What do I need to get the best possible graphics on this game? What settings are the best? Thanks!

That's a very open ended question and subject to your hardware and personal preferences. I can highly recommend reading this: http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

That's a great help, thanks!

Be sure to check this site out afterwards:

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/obliviontextureoverhaul.html

you'll need one of these: http://nuclearstreet.com/images/img/crayxt5.jpg

If I may expand on one of their INI recommendations...

They suggest you leave the uGridDistantCount setting at 25, but I've found that reducing it to 20 allows for a tremendous performance improvement with minimal degradation of the distant visuals, so try that out if you want.

I might try that one.

I've tried several LOD mods and such like mods to enhance the graphics, but they all seem to come with some bug that throws my whole game off. For instance, now I can't use the 'showracemenu' option to altar my character's appearance wihtout some leftover of a mod that I already uninstalled messes with my stats. I think I've reinstalled this game 8 times because they all leave some trace of a bug behind even when you uninstall them, so I've stopped using graphic mods and only use the .ini changes.

no body noticed this?: http://nuclearstreet.com/images/img/crayxt5.jpg
I'd figure that would get at least a chuckle or two.

Showracemenu reseting your stats is a problem in the vanillla game.

From the wiki


I don't know of any graphic mods that would affect your game the way you are describing after you uninstall them, there are very few mods in general that will cause problems after uninstalling. In general, there really should never be a reason to actually have to reinstall the entire game.