I know the topic title doesn't sound it's anything mod-related but please hear me out.

Today I bought a PC for gaming purposes (well, TES modding actually)

INTEL Motherboard DP35DP 7 PCI/MEMORY 4SLOTS MAX 8192 mb
INTEL CORE DUO CPU 2,8 ghz socket 775
4 X 1024 mb DDR2 800 memory = 4096 mb
1024 MB videocard NVIDIA GEFORCE 8500 GT
7.1 HD AUDIO card
ONBOARD 3 x Hard disc WD 500 GB + 250 GB + 300 GB
DVD DUAL 22 LAYER/WRITER + DVD/CD 52 PLAYER LITE
12 x USB 2 + internet modem/wifi
WINDOWS XP / WINDOWS VISTA

I'm quite sure this machine will run Vanilla Morrowind (including TR & BM) effortlessly, but will it be a good step towards the system demands to enable MGE? I've seen some screenshots and I was blown away with it. :wub: I am aware the videocard could do with an update as it is somewhat dated but for now it will suit my purposes.

As a sidenote, will this machine have the potential (as in, after 1 or 2 future-upgrades) to run a modded Oblivion as well?

The graphics card is good enough for MGE as long advanced shaders like DoF, Godrays or SSAO are not activated.

Oblivion will not have any problems with your computer.

I have a less powerul machine than that (it's a laptop) but both oblivion and morrowind (with MGE) run fine for me.

That's great news! Thank you for the info. :icecream:

As you've said, the 8500GT is pretty old (but many years newer than Morrowind), though it should be fine, since you have the 1GB version. What type of memory does it use? (G)DDR2 or 3? 2 is significantly slower than 3.

Since May 2008 I've been using an 8600GT with only 256MB of memory, and have been able to use the latest stable release (3.8? or 3.8.1?) and everything it offers.

Where would I find the memorytype?

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

8500GT is weaker than the 7900GTX. Not sure it will run every pretty thing in MGE at a consistent, acceptable (over 30fps) frame rate.