Good morning everyone. I have a few questions. I recently purchased TES IV: Oblivion, and it has consumed all my free time. However, the frame rate is lacking a bit. I personally tend to turn graphics up to their maximum, it's a bit of a habit. Neverwinter Nights 2 and Call of Duty for suffer the same problems. As such, I'm looking to upgrade my desktop hardware/software to better accommodate such games, and I figured your opinions would probably be invaluable, since you probably know more about computers than me.

Here is my current Desktop set-up:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz CPU

RAM: 2 GB, DDR2

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 7900GTX 512MB



I am currently considering blasting a paycheck on a new processor, IE Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz. Speaking of which, what does that MEAN? Two processors both running at 3 Ghz? Or two processors running at 1.5 Ghz?

Anyway, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
KomaruKirinashi

the core 2 duo processors work like 2, so that would mean 2 virtual cores running at 3.ghz each. even by counting taht the real speed is 90%, it's one helluva lot speed.

also, your GPU seems as good as hell, what problems you should have? if you have the money, buy an 8800 GTX and you'll be fine for quite a long time

You have the same processor as me, cool! ^^

You should upgrade it, though. Personally, I'd recommend splashing out on a quad-core processor, such as the intel Q6600. It's only £20-30 more expensive, and it will serve you much better in the long run. you might also consider upgrading your graphics card, but thats not as high a priority as the cpu is.

As for what dual-core is... in theory, it is two 3 ghz processors in one, but in practice its not. Basically, a program has to be specifically programmed to use more than one core, and if it isn't it just uses the first one. Even when it is programmed to use both, the speed doesnt ever reach 6 ghz.

To clear up the Dual Core question:

A Dual Core is virtually two processors in one as Terminator said. However, only one core is used most of the time. This is because the programs being used must be written to use multiple cores. For example, if a game was made so that it has two independent tasks (two different things needing to be processed) the Dual Core would act like you have two processors. Meaning two different tasks will be processed at the same time. Not exactly meaning you have 6 Ghz of CPU power though. But if the game is only written to have one task then the Dual Core will only use one of its cores.

For some more information read this thread.

isn't it possible to force oblivion to use 2 cores?

There are a couple of lines in the .ini file which can be edited to make it take better advantage of them, but it uses up to two cores by default anyway, so I don't know how much difference they make.

Are the quad-cores really worth it though? I'd have to get a new motherboard for that, I think. : (

As for GPU, my uncle works for Nvidia (How cliche) so I occasionally get new GPUs from him.

I had a question about Quad Cores/Dual Cores as well...

Let's say you upgrade from a 2.1 Ghz CPU to a 1.8 Ghz Dual Core CPU. Old games (such as Morrowind) do not support Dual Core. Does that mean the FPS in Morrowind would be lower, because it's only running on one core, so just 1.8 Ghz?

Pov, yes, that's exactly right.

Komaru, it is definitely worth upgrading to quad core, unless you wanna compromise, and buy one of those triple-core cpus being released soon... but quad core is still better, and not much more expensive. most games now are programmed to use them, and some, such as Crysis, are even programmed to be able to use an unlimited number of cores. So it is well worth the investment.

Not exactly. The Dual Core has a better architecture. Which allows for more efficient data processing. The Dual Core may also help your GPU perform better which would increase your framerate. If your CPU is slow it will bottleneck everything practically. Which means everything will run slower.

While I'm on this almost related thread, is there a way to boost your graphics without upgrading and not lowering the graphic settings.

If you have two cores it will adapt for them, but you can't force it because what if you only have 1 core.

The ini tweaks,like the multi threading,ram usage...pre cell loading, do make a difference...noticed a real change when i enabled the more threads.

Even so i can't get this damn game to run a good frame rate,I'm running bloom with no aa my sliders are almost all the way down except for grass which i left high because constant popup of grass as you ride your horse is damn distracting,the only other thing high is water which i have left like that for natural environments.

Ok i want to to know how much fps should i be getting with a 4800 amd dualcore,x1650 pro 500 ddr and 2gb of ram, I mean i'm getting like 40 fps when looking at nothing like a wall then i turn around to look at one char and i lose like 7-9 fps....add one more char and i've lost like 20 fps

wtf?,this freakin blows,i've tried tweaks newest drivers,directX,dualcore optimizer....just ffn tired of trying to be able to go for a little romp on horseback without there being horrid stuttering and enjoy the view...but that has just not happened...how can it when one little char drops my frames like by like 8...what the hell are they doing that drops them so much?....nothin just standing.

That's the problem with todays games guys, no one optimizes anything anymore...or bug tests

Hey, I want in on this conversation too! I'm with the original poster. And the poster right above me. I'm actually considering upgrading. JUST to play silly Oblivion, which runs okay already, and which I've played to death already on Xbox 360... Sanity? Out the window.

So, these are my specs.

AMD X2 (or 2X or whatever, ya know, dual-core) 2.51 Ghz CPU
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512mb
4gb ram
Vista schmista

What kind of performance should I bet getting out of Oblivion? I have installed all the optimization mods and what not, and it's still not great. I mean, like the poster above me, I have to turn detail down, and my frame rate is not... ya know... beautiful or anything. I have bigger texture packs installed, but still, look at all my dang system memory. And 512gb vram is nothing to shoo at either.

And if I were to upgrade, would I want to upgrade my CPU or my GPU? At first I thought GPU. But honestly... to what? I mean... a $300 nVidia something or other? It would be cheaper to buy a faster version of my CPU. I could get a 3.5Ghz version for $150 or so. Probably wouldn't have to do anything but take out the old one, pop the new one in (but I'd want to make sure I didn't need a new mommy board first).

I don't want Streamline to have to turn my details down so far. I want it to be pretty. And heck, I can always play Fallout 3 (aka The Elder Scrolls V: Fallout), so it's not JUST for Oblivion.

Oh who am I kidding.

Yeah, I want advice, though. Advise me, will ya?

If you really want to get frames i suggest you get yourself a quad core sli machine, meaning to video cards at once, thats the best way to go. I dont have a quad though but my duel core will do, my board doesn't support quad.

specs

amd x2 2.8ghz overclocked
motherboard sli msi k9m4 pci 2.0
windows xp 64bit pro
4gb ram 800mhz make msi sli
upgraded to 2 XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Cards 1GB DDR3 core 723mhz mem clock 2500mhz bus 256bit.
power supply sli compliant 1200 watts.

off topic

Soon there will be a tigerdirect store in my neighbourhood, its going to be in walking distance to, man thats going be cool, no shipping fees.