GameBanshee Forums

I've been waiting for the release of Oblivion so I can gauge what the necessary/optimum hardware setup would be, and I can then make the necessary purchases.

If you could simply post your system specs, and the performance in Oblivion and at which graphics level you play, it would be much appreciated

fable mentioned in the Tech forum that an ATI 9600 would be satisfactory for Oblivion, as I can't afford a new PC at the moment, and I can pick up a 9600 for around £50 here, I might just stick that in with my Athlon 2400+ and a hope for a sustainable level of playability. I can get a better idea of that possibility if I can see how other machines perform.

I'm running on two PC's:

- My main gaming system, a Dell XPS laptop, with a 256MB GeForce 7800GTX card, which auto-set for 'Ultra High' detail with HDR and 1024 x 768, and it runs great.

- My older gaming desktop, a Dell with 2.53GHz P4 and a newer 128MB Geforce 6600GT, which auto-set for 'Medium' detail and 640 x 480, and it also looks and runs great.

Mike

^I think you can try 1024x768 at medium with the 2nd PC...(drooling over XPS laptop)

I'm currently running an Athlon 64 3200+, 2gb Dual Channel RAM, 256mb GeForce 6600, at 1280x1024 (LCDs native res) with HDR off Bloom Off, self Shadows Off, Shadow Filter Off, AA off, all draw distances to full and everything else on, and I don't experience any skips or slow frame rates... runs and looks great.

So I think even with an older PC the game will still run decently.

Well I have an Athlon64 3000+, 2x512Mb of RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and I have the game set at 1024x768, with bloom ON, shadows ON, high details and am outside with no problems whatsoever. Quick load times, no lag, no skipping really ... but I think it's not just my g.card, it's the CPU as well that makes a difference. Oh yes AA is off (I know this sometimes mucks it up for me so I didn't even bother turning it on).

If you can afford it, I'd highly recommend my card, it really does run well.

I also have two systems running this game.

The first is a P4 3.0GHz, 512mb Ram, with a poor little 128mb Radeon X300. Even set at all the lowest settings and a resolution of 640 x 480 the system struggles constantly. When it starts to rain the game completely stops for a few seconds. Entering new areas also stops it. And in the time I've played (about 8 hours real time) it has completely locked up or shut down half a dozen times. Within hours of installing the game I was at Newegg ordering an upgraded video card and Ram.

The second machine fares much better with an Athlon 64 3200+, 1g Ram, and a 256mb Radeon 9600. That one is played with the high settings and hasn't had any problems keeping up.

[QUOTE=Cassiie]The second machine fares much better with an Athlon 64 3200+, 1g Ram, and a 256mb Radeon 9600. That one is played with the high settings and hasn't had any problems keeping up.[/QUOTE]

I'm very similar to this, except that I have 1 GB RAM, and am getting some slower framerates in the wilds. Do you have distant lands turned on? And what resolution are you running at? My problems appear to be linked to having "distant lands" turned on, and using 1078 x 760. When I opt for the next lowest resolution (with only minimal degradation) and turn DL off, I can turn up pretty much everything else.

I have 1GB Ram Distant lands are turned on but some of the shadowing is turned off. Also AA is off because, like Ashen, I always have issues when that's on. The resolution is 1024 x 768.

[QUOTE=Cassiie]I have 1GB Ram Distant lands are turned on but some of the shadowing is turned off. Also AA is off because, like Ashen, I always have issues when that's on. The resolution is 1024 x 768.[/QUOTE]

I've got AA on, and it does slow things down. You didn't mention how well it runs, Cassie.

I am running a Pentium 4, 3.2Ghz; 2GB Ram; ATI Radeon X800XL 256 mb (AGP); OS is XP Pro; monitor is 20" Samsung LCD

1024X768 resolution is very smooth; colors are awesome. No hangups, no pauses in play.

Fable wrote: Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassiie
The second machine fares much better with an Athlon 64 3200+, 1g Ram, and a 256mb Radeon 9600. That one is played with the high settings and hasn't had any problems keeping up.


I'm very similar to this, except that I have 1 GB RAM, and am getting some slower framerates in the wilds. Do you have distant lands turned on? And what resolution are you running at? My problems appear to be linked to having "distant lands" turned on, and using 1078 x 760. When I opt for the next lowest resolution (with only minimal degradation) and turn DL off, I can turn up pretty much everything else.

Fable wrote:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassiie
I have 1GB Ram Distant lands are turned on but some of the shadowing is turned off. Also AA is off because, like Ashen, I always have issues when that's on. The resolution is 1024 x 768.


I've got AA on, and it does slow things down. You didn't mention how well it runs, Cassie.

I sure did I should have quoted your question of what resolution I was using, though for clarity. Apologies.

[QUOTE=Cassiie]I sure did I should have quoted your question of what resolution I was using, though for clarity. Apologies.[/QUOTE]

My problem! I was just looking at your last post.

[QUOTE=Cassiie]I have 1GB Ram Distant lands are turned on but some of the shadowing is turned off. Also AA is off because, like Ashen, I always have issues when that's on. The resolution is 1024 x 768.[/QUOTE]

I forgot to ask: do you have specular distancing on? I've found leaving "distant land" on no longer a viable option when there's a lot of animation (different plants waving about). I set it down to about three-quarters, and leave distant buildings and trees on. It's not a compromise I like, because DL is quite beautiful in effect, but it appears to get rid of the performance hit when I'm faced with combat in the wild. It's hard to know when a swing will hit if your frames are stuttering.

[QUOTE=fable]I forgot to ask: do you have specular distancing on? I've found leaving "distant land" on no longer a viable option when there's a lot of animation (different plants waving about). I set it down to about three-quarters, and leave distant buildings and trees on. It's not a compromise I like, because DL is quite beautiful in effect, but it appears to get rid of the performance hit when I'm faced with combat in the wild. It's hard to know when a swing will hit if your frames are stuttering.[/QUOTE]

SD is on about 1/3 of the way up. So I guess that means it's on, but not VERY on. lol.

[QUOTE=Cassiie]SD is on about 1/3 of the way up. So I guess that means it's on, but not VERY on. lol.[/QUOTE]

I'm trying that, plus 800 x 600 res, and DL on, again. Damn, I love the look of it. We'll see.

I'm going to try and get myself a 9800Pro then, and hope that my CPU doesn't hold it back too much.

With any luck I should be playing Oblivion within a week.

[QUOTE=ik911]I was planning to buy Oblivion tomorrow... However, neither of my systems are 'optimal'




My PC:
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.60 GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics card: 128MB GeForce Ti 4200 (Direct3D compatible)


My (newer) Laptop (with DVD-drive, too):
Processor: Intel Pentium M Processor 2.00GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Graphics card: 256 MB GeForce Go 7800 GTX (Direct3D compatible)


The PC doesn't seem to support it on specs, because of a substandard graphics card and memory. So I'll have to go for the laptop then. But, is the Pentium M equivalent to a Pentium 4? Or is it perhaps wiser to fold this round and save (a lot of) money?[/QUOTE]
That laptop is a comparable to a TOP gaming desktop. And I mean it when I say TOP.

A 2.0GHz Pentium-M is comparable to a 3GHz P4.

Athlon64 3500+, Geforce 6800GT, 1GB RAM

I'm running on a highly tweaked "High" at 1280x1024:

HDR On
Canopy Shadows On
All other shadows off
Grass off
Distant Land-Buildings-Trees On
Item distance at around 1/3
tree distance at around 1/2
Specular at around 1/2
Ext. Shadows at around 1/10
Int. Shadows at around 1/3

My main advice is to _TURN OFF THE GRASS_. It seems to me that the grass is the biggest performance hit for outdoor scenes. Yes, I know the grass looks cool... but I think the Distant Land looks cooler. And for the love of God do everything in your power to keep HDR on.... it looks _awesome_.

With my setup I get _awesome_ framerate indoors and in cities. I suspect that outdoors it can dip as low as 20 but usually hovers around 30 to 40 (I don't know for sure... is there a way to check? I'm just going off "feel").

Friedmud

NOTE: Edited to insert Resolution

My spec:

Intel P4 3.4GHz
1GB RAM (2x512MB Twinmos)
Nvidia 6800GT 128MB AGP

I'm using large textures. "Shadow slider": indoors halfway, outdoors almost minimum. View distance max + distantant land on. I'm using hdr. Other options = default.

When I play the game at 1024x768 it plays fairly ok... but I'm pretty picky when it comes to framerates so now I'm running at 800x600 with a much better result.

PS. It really helped to install the latest Nvidia drivers and use Rivatuner to change "max frames to render ahead" from 3 to 0. I estimate I got about 5-6 fps extra from this.