Will my PC run Oblvion okay?

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:39 am

So I finally got my PC back, and I pan on getting Oblivion for PC. I used to play it on my Xbox. So I'm not too computer savvy, in terms of hardware and performance, so I may have a lot of questions. I'd like to use this thread as efficiently as possible. So f someone answers a question of mine, please only reply if you have something to add on or correct. So my computer has an AMD Turion 64 X2 1.9 GHz processor, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 32 bit operating system. Also it's Vista, which I've heard may have problems running Oblivion. So should it run okay, or at least be playable? What kind of problems may I run into? And is there a site I can go to listing possible errors and their fixes? Thanks.

theArgonianguy · Post by **theArgonianguy** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:20 am

the only problem i heard about playing Ob. on vista is that you cannot acces the console command... although i dont have oblion on the PC to confirm

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:33 am

What kind of graphics card do you have?

Otherwise CPU and ram seem OK to run it.

Alien · Post by **Alien** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:41 am

gregor wrote:What kind of graphics card do you have?

Otherwise CPU and ram seem OK to run it.

To find the graphic card of your computer go to Run in the Start menu (or whatever, I have never used Vista) and type "dxdiag". This will bring up specs for your computer.

As for not being able to use the console (which is not necessarily a bad thing), use the Ring of Console Mod to circumvent this.

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:04 pm

After some searching, I have an ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 graphics card.

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:21 pm

Kinzer wrote:After some searching, I have an ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 graphics card.

just as i suspected. you have a notebook, right?
Am i psychic?

well if you do, then it is highly questionable (oldblivion maybe?!). but most likely no.

it might be able to run it on very low settings or low with some tweaking.

if you have it on desktop i would recomend getting one cheap (25-30 EUR) card that would surelly run it at least on medium.

then again I am not such an expert with notebooks and their graphics cards. i am just posting here what i saw elsewhere on the web.

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:22 pm

Well, I'm sort of confused, but as far as I can tell, you're telling me my graphics card is no good. In that case, how much does a more than decent one cost? And, how difficult would it be to install? And yes I'm on a Dell laptop.

Alien · Post by **Alien** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:16 am

Kinzer wrote:Well, I'm sort of confused, but as far as I can tell, you're telling me my graphics card is no good. In that case, how much does a more than decent one cost? And, how difficult would it be to install? And yes I'm on a Dell laptop.

Well, I don't know about notebooks, but you can find a good Nividia Geforce card (used) from a public selling database (like craigslist) for about $100

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:21 am

you won't be able to install or replace it in on laptop as they usually have a built in graphics chip.

But some notebooks can get their card changed:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/349/1/

Here is a bit mor einformation on this issue:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2526

Bottom line you might be able to upgrade it, i can't exactly find the cost and i dont' know which one fits into oyur notebook. best thing to do is to call local Dell service (especially if the computer is still under warranty) and asked them if they could upgrade the card and also ask for the cost.

there is plenty of info online for exchanging the card if you feel skilled enough to do it and if you have enough time to search for all required info (overheating, finding the right card that fits...).

@ Alien - you can get a new good graphics card (for 1 or 2 year old games) for much less than 100$. I know, because just bought one for 46 EUR.

Alien · Post by **Alien** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:04 am

gregor wrote:
@ Alien - you can get a new good graphics card (for 1 or 2 year old games) for much less than 100$. I know, because just bought one for 46 EUR.

Oh, well I was just going off of all of the good cards that I saw on craigslist.

Scrounger888 · Post by **Scrounger888** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:26 am

There have been many reported problems with trying to run Oblivion on a laptop, and more with Vista... with both, you're basically going to have to have some good luck...

The minimum system requirements are as follows:

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

Your RAM meets it but the processor doesn't quite.

And your graphics card is not supported, but hey, neither was my first graphics card and it ran it, but barely, with all of the "good" visual stuff turned off.

There's a program out there called Oldblivion that will help run the game on computers that don't quite meet the requirements, but again, expect to take a hit on performance.

I'd stick to using your XBox unless you upgrade a few things on your laptop. (Although upgrading never hurts!)

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:50 am

Scrounger888 wrote:Your RAM meets it but the processor doesn't quite.

he has AMD Turion 64 X2 1.9 GHz

that's a dual core processor and it means it has 2 x 1.9Ghz which is more than 2Ghz pentium 4. However another issue is how Oblivion can utilize these two cores. will it just use one and shut down the other to run or will it use both? that i do not know. but in my opinion CPU is OK.

Oldblivion might work although it was not tested on this card. It appears it works on some weaker ones though. Have a look here:
http://www.oldblivion.com/?page=screenshots

They really made it good for some old computers and graphics cards.

Is there an Oblivion demo he could download and try? If not you could try some "other sources" to see if it works and then buy the game.

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:24 pm

Well, I'll probably look into upgrading, as someone said there's nothing wrong with getting better stuff. So, I should get a better graphics card and possibly a better processor. What other things should I look into upgrading, or are those the only too things that really matter? Also, I'd like to say thank you to everyone helping me out. It's hard to find people so willing to offer assistance.

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:18 am

I just went out and bought City of Heros. If this game runs okay, Oblivion should run fine right? They're both big games, but Oblivion is more detailed and CoH is a lot bigger.

Teinaava · Post by **Teinaava** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:27 am

I don't know much about computers, but it seems like it should be fine.

Kinzer wrote:What other things should I look into upgrading, or are those the only too things that really matter?

If you have the money to do so, you may want to get a new sound card, although I'm not sure what your current one is. I believe the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer is good, and it's made for games. You can read more about it here.

Kinzer · Post by **Kinzer** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:53 am

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll definitely look into it. Again, I just want to say thanks to everyone that has helped me and that I really do appreciate it.