Hello fellow gamers. I have recently decided to download Oblivion onto my computer, but I hit a major speed bump. After the game has been fully installed I have been experiencing lag in game. This might be because my computer isn't the best, but I'm sure that can't be the reason of it all. I am currently running the game on 640x480 resolution with EVERYTHING at the lowest settings, yet I still seem to lag. I haven't really tried to run any other games of this caliber, as I usually play 2D games and what-not.

I went to "canyourunit.com" and through their test they say that I meet the minimum requirements and I am just shy of the recommended requirements. Here are the results they gave me:

Minimum Requirements- (Met)
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/3814/min1.png

Recommended Requirements- (Not Met)
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2236/rec2.png


I'm not exactly sure how I should go about updating my drivers if that is the source if my problems. I have updated my graphics card (or so I think) but that didn't seem to change anything. I have also tried to use two driver updating programs but they both cost money, which is something I do not have. I need a solution to my problem that won't cost me a dime. Yes, I'm cheap. Thanks in advance for your help. :mohawk:

Unfortunately your problem is hardware related. Ancient GPU and CPU will really slow the game down, and make it hardly playable. Canyourunit is really a very inaccurate site. There really isnt an upgrade I would suggest with such an old system. The best option that you have is scrapping that system and building/buying a new one. If you want suggestions you can post your budget and myself or some other members can suggest some parts/builds that would help. But that hardware you have right now is just not capable of playing the game properly.

:swear:


If I decide to upgrade my computer I would not want the best, just something that can run MOST games on maximum settings. I'm not looking for the top of the line Alien Ware that can run ridiculously high powered programs, just something that is comfortable. What would you suggest to get that would be the cheapest but follows those guidelines?

Well the problem with upgrading individual components is that they really dont make compatible parts with what you have anymore.
What budget are you looking at? You can have a pretty nice PC that will max most games out there for $700 or so, assuming you are willing to keep the monitor and keyboard/mouse that you are currently using. (Also stay far away from Alienware, they way overprice their builds.)

Well being poor svcks right about now... If I were to get a job, lets say an $700 range like you were talking about.

Well I personally would say wait until you have the money to buy or build the PC to decide on components or builds. Since prices will come down and new parts will hit the market. A $700 PC now will be a $550 PC in 6 months. It is usually cheaper to build the PC yourself (especially if you are paying over $500).

:banghead: Oh well. I guess I will stick to my trash bag Xbox.

Your graphics card Radeon 9550 (or X1050) isn't that great, but should be able to run the game on low, low-medium settings if tweaked.

It will need low screen resolutions to do even that much. The official requirements were royally screwed up for Oblivion. ATI themselves made no grandiose claims for their Radeon 9600 (same as the X300), and the 9550 was the "SE" version from the 9600 model, meaning the very worst. The Radeon 9500 Vanilla was better than all of the 9600s, although the "XT" was equal to it (and wasn't named by ATI as an appropriate minimum ~~ for that, they named the 9500 Pro). Some idiot at Bethesda decided that a higher number must mean that a 9600 was better than a 9500, but that wasn't yet the standard naming procedure. IMO, the 9700 Pro was more practical as a minimum.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=80&card2=24

Doesn't ATI make a 4670 AGP card? I ran the game on a P4 3.0ghz, and an AGP 3850, and got decent framerates, even with a pretty lengthy load list. (including FCOM) Granted, my O/S was HIGHLY streamlined.......

AFAIK, the HD 4670s were discontinued, and as a result, are in very short supply (and those that are available may be closer to an HD 4650 than a 4670, with the lower speed RAM, rather than what the reference samples of the HD 4670 called for). There are plenty of HD 4650s, but those were somewhat weaker sauce than the 4670s (however, loads better than any awful Radeon 9600-derivative).

P. S. The only Radeons newer than the 9550 that were any worse were the IGPs based on the same silicon, from Xpress200 to Xpress1100 (and I am no longer certain where the Xpress1200 fell in the sequence. I think that some were X300 based, and some were X1300 based.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161337 still seems to have some.

They hadn't listed any as available there for maybe a month, probably longer, and all of the "out of stock" models had some discouraging notation about whether any would be available later, so I came to what I thought was a reasonable conclusion. The only one I see being sold, now, at $120, is priced about as high as the rest of the entire PC in question is worth . .