

io, I think the processor could be the bottleneck there - various articles have commented on how cpu intensive Oblivion is. That's why I can put 4 pass AA on with my 6600GT with no visible effect on frame rate, and I have the same processor as you. Really need a faster Athlon 64, or dual core chip.

What resolution are you running at, by the way?

[Shevers]

There's definitely something amiss - IO seems to have more performance issues than most people with lesser systems.

[Fig455]

Yup, he gets performance worse than my 9800 PRO/2500+ rig/

[io organic industrialism]

i run 1600x1200 but that's only because i know that my cpu is a bottleneck and there's no difference between that and 800x600 ... maybe it would make a difference in a big fight like that though? guess i will save before one and lower the resolution and see

[Dark Archur]

From what I've read in this thread it seems like my system should be able to run Oblivion (even if a little slow), but when I start it up, in game there is hardly no object visible and everything is in colours of white and green, pink...
My system stats are:

Pentium 4, 1.8GHz
Ti4600 128MB
512M RAM
Windows xp

Whats wrong? Do I have to change the settings? I got the latest Video card driver but it still didn't help!