Best thing(s) to upgrade to improve Oblivion performance

[ShadowBlade]

I've been playing Oblivion on the 360 for a while and decided to get it for PC - naturally, it doesn't run well. The frame rate decreases drastically when there are other moving things around me (people, fire, oblivion gates, etc.), and is still relatively low otherwise. This is running with medium texture quality, view distances about 25% of the whole slider, and resolution the next 16:10 step down from 1680x1050 (cant remember what it is exactly)
My specs are as follows:

A64 3000+
Chaintech VNF4 Mobo
Corsair VS 1024MB
XFX 7800GT
SB XFi ExtremeMusic
WD 250GB HD
Lite-On DVD Burner
Pioneer 111D DVD Burner
Fortron AX500-A
Sceptre X20WG-Naga 1680x1050

I'd like to keep the upgrade around $300 if possible, but I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[cdh987]

There are ways to tweak the performance of Oblivion to better suit your specific comp. Check out this guide:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

It helped me to customize my Oblivion config files to improve the performance quite a bit.

I hope this helps!

P.S. This guide will also show how to configure Oblivion to utilize more than one core for anyone with multiple cores.

 

[ForumMaster]

perhaps atleast a amd athlon 3800 X2? that should can be had for 150 i think. maybe a better graphic card such as the 8800GS 320MB?

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: cdh987
There are ways to tweak the performance of Oblivion to better suit your specific comp. Check out this guide:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

It helped me to customize my Oblivion config files to improve the performance quite a bit.

I hope this helps!

P.S. This guide will also show how to configure Oblivion to utilize more than one core for anyone with multiple cores.

That and O/C that 3000+.
If it's a Venice core, it should hit >2.4gHz no problem.

Add another gig of ram as well. Corsair VS
Also, since you're under budget, X1950XT

You CPU will bottleneck this card a bit, less so if you can obtain a decent O/C.


EDIT...links fixed

 

[ShadowBlade]

I currently can't OC without getting a new HS/F, I believe I scratched the bottom of it once and whenever I have it OC'ed, my computer crashes periodically.

Oh - and its a winchester and my RAM is 2x512

Also, I can't remember - with a new CPU only, is a reinstall of Windows required, or is that only if you change the motherboard/chipset (its been a while)

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: ShadowBlade
I currently can't OC without getting a new HS/F, I believe I scratched the bottom of it once and whenever I have it OC'ed, my computer crashes periodically.

Oh - and its a winchester and my RAM is 2x512

Also, I can't remember - with a new CPU only, is a reinstall of Windows required, or is that only if you change the motherboard/chipset (its been a while)

usually not if you only replace the CPU

 

[Captante]

The best upgrade by far to increase Oblivion performance with your configuration is a faster GPU, ideally either the X1950 pro or better yet the X1950XT ... you should also spend a few bucks on a better HS/fan so you can squeeze a few more mhz out of that Winchester. Next would be to increase RAM to 2gb's but again the GPU will make the biggest difference.

 

[happy medium]

What kind of power supply do you have?

 

[ShadowBlade]

Originally posted by: happy medium
What kind of power supply do you have?

Fortron AX500-A

 

[Job]

I've got the same GPU as you and can run it quite nicely at 1280x720, medium settings, no shadows, no AA and HDR enabled. Still looks good and runs in high 40s outside, which is the most important

 

[happy medium]

Ok, looks like your power supply is good. First find a way (new artic 64 cooler 15 bucks?) to overclock the cpu. When you pick up the cooler overclock the cpu and see what your results are. If you get 2.4 or above then go buy a 1950xt. If you cant overclock I would put any money into that system (no video card). Then you will need more ram to make your system last a little longer and play some upcomming games.