I am planning to upgrade from a nVidia 5200 128mb graphics card to a nVidia 8500GT OC(Link)

I was wondering how much of a performance increase there will be. I know it will be a huge leap but you can never know too much..
My current set up is a Intel Pentium D Processor 2.68 GHz, 1GB of Ram, and a 120GB hard drive.

(For Oblivion)

As long as your CPU does not hold you back there should be a HUGE difference. My 5200 failed to even start Oblivion, then fried trying to do something else. Now I'm going to move up from 7600GT to 8800GT, and the difference is in the order of about 30-50 fps, which is probably what you will experience.

Have fun,

Cris.

Thanks.

I was surprised that I was able to play it, even though it's at an average of 12 FPS outside and 15 FPS inside(Houses, Inns, and Dungeons)

The settings are really really low so... The game is always "morning" so it's really easy in dungeons yet hard at the same time since I have no clue of where to hide for cover..

You should get a massive performance increase, although your processor may well stop it from being as fast as it could be.

Also, you should be able to get it cheaper than that- I ordered the 512mb version of the same card for about £60 inc. VAT and delivery the other day, if you look around, you might be able to get it cheaper still.

Ah, wish I knew before I had ordered it. But, at least it's coming sometime tomorrow or today

Akira, sorry I did no think of this before, but as you had a 5200, like me, have you either upgraded your motherboard or checked the card you are purchasing?

I ask because the recent cards such as the 8500GT use a type of interface with the motherboard called pci-e 16x. (please excuse me if you know this)

The 5200 however used an interface called AGP 8x, which is now incompatible with newer graphics cards. The long and the short of it is, if you are using the motherboard you used for the 5200, then it is likely that the new 8500GT will either not fit or not work.

Just a heads up in case you can't figure out why it won't go in the slot or start up.

Hope everything works out,

Cris.

Crisb92: I was weary of that too, so I checked my motherboard and it was fine. My motherboard is a ASRock 775Dual-vsta.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=775Dual-vsta


The_Terminator: They apparently gave me a 512mb card instead of a 256mb so I'm pretty much fine right here. Running Oblivion at an average of about 40fps in interior locations and around 25fps in exterior locations. Running Qarls Texture pack 3, Reduced Lite.