By modded out, I mean with such goodies as FCOM, QTP3, NAEVWD, Better Cities, Unique Landscapes....basically, the stuff that makes the game a whole lot better and prettier. Will today's close-to-top-of-the-line hardware (namely, CPU and GPU) run the game at max settings and 2560x1600 resolution smoothly? I am getting pretty slow frames per second on my system, which is about 4 years old, and wonder how much sluggishness is due to the Oblivion engine (especially pauses/stuttering when the landscape updates, and really really slow performance in some cities due largely to Better Cities), versus how much is due to my hardware limitations (4GB 800 RAM, Core 2 Duo, Radeon 4800).

Building a new rig this holiday, and will be buying the fastest CPU and GPU within reason (maybe i7 and dual NVIDIA 480s, 6 or 8GB of the best RAM), so am curious to know what kind of FPS boost and hopefully smoother performance I can expect to see.

What experiences are folks with cutting edge hardware having, hopefully at similar graphics/resolution settings and with a modded install?

Thanks.

It's hard to say really, but maybe there are some videos out there showing what hardware can do it. Those mods will still be an fps killer in my eyes especially at that resolution.

I have:
Win 7 HP x64
Phenom II x3 720 @ 3.4 Ghz
4 gb ddr 1600 cl 7
HD 5850 1 Gb
7200 rpm WD black hd

I run in 1920x1080 at mex settings with (AA at 8x).
Mods:
QTP3 Redimized (I prefer this over qtp3) and distand land/noise improvers
better cities and unique landscapes
full fcom and a ton of quest mods
RAEVWD (about 2/3 of the items)

In the wilderness and in dungeons I always get 40-60 fps with slight stutter when loading a new area.
In towns I get 20-40.

If I were going to improve my system I would get a SSD, then a second 5850, then think about going i7. The Phenom II is almost always more than enough afaict.

I think, rather than raw frame rates (really, I'd be content with 25 or so), I am hoping the game will run more smoothly, with less pausing as various things load. I wonder how much, if any, of that is due to either GPU, CPU, RAM, or hard drive speed, versus how much is due to a what might be a inefficient game engine (no amount of hardware would fix that)?

How siginifcant do you think going from an HDD to an SSD would be in terms of smoothness (not so much an increase in FPS, but smoother transitions while different parts of the gameworld load)?

SSDs will certainly make the cell transitions and load times a lot smoother and quicker based on past accounts of SSD owners. Is it worth the investment to get an SSD? I'm still rather on the fence on that. I don't like the price/GB ratio and the fact that performance of an SSD degrades when you fill up too much of the capacity.