Playing Oblivion without the lag

msi1337

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2003
7,818
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can someone recommend me a $150-$300 PCI-E graphics card so I can play Oblivion?>

my 6600gt is hating life right now!

Thanks

**Update**

Went by microcenter and found This card on clearance! $262 was in my price range! I am going to be running the game shortly to see how it runs. So far I am very impressed!
 

akshayt

Banned
Feb 13, 2004
2,227
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1900XT 512mb around 320$ or so
else 1800XT 512mb
else 1900XT 256mb, soon to be released
else 1800XT 256mb or maybe 1900GT 256mb
 

hmorphone

Senior member
Oct 14, 2005
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Some games perform better with Nvidia, some with ATI. Oblivion is an ATI game. 7900 will certainly work however.
 

tuteja1986

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2005
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you said Oblivion and the only GPU comes into my mind for that price range is X1800XT. Why :? because you can check the Oblivion benchmarks and see that X1800XT 512MB has a much better mini frame rate than 7900GT. Meaning that Oblivion will run smooth :)

Also you can do HDR with AA too
 

LittleNemoNES

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
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Originally posted by: Nightmare225
Sure, if you call 2xAA real AA, lol. ;)

HDR+2xAA is still faster than it's nvidia counterpart with ONLY HDR. It can clear up a lot of jaggies. makes them a lot less noticeable.
 

Sc4freak

Guest
Oct 22, 2004
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And unlike the trolls will have you believe, 4xAA w/ HDR in Oblivion on an X1800XT is definately playable. Runs perfectly fine on my card.
 

msi1337

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2003
7,818
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I can get an EVGA 7900GT 256mb for $229 locally...is this a good deal?

I know everyone is saying x1800xt, but I cannot find them for a reasonable price.



 

StrangerGuy

Diamond Member
May 9, 2004
8,443
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Originally posted by: msi1337
I can get an EVGA 7900GT 256mb for $229 locally...is this a good deal?

I know everyone is saying x1800xt, but I cannot find them for a reasonable price.

nvm
 

anandtechrocks

Senior member
Dec 7, 2004
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I think that's a good deal. My bother has a 7800GTX (basically a 79000GT) and he plays Oblivion lag free with 4xAA and Bloom. My X1800XT works great too, but is a bit more expensive than the 7900GT.
 

Nightmare225

Golden Member
May 20, 2006
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Not a troll, I love both companies.:)

All I'm tryin to say is that the X1800XT shows noticeable frame rate drops at anything higher than 2xAA in the more complex parts of the game. If he has to pay the extra dough over a 7900GT, it's not worth it. ;)
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
i don't think any single card - except maybe the x1900xt - will play Oblivion at hi res with everything on and maxed + AA/AF+HDR - with zero lag.

even your 6600GT will do Oblivion at low res with grass 'completely down' and self-shadow 'off'. Rendering 'grass' and 'self-shadows' kills most anything.

That said . . . the best bet in your price range seems to be the x1800xt. 7800GTX [still on sale? check hot deals] and 7900GTs also do fine



 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
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alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: hans030390
Am I the only one hear who doesn't notice jaggies (therefore making AA pointless to me)?

i dunno, when i played on a 14" 10x7 LCD notebook screen, i never noticed 'em either. :p


:D

[edit: my x850xt will do *everything max* in Oblivion - as long as Grass is 'completely down' and self shadows 'of'f - at 11x8 with 4xAA+Bloom . . . looks nice - if kinda bare w/o grass]
 

ShadowOfMyself

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2006
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Originally posted by: hans030390
Am I the only one hear who doesn't notice jaggies (therefore making AA pointless to me)?

Unless youre playing on a 15" screen, yeah youre probably the only one :Q

Its SO NOTICEABLE... its like.. not being able to tell the difference between a stair and a slope
 

Vallybally

Senior member
Oct 5, 2004
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"i don't think any single card - except maybe the x1900xt - will play Oblivion at hi res with everything on and maxed + AA/AF+HDR - with zero lag."

Sometimes I miss simple console games where you just plug and play without worrying about tweaking or adjusting IQ settings. Anyway, since I'm happy I ordered an x1900xt as mentioned above, should I just let Oblivion settle on the hi-quality settings and leave it at that? Or do I need to make sure all sliders are at max, install chuck patch, and do 4xAA/16xAF/HDR to see if it will run well? Just looking for a few guesses or recommendations since I know half of you guys have played Oblivion by now...
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
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Look at the various tweak guides around for Oblivion. They have some good tips on getting better performance without degrading IQ. If you do use the recommended tweaks than you should be able to play Oblivion at 1280x1024 4AA + HDR and everything maxed. With a decent oc you can get away with 1600x1200 4AA + HDR and graphics maxed. At these settings I'd imagine minimum frames will be ~23-25fps.

I've been playing at 1920x1200 4AA HDR and graphics maxed. That's with my card@740/850 and cpu@2.8GHz. It does pretty well 85-90% of the time, but there have been some very heavy foliage areas where my fps have dropped into the high teens. If my wife wouldn't kill me I'd seriously consider a 2nd X1900XT. This game can definetely use it.
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
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You can search a program called tweaper...it's a simple program that help tweak around your ini files that are pre-programmed.
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
5,479
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The X1900XT would be the absolute BEST card for the game. If you can dish out the $$$ ($290ish after MIR for an OEM, $330ish for Retail) then THAT is the ONLY card worth considering. The X1800XT is alright and would probably be the next best thing, but I really don't like that card.

Now the 7900GT would probably come in last for Oblivion for midrange cards. I have two 7900GT's vmodded running at 700/1620. I run it at 1680x1050 (WS res) and sometimes IT STILL LAGS. Thats probably more inpart to it only having 256mb of vram then anything else, but still a single X1900XT would preform about the same as my TWO 7900GT's.