Oblivion System requirements

[Switch]

A while. :P Would that really affect things so drastically though? It doesn't look *too* bad to me, and still seems to rotate at a good rate...

 

Really? I guess Windows isn't so accurate about CPU speeds then...

[Kissimurra]

Ahh, you see, AMD measures their CPU frequency different than Intel does on their Pentium Processors.

 

Its like measuring speed in Miles per hour and kilometers per hour.

 

The AMD Athlon 64 2800 + runs att 1.8 Ghz but has the same performance as a Pentium at 2800 Mhz.

 

The "2800+" is like a guideline to be able to compare Pentium and AMD processors!

 

Although, an AMD Athlon 64 2800+ at 1.8Ghz is actullay faster than a Pentium 4 at 3.06Ghz, because its has a much mure effective architecture.

 

This is because they measure CPU speed in different ways....as I said. :D

[Dilvish]

from Dilvish - Minimum 512 MB system RAM, 5 GB HD free space

 

from Abramul - Dilvish, you'll want to clear out some stuff from your HD, and get more RAM (I think we'll need more than 512).

 

I was making a wild guess on minimum system requirements. It seemed easier to guess the minimum requirements.

 

What system will be needed to run Oblivion smoothly at decent FPS? I don't know. I hope to use my current system for oblivion. I hope it meets the minimum requirements when they are announced.

Do you really think they will make the minimum RAM over 512 MB?

[Kissimurra]

Do you really think they will make the minimum RAM over 512 MB?

 

 

 

Yeah, I dont think that you will need more than 512 Mb ram, but Of course it deends on wich kind of ram you have.

 

If you have 512 Mb 400Mhz it think that will be enough, but if you have 512Mb 266Mhz, you might want to get more or faster ram.

 

Its not only the amount of ram that counts. :)

[Marxist ßastard]

First and foremost, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

 

Now, I would like to bring your attention to a thread I started some time ago detailing the X-Box 360 system specifications. I do not believe these specifications have changed much, and may possibly even be found, intact, in press releases straight from the horse's mouth.

 

Since Oblivion is -- being pushed into release alongside the X-Box 360 -- inevitably going to be something of a port of a console game to PC underneath it all, expect the PC equivalents of these parts, especially the ATi R520, to be close to the recommended system specifications.

 

Ahh, you see, AMD measures their CPU frequency different than Intel does on their Pentium Processors.

 

Its like measuring speed in Miles per hour and kilometers per hour.

 

That is an extremely misleading analogy. Both AMD and Intel measure processor frequencies in hertz, as the product of the FSB frequency and the processor's internal clock multiplier. What you're talking about has to do entirely with the model name.

 

The AMD Athlon 64 2800 + runs att 1.8 Ghz but has the same performance as a Pentium at 2800 Mhz.

 

The "2800+" is like a guideline to be able to compare Pentium and AMD processors!

 

Not entirely accurate either -- a little bit more of an explanation is required here.

 

In the beginning, both AMD and Intel's processor model names consisted of an architecture and a clock speed, but this lasted only as long as the processors weren't fundamentally different, and thus the speed of one X86 processors relative to the speed of a competitor's was a good enough benchmark, so long as you didn't compare an i80486-SX with a K6-2, or a Pentium III with an am80286.

 

However, when the Pentium 4 came along, Intel cooked the books a bit with a technology called NetBurst. NetBurst allowed the CPU speed to increase beyond what would normally be possible, but at the expense of instructions executed per clock cycle -- which means that while a Pentium 4 may be able to execute a specific instruction in four clock cycles, effectively taking x seconds to do its work, an AMD processor would be able to perform that same instruction in only one cycle, being able to execute that same instruction four times in x seconds.

 

However, Joe Sixpack can't be expected to know this, and, being that he heard no end just recently about the race to one gigahertz, thought that processor frequency was equal to its power in all cases.

 

AMD couldn't reproduce NetBurst as it was practically a patent landmine. Intel had been forbidding AMD to produce processors that could be drop-in replacements for their chips since the time of the K6, thus demonstrating that they had no problem eliminating its competition through litigation. AMD's only options were to spend its meager advertising budget trying -- futily, of course -- to educate the public about the modern X86 processor's ability to execute multiple instructions in a single clock cycle, bringing on a neverending supply of IPC comparisons between the Pentium 4 and AMD's current processors, or even both companies' past processors, or to exclude the processor speed from their processors' names.

 

They chose the latter.

 

The PR number that you see tacked onto the model names of AMD processors produced after the K7 Thunderbird (a fine processor, I might add) is a rough estimate of how that particular processor will compare against a Thunderbird -- not a Pentium 4 -- in a synthetic benchmark. An Athlon 64 3200+ is what a guy named Ted, working for AMD's PR department, thinks a Thunderbird would perform like if it were overclocked to 3.2 GHz. It has nothing to do with any Pentium 4 model in particular. Additionally, it isn't a good indicator of performance at all, especially when you apply it to a 64-bit processor with an integrated memory controller and other such technological advancements -- a test designed for 32-bit processors that doesn't delve into memory bandwidth at all and doesn't use the newfangled instruction sets that have come around since after the Clinton administration simply has no relevance.

 

Confusing, isn't it? Fortunately, Intel has realized that NetBurst was just a Bad Idea, and their Israeli division has been pumping out the NetBurst-free Pentium M. Naturally, when they fell back to Pentium III-like speeds, NetBurst bit them on the ass and they switched to simple model numbers, to make the prospective buyer research just the smallest bit before buying the "faster" and simply outrageously priced Pentium 4 over the insanely priced Pentium M.

 

Likewise, AMD has, at least partially, realized that the PR ratings have meant absolutely nothing for a while, and has been naming their Opteron server chips, among them the Athlon FX series of processors, with a simple model number.

[Abramul]

Welcome back!

 

Isn't there some sort of CPU (or perhaps CPU+RAM+Mainboard) benchmarking program, sort of like video cards have?

[Dark0ne]

He returns after what, half-a-year, to give us all a good lecture ;)

[Marxist ßastard]

Isn't there some sort of CPU (or perhaps CPU+RAM+Mainboard) benchmarking program, sort of like video cards have?

 

Of course there is.

 

In particular, AMD, for its PR ratings, uses SPECint and SPECfp. The problem is that these benchmarks are old, not properly simulating software optimized for 64-bit systems with recent additional instruction sets, and due to the benchmark's $US500 price tag, cannot be widely duplicated.

 

He returns after what, half-a-year, to give us all a good lecture

 

The most recent one before that, about people hating the British, didn't look to be standing up to the test of time.

 

Besides, how could I leave for too long when on the verge of a big, round postcount like 2000?

[Abramul]

Actually, you may have lost some posts. See the "Boo-Boo" topic.

[Switch]

Well, that was... confusing. :P

 

As for me, a friend fixed in a new fan and that seems to be keeping the CPU at a cool 45 degrees at maximum stress (aka when playing Everquest 2) with the case on. With the old fan it shot up to 70 degrees and crashed when doing that. The game still runs pretty slow though. Hopefully some additional RAM will take care of that. :P

 

Sorry, but I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to in-depth specs like that, any idea what the specs for the XBox 360 will be in layman's terms? Like CPU ghz, RAM and equivilant graphics card?

 

I'm hoping doubling my RAM will be enough to at least run Oblivion at 15 FPS on minimum graphics, heheh. :D