Guessing the system requirements

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:23 am

Official system specs from Bethesda:

Recommended:

* 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 1 GB System RAM
* ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:

* Windows XP
* 512MB System RAM
* 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 128MB Direct3D compatible video card
* and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
* 8x DVD-ROM drive
* 4.6 GB free hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0c (included)
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
* Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

* ATI X1800 series
* ATI X1300 series
* ATI X850 series
* ATI x800 series
* ATI x700 series
* ATI x600 series
* ATI Radeon 9800 series
* ATI Radeon 9700 series
* ATI Radeon 9600 series
* ATI Radeon 9500 series
* ATI Radeon 9000 series
* NVIDIA Geforce 7800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce FX series

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:10 am

I think that it's very likely that it will atleast need a: 2ghz prosessor, 1 gig ddr and 9800XT or equivalent.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:52 am

Naw, it looks good, but I don't think the graphics are very much better than Doom 3 or FarCry's. Maybe 9600XT, but not 9800XT.

Jan Mistique · Post by **Jan Mistique** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:21 am

For Morrowind, I had a computer that exceeded the minimum requirements but didn't meet the optimum. It didn't run very well at all so I bought a new computer! I am hoping that this computer will do for Oblivion but am saving up in case. Perhaps we will get a free computer with the game - like getting a free camera with batteries?

Oblivion135 · Post by **Oblivion135** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:36 am

I think it will need more GB's on the harddisk, Morrowind took about 1,5 I think.

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:16 am

[QUOTE=Rookierookie]Naw, it looks good, but I don't think the graphics are very much better than Doom 3 or FarCry's. Maybe 9600XT, but not 9800XT.[/QUOTE]
This can't be compared, I think. The landscape in Oblivion will be much bigger than in Doom 3 or FarCry, plus the amount of NPCs...
And I don't think that the final product will have worse grafics than Doom 3, FarCry or Half Life 2 have now. New technoligy will be used and so on. I think that it will be comparable to future FPS - which means a new PC or a new consol for the most of us...

moltovir · Post by **moltovir** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:45 pm

I think you can throw those Minimum Requirements in the garbage can; judging from the screenshots, this game won't be playable on such a low-end system. I think a 2 ghz processor, 512 MB RAM and a Radeon 9800 would be a more realistic goal for playing this game in low resolutions.

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Thu May 19, 2005 7:26 am

I have 9800xt, 512 mb ddr ram and an athlon 2800+, I will probably be able to play it, but to get it on full graphics, you will probably need at least 1 gig ram or more, and the latest graphics card.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu May 19, 2005 9:10 am

I wouldn't think they'll push the latest video card; that will mean too many kiddies having to upgrade before playing the game, and that's a big NO rule in the gaming industry. (At least, ever since Origin Systems failed spectacularly with Ultima IX.) But 1 GB RAM is likely recommended, though not required, to get all the bells and whistles of the environment.

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Thu May 19, 2005 1:45 pm

After watching the trailer I'm absolutly sure that I need a new PC.

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Mon May 23, 2005 5:33 pm

Just seen the trailer. Looks stunning. Not as amazing as the Morrowind trailer when I first saw it, however.

While I'm sure the game will run on the minimum requirements that have been estimated, I doubt a GeForce Ti4200 will pull it off to any degree of playability. I'm not very up to date on graphics cards at the mo, but I would think that atleast a GeForce 5000 series (i.e. the generation after) would be necessary.

I agree with fable that while the recommended requirements will probably be the top of the line cards at the moment, the game will be playable on older cards certainly. The most important aspect of the cards would be the memory. I would think the game would require a video memory of atleast 128mb to run smoothly.

As with RAM and processor... much harder to gauge. In Morrowind I remember one of the biggest bottlenecks of a system was the processor, so you can't be too conservative with the estimate for Oblivion. For any other next-gen game, certainly the minimum requirements would be 1.5Ghz or even less... but with Oblivion, I suspect it may possibly rise to 2Ghz.

As for RAM... well no developer can fairly demand more than 512mb as a minimum requirement

.

I am basing my estimates on Morrowind... the engine used in Morrowind wasn't very scaleable at all (draw distance and audio quality were the options if I remember correctly, and water effects

- resolution didn't change performance at all). Oblivion may be different; if Bethsoft allow one to change model detail, texture quality etc. aswell as the obvious particle and shader effects... we may see fairly friendly minimum requirements.

One of the joys of Half Life 2 is that it used a tremendously scaleable engine... which could look amazing on a top spec computer, but easily cater for the more aged computers (I think a 900Mhz CPU was listed as the minimum for HL2, don't quote me though

)

I built a new PC for Morrowind, which I still use today. According to the estimates of Rookierookie it should just make it for Oblivion (I'm running a AMD 2400+, GF4 Ti4200 64mb and 512mb RAM) ...but I doubt it. And if it can run it, it won't be the most pleasant experiance

It struggles with Half Life 2

.

I upgraded for Morrowind, and I'll upgrade for Oblivion... and I'll probably make the upgrade after that for the Elder Scrolls V

brian12321 · Post by **brian12321** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:19 pm

If I have to upgrade....

I gotta 2.4 Gig p4 w/ 1 gig ram and a radeon 9800 pro. If THAT doesnt cut it, I am going to be severely angry lol.

I would, however, upgrade if needs be. Just not happily.

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 12:19 pm

Here an interesting quote from one of the developer:

" Actually my work PC has a Radeon 9800 Pro with 256MB. But the game isn't done yet, so at this time it is impossible to give meaningful answers to any questions about performance or minimum system requirements."

This indicates that the game will be able to run on a 9800 pro/xt and that there will be no need to upgrade any further than that. Whetever this is on the lowest settings, medi og on the highest settings, the quote doesn't say, but it was still somewhat reassuring for me.

As for your processor power, don't be surprised if the recommended requirements say 2,5 ghz. Though I can never imagine that they crank the minimum above 2 ghz. Also, if you disable processor heavy and fairly useless features such as anti aliasing, and antistropic filtering, you should be able by my estimates to run it just fine with all else on max (except resolution of course).

I can never imagine that you would ever require more than 1 gig ram to run oblivion, no matter the resolution or the level of details, oblivion is an immersive game, but not that immersive.

As for me, I have an athlon xp 2800+ @2066mhz, it is a 32bit processor, and thus is considerably aging, but I've managed to overclock it, and make it run stable on 2300MHz, which is quite impressive, considering i bought the processor cooler for one and a half year ago. In any regard, my processor now represents what would be an "XP 3400+", if they ever made those 32bit processors

(The end of line for the 32bit processors were 3200+ @ 2200 mhz). I would guess that my processor now represents a pentium 4 2,6 ghz og 2,8. Which is quite decent. And i expect it to fill the recommended settings, I Seriously doubt that you will need a 64bit processor to run it on full settings, as these processors are quite new.

I have 512 mb, albeit I'm soon-to-have 1024 mb ddr ram, this should be enough.

As for graphics card I have a 9800XT, I pray that it will be enough

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 7:30 am

AA and AF are purely graphics card dependent and has little or no impact on the processor.

I think I'm going to have some trouble though - I've picked up Morrowind again, and on a 2.4C GHz P4, 1GB RAM and a 9800SE, I managed to score 10 fps in some areas of Ebonheart, Pelagiad and Sadrith Mora

Grimgor · Post by **Grimgor** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:03 am

For the graphics requirements, take a look at Everquest 2's requirements. The graphics are largely the same (the same machine, if nothing else). I can't recall the exact requirements for EQ, but I would guess it to be somewhere along there.

brian12321 · Post by **brian12321** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:32 am

Well that's not very good then... That game ran like someone who just got off a merry-go-round: Well... nm, let's just say pretty dang laggy. Looks like its time for an upgrade in videocardage. I think an x800xt is in order

. Pherhaps I'll get one when the crossfire cards come out and the prices drop a bit.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:26 am

X800XT? Unless its price drops to less than $400, it's not worth considering...the Geforce 7800GTX sells for around $500-600.

brian12321 · Post by **brian12321** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:50 am

Oh the price already IS below $400. some selling as low as $289. But those prices WILL drop soon enough.

xav0971 · Post by **xav0971** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:55 am

think i can run it

I hope I can run this game good. I have a athlon 64 3800+ with 2 gig ram, a geforce 7800 gtx video card. I hope that will at least be the minimum....lol

.... for the record I personally think the minimum will be a 2.0ghz processor with 512 ram and radeon 9600/9700/9800 or geforce 6000 series video card with 128mb memory. some of you may be wondering "what no geforce fx cards?" geforce fx cards are not very good directx 9 card. if direct X 8 min then it should run the game but barely. I would think Pixal Shader 2.0 or greater required /directx 9.0 only game. they did say this will be a pixel/vertex shader heavy game and if u want to max the game out u need fastest computer with next gen video card (7800gtx) when the game comes out. cant wait to play it on my computer...

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:36 pm

Here you probably have the sys req for Oblivion:

http://fear.filefront.com/news/Minimum_ ... ents;20655

F.E.A.R showcases fantasticly impressive graphics, and is in every way up there with Oblivion. I was able to run it on a decent frame rate on max setting at almost everything, when I tried the demo, I'm quite happy