Another Oblivion Problem

[suspect561]

Sorry if this has been discussed already but having issues with playing Oblivion and seems most people here have played it.

Im using a new Dell E310, P4 2.8Ghz with:
- ATI Radeon 9250 (PowerColor) 256MB video card
- 1GB RAM
- DirectX9.0c

I just want to note that Im not an advanced computer user.

I had no issues with the install, but anytime I start a new game the opening movie plays then starts to have what I would call frame rate problems --> the bottom breaks up into like 3 boxes and freezes/lags. Skipping the movie I come to the create-a-character page but the background is white and it only shows the edit box with character name and such. If I fill that out It brings me into the game (or at least what seems to be the game) and the screen is white --> looks like the brightness is maxed out. When adjusting the in-game video options, the brightness adjustment doesnt help and upon exiting the video options, the game always crashes. I hope this makes sense to someone. Any help would be most appreciated!

[mjc]

I would start with drivers...do you have the latest drivers for your video card?

[suspect561]

I just assumed I did since it was all pretty much new. Im going to look. thanks.

[jlreich]

Oblivion video card support only goes down to the 9500 series. Also your 9250 only supports DirectX8. Oblivion requires a video card that fully supports DirectX9.

I think the video card just isn't able to handle Oblivion. :(

But do try the latest drivers. You never know it may help.

Also if you can get into the options, set everything to the lowest settings and work your way up until either it won't run the game or it becomes to bad to play.

You didn't mention what OS you are running but Oblivion requires win2000, XP or XP64.

[suspect561]

Im sorry, the OS im running is the XP Media Center 05.

If the video card supports DirectX8, is there no way to update it to DirectX9 or is it just SOL? Also, I used the directX tests that Oblivion has in its support section which all passed.

Im currently at work, so I haven't been able to try anything yet. I did find that there was a driver update for it. So, hopefully that fixes it.

I appreciate the help.

[mjc]

There is a difference between being able to run DX9 and fully supporting it...some of the features can be ignored and others run in emulation mode. But fully supporting it means that all the features are handled by the hardware (graphics card) with no emulation.

A graphics card that doesn't support the features usually means that the circuits to do so either do not exist on the card (the card was made/designed before such features became important) or there aren't enough of them...

[jlreich]

Even if it passed the DirectX tests it still is an unsupported video chip, although I am surprised it passed. It just doesn't have the capabilities to run the game properly.

Try the new drivers. Shut down any unnecessary programs running in the background.

Still though I don't think it will help much. Your CPU and ram is fine, but a 9250 running Oblivion is sorely lacking in video processing power.

Keep in mind the recommended minimum video card is either an ATI x800 or an nVidia 6800, or higher. And that's just where the game starts looking good and getting good frame rates at the same time at decent resolution. Both those cards are way more powerful than your 9250.

Oblivion is a very graphic intensive game requiring a lot of video processing power to run good.

Honestly even if you can actually get it to run, I think it will be so sluggish and choppy you won't be able to enjoy it. You can't expect to play the latest games with a video card from probably five years ago or more.

Try not feel to bad about it though. I have seen where a lot of people have bought Oblivion only to find out it will require a new video card if they want to play it.

I was lucky, I just upgraded from an x700 to an 6800GS shortly before the game was released. Good thing as I realy don't think the x700 could handle it very well. I probably would have been stuck with 800x600 with absolutely no goodies turned on. Even with the factory OC'ed/+ my OC 6800GS I still had to turn off the grass in order to get better frame rates at 1164x832.

[suspect561]

Even if it passed the DirectX tests it still is an unsupported video chip, although I am surprised it passed. It just doesn't have the capabilities to run the game properly.

Try the new drivers. Shut down any unnecessary programs running in the background.

Still though I don't think it will help much. Your CPU and ram is fine, but a 9250 running Oblivion is sorely lacking in video processing power.

Keep in mind the recommended minimum video card is either an ATI x800 or an nVidia 6800, or higher. And that's just where the game starts looking good and getting good frame rates at the same time at decent resolution. Both those cards are way more powerful than your 9250.

Oblivion is a very graphic intensive game requiring a lot of video processing power to run good.

Honestly even if you can actually get it to run, I think it will be so sluggish and choppy you won't be able to enjoy it. You can't expect to play the latest games with a video card from probably five years ago or more.

Try not feel to bad about it though. I have seen where a lot of people have bought Oblivion only to find out it will require a new video card if they want to play it.

I was lucky, I just upgraded from an x700 to an 6800GS shortly before the game was released. Good thing as I realy don't think the x700 could handle it very well. I probably would have been stuck with 800x600 with absolutely no goodies turned on. Even with the factory OC'ed/+ my OC 6800GS I still had to turn off the grass in order to get better frame rates at 1164x832.

I hear what you're saying and thanks for the help. My E310 only offers a PCI bus and was wondering if there are different types of PCI cards? I know the PCIexpress is different but looking at pictures of different cards labled PCI they are different such as the number of splits where it plugs in. Like mine just has one but some I see have two. Is this just them using a basic image or is there a difference. Sorry, for the 101 questions.

[jlreich]

PCI? Ouch! I was hoping you at least had AGP. :(

PCI is very old for video cards. But still very useful for some expansion cards like NIC's, modems etc..

Then came along AGP which was the raining champ for several years. It was/is only for graphics and is a huge improvement over PCI. AGP is now a dying interface and I wouldn't recommend any "new" system that uses it.

PCIe x16 is the newest and by far better than anything previous. If you decide to get a new system make sure it has on of these. ;)

There are also PCIe x1 and x4 slots. These are not for graphics cards at all, but are slowly taking the place of PCI altogether. You will commonly find motherboards with one or two PCIe x16 slots, two-three PCI slots, and two PCIe x1 slots.

Your only hope to play Oblivion is something like this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150061

But don't expect great things though, it won't play it well, but at least it gets you into the Oblivion supported video cards list and supports DX9.

I hate to say it but if you want to play Oblivion and get decent frame rates at decent settings where you can really enjoy it, you are going to need to get a new system.

[saphalline]

This is an unfortunate situation, but on the other hand... you did buy a Dell! :p Sorry to stick it to you like that but you can't really expect to play games on an OEM system. They weren't designed for it, as you can see. Oblivion is one the most powerful games in existence right now and can swallow 100 million transistors and still ask for more! A 9250 can't even cut it for Doom 3, so it has absolutely no chance with Oblivion! Like the others said, even if you could get it to run, I doubt it would be playable at 640 x 480 with everything turned down to the minimum. My Radeon 9700 Pro is many times more powerful than your 9250, and I can barely play at 800 x 600 with medium & low settings. And I've got a P4C 2.6 with 2GB of dual-channel RAM to back me up! :eek:

I do feel sorry for you in regards to the game, but didn't you read the system requirements before you broke the seal and tried to install it? Your vid card has no DX9 hardware support, which the game clearly requires. Yes your system will pass the DirectX tests, but those aren't meant to test your system as a whole for readiness to run the game - those just test DirectX itself to make sure you have the latest version and that your vid card's drivers are fine. Oddly enough, they don't seem to test for GPU/VPU DX9 compliancy. :confused:

If you want a cheap option to at least be able to make the game run, then this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133007) is your best shot. Beyond that, you'll need a new gaming system to really let loose on the scorching islands of Oblivion...

[suspect561]

You're right. I didnt read the requirements of the game, a tough lesson learned. LOL. I havent bought or played any games for a PC in years and thought I would try a new game - not thinking how fast technology changes with them and only saw that it got good reviews - deer in headlights.

I really do appreciate everybodys help and advice. I mistakenly bought the 310 thinking it did have the PCIe bus but that was the 510; but no bother. Im not looking to spend any more money to upgrade the computer. It plays PartyPoker and im happy with that. So im just going to sell the game on eBay and try and get some money back on that purchase.

If I go into spending any more money to play games I might look into just getting the 360. Thanks again, everyone.

[saphalline]

Bummer about that, but like you said, lesson learned. Unfortunately, graphics technology over the past couple of years has been increasing exponentially. Unlike an older CPU, which is simply slower than a newer one, older vid cards are actually unable to render the latest games. You'd have more luck making a car fly. :rolleyes:

Definitely get the XBox 360 if you never want to have to think about this stuff again. As for myself, I kinda like it! :D

[Rywon]

Sorry if this has been discussed already but having issues with playing Oblivion and seems most people here have played it.

Im using a new Dell E310, P4 2.8Ghz with:
- ATI Radeon 9250 (PowerColor) 256MB video card
- 1GB RAM
- DirectX9.0c

I just want to note that Im not an advanced computer user.

I had no issues with the install, but anytime I start a new game the opening movie plays then starts to have what I would call frame rate problems --> the bottom breaks up into like 3 boxes and freezes/lags. Skipping the movie I come to the create-a-character page but the background is white and it only shows the edit box with character name and such. If I fill that out It brings me into the game (or at least what seems to be the game) and the screen is white --> looks like the brightness is maxed out. When adjusting the in-game video options, the brightness adjustment doesnt help and upon exiting the video options, the game always crashes. I hope this makes sense to someone. Any help would be most appreciated!

- Completely the same problem as me. And I´m no noobie when it comes to a PC.

[LadyGrey]

Everything Saph has mentioned is a major deal to be able to play Oblivion. I have myself gone and gotten 1 Gig of memory. Ran across what I think is a deal, Corsair matched set, with heat spreaders, DDR 400, PC 3200 with free shipping and a $15 rebate. I thought that was cool so I did it. No install problems and Oblivion runs so much better. As for the grass effects I really don't like them, I've had them turned on but obscured so much of the landscape, I'm a wood elf ya know, that I turned them off again. I'm running with a PNY GeForce 6200 256MB AGP card and it runs cool for me. I'm kicken butt and just havin a blast. Don't even go there Saph, yeah on half way to easy!http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/tongue.gif
But the point is, is that you can run Oblivion with less than the specs, I've done it, but I'm talking a computer that has been built, not something from Dell or any of the other pre-manufactured things. It's not gonna work. I wish both of you, Suspect and Rywon the best of luck!
LGhttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/wink.gif