Reccomendation for Oblivion

[Praxis1452]

I just go oblivion and was playing and I seriously get 2 fps. maybe less especially during battle. I made it all the way to the death of the king -_- took forever. Was using my dad's comp as it's the only comp I can use at the moment. His specs are:
Pentium 4 oc'd from 3.0-3.3
1x512mb ram
FX5200 agp

Basically I'm wondering what video card will be able to make this game playable at around 1280x1024 or 1024x768 hopefully. But I can live with 800x600 if I have to. What vid card should I get and what would be the price. Also would the 1gb of ram help a lot too?

 

[nitromullet]

Info needed...

1) AGP/PCI-E
2) Budget

 

[Praxis1452]

I said fx5200 agp... for the budget I'm not really sure of at the moment. If you could please list the cards that'd be the help I need. Basically the lowest price possible. I'm going to build a new computer soon hopefully. I'm gonna see the amount I can squeeze out of my dad. hehe though I think $50-150 around. Somewhere in there. I don't know much about the low end graphics cards. Though I think I might just wait a few months till I build my new computer. Trying to decide if it's worth the cost.

 

[nitromullet]

In that case, the best card you can get is the 7800GS, which is about $300-350. Honestly, nothing AGP is going to play Oblivion all that well at 1280x1024 with any amount of eye candy. If you're going to build a new system soon, skip the AGP upgrade and hold off until you can build a PCI-E system. All of the decent AGP cards are more expensive than many PCI-E cards that outperform them.

Edit: Oblivion just isn't a $50-150 video card kind of game at the moment. It is extremely graphics intensive. For that kind of money you need to think more along the lines of World of Warcraft.

 

[Praxis1452]

no eye candy is needed heh. I just need it to run at well 800x600 decently. heh. I need to wait for AM2 to build since I want the comp to last 3 years? idk I'll be upgrading through then and AM2 is the only upgrade path. Definetley can't wait 6 months for conroe -_-

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Praxis1452
no eye candy is needed heh. I just need it to run at well 800x600 decently. heh. I need to wait for AM2 to build since I want the comp to last 3 years? idk I'll be upgrading through then and AM2 is the only upgrade path. Definetley can't wait 6 months for conroe -_-

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx#279

Not looking so hot for AM2 at the moment, but we'll have to see how it goes...

You must think I'm just full of good news, eh?

 

[Corporate Thug]

add atleast another 512 of ram since it is dirt cheap.

look is FS/FT for a used (and unlocked) x800 GTO

 

[allies]

At this point, Conroe isn't 6 months away. And there are rumors that AM2 won't last, rather it will be akin to Socket 754. This puts you in kind of a predicament, because intel is known to change its socket with seemingly every revision of a chip.

 

[DeathReborn]

For that kinda budget you'd be looking at one of these 3 really.

X1600Pro 256MB 128bit AGP

6800nu 128MB 256bit AGP

6600GT 128MB 128bit AGP

 

[Bullhonkie]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
add atleast another 512 of ram since it is dirt cheap.

look is FS/FT for a used (and unlocked) x800 GTO

Yeah something like that in the X850/6800GS kind of range can play Oblivion fine at 1024x768 with most stuff turned on. I'd highly recommend at least 1GB of memory as well.

Prior to upgrading I was playing on a P4-2.8, 2GB RAM, and X800XT PE AGP and it ran well at 1024x768 with high detail settings. You'll be missing on out HDR if you go with an ATi card in this price range, but none of the cards in this price range can run HDR well enough for an acceptable gaming experience anyway IMO.

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Praxis1452
no eye candy is needed heh. I just need it to run at well 800x600 decently. heh. I need to wait for AM2 to build since I want the comp to last 3 years? idk I'll be upgrading through then and AM2 is the only upgrade path. Definetley can't wait 6 months for conroe -_-

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx#279

Not looking so hot for AM2 at the moment, but we'll have to see how it goes...

You must think I'm just full of good news, eh?

I know about am2's downsides but I need atleast the hope of upgradebility :'(

For the cards Deathreborn listed whats' more important? the 256bit memory or the 256mb of memory? Yeah I don't really care about HDR or added effects right now.

thank you all for the help

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
In that case, the best card you can get is the 7800GS, which is about $300-350. Honestly, nothing AGP is going to play Oblivion all that well at 1280x1024 with any amount of eye candy. If you're going to build a new system soon, skip the AGP upgrade and hold off until you can build a PCI-E system. All of the decent AGP cards are more expensive than many PCI-E cards that outperform them.

Edit: Oblivion just isn't a $50-150 video card kind of game at the moment. It is extremely graphics intensive. For that kind of money you need to think more along the lines of World of Warcraft.

umm my 7800gs can run oblivion fine.. dunno what your tlaking about

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: AzNPinkTuv

Originally posted by: nitromullet
In that case, the best card you can get is the 7800GS, which is about $300-350. Honestly, nothing AGP is going to play Oblivion all that well at 1280x1024 with any amount of eye candy. If you're going to build a new system soon, skip the AGP upgrade and hold off until you can build a PCI-E system. All of the decent AGP cards are more expensive than many PCI-E cards that outperform them.

Edit: Oblivion just isn't a $50-150 video card kind of game at the moment. It is extremely graphics intensive. For that kind of money you need to think more along the lines of World of Warcraft.

umm my 7800gs can run oblivion fine.. dunno what your tlaking about

While your 7800GS will run it fine for the most part. At 1280x960 with all ingame settings maxed out, if you encounter an area with a large amount of foliage, or you fight more than five enemies at once, your framerate will go down well below the playable level into the teens and perhaps lower.

The thing is, you get the best performance when you are just walking about, but then when you are in an intense fight, that is where it starts choking. Ironic that a game runs well, but then the performance drops right when you need it the most.

Of course a 7800GS will have no problem if you simply lower a few settings.

 

[Washoe]

Originally posted by: DeathReborn
For that kinda budget you'd be looking at one of these 3 really.

X1600Pro 256MB 128bit AGP

6800nu 128MB 256bit AGP

6600GT 128MB 128bit AGP

All 3 of these are good recommendations. I currently have the 6800nu AGP card and I'm able to play Oblivion on my 2405. Choppy in some areas, but it is at a higher res than praxis requires so ... that would most likely be fine. The other cards have higher core and memory clock speeds too

 

[Praxis1452]

I was thinking about it but ATI cards run much faster in Oblivion... well I'm definetley getting a 512mb ram upgrade though

 

[Ika]

Personally if I were you I would stick with NVidia's older generation cards, simply because they generally have a better price/performance ratio than newer cards like the X1600Pro. You might want to check up benchmarks and prices on the X1600pro, though, because they do come in fairly cheap sometimes.

 

[Praxis1452]

I know what you mean but Oblivion is about the only game that I'm going to need the graphics card upgrade for until I build my new machine. ;-)

 

[Munky]

Have you tried converting the game's shaders to DX8? I heard there's a way to do it, and while it still would not miraculously let you play on anything but the lowest settings, at least you should be getting higher fps. The FX cards support DX9 on paper, but when it comes to running DX9 code their performance is abysmal.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Jesus, I was hoping FX5200's were extinct. 2fps at 640x480 with a FX5200? You're lucky. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get passed the Bethesda logo.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: allies
At this point, Conroe isn't 6 months away. And there are rumors that AM2 won't last, rather it will be akin to Socket 754. This puts you in kind of a predicament, because intel is known to change its socket with seemingly every revision of a chip.

Except socket 754 will outlive S939, so that argument doesn't make much sense.

Nat

 

[Noema]

I can play Oblivion at 1024x768 with low-mid settings on my prehistoric 9600XT and I get 25ish +fps outdoors, so any of the budget cards posted will do much, much better. You might even get to run it 1280x1024 with lowish settings with an X800XTPE, depending on how much of a bottleneck your processor ends up being.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: allies
At this point, Conroe isn't 6 months away. And there are rumors that AM2 won't last, rather it will be akin to Socket 754. This puts you in kind of a predicament, because intel is known to change its socket with seemingly every revision of a chip.

Except socket 754 will outlive S939, so that argument doesn't make much sense.

Nat

What are you smoking? Socket 754 is pretty much already extinct except for really low budget buyers.

And to the OP, don't wait for AM2 socket 939 will last you 3 years if you go high-end. Maybe FX series, 2 gigs rams, asus mobo, x1x00 or 7900 series video.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: allies
At this point, Conroe isn't 6 months away. And there are rumors that AM2 won't last, rather it will be akin to Socket 754. This puts you in kind of a predicament, because intel is known to change its socket with seemingly every revision of a chip.

Except socket 754 will outlive S939, so that argument doesn't make much sense.

Nat

What are you smoking? Socket 754 is pretty much already extinct except for really low budget buyers.

And to the OP, don't wait for AM2 socket 939 will last you 3 years if you go high-end. Maybe FX series, 2 gigs rams, asus mobo, x1x00 or 7900 series video.

Two statements for you.

1. AMD has confirmed that socket 754 will be in production for a period of time even after socket 939 has been canned.

2. This refers to the bolded statement. It would be quite probable of being true, to say that more than 90% of all pc buyers fit into that category.

 

[brainwrinkle]

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: allies
At this point, Conroe isn't 6 months away. And there are rumors that AM2 won't last, rather it will be akin to Socket 754. This puts you in kind of a predicament, because intel is known to change its socket with seemingly every revision of a chip.

Except socket 754 will outlive S939, so that argument doesn't make much sense.

Nat

What are you smoking? Socket 754 is pretty much already extinct except for really low budget buyers.

And to the OP, don't wait for AM2 socket 939 will last you 3 years if you go high-end. Maybe FX series, 2 gigs rams, asus mobo, x1x00 or 7900 series video.

Two statements for you.

1. AMD has confirmed that socket 754 will be in production for a period of time even after socket 939 has been canned.

2. This refers to the bolded statement. It would be quite probable of being true, to say that more than 90% of all pc buyers fit into that category.

I think allies was referring to the fact that S754 wasn't the high-end socket for very long.

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: munky
Have you tried converting the game's shaders to DX8? I heard there's a way to do it, and while it still would not miraculously let you play on anything but the lowest settings, at least you should be getting higher fps. The FX cards support DX9 on paper, but when it comes to running DX9 code their performance is abysmal.

Thanks for the info I'm gonna try it. If you could post some links that would help.

Originally posted by: SPARTAN VI
Jesus, I was hoping FX5200's were extinct. 2fps at 640x480 with a FX5200? You're lucky. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get passed the Bethesda logo.

I used to have a Radeon 9200 but the card fried and my dad went to the comp store and they picjed this as the replacement. It's pretty much a downgrade I think. Still I'm gonna try some of those optimizations so maybe I can live 2 months on it heh.