Oblivion...again

Hey there, sorry to make another one...But anyway, I looked at the reqs for TES: Oblvion and I looked at the video card reqs which say

Recommended:

    * 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
    * 1 GB System RAM
    * ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Now the only problem is the card I have everything else there.
The Minimum Sys Reqs are as follows.
    * Windows XP
    * 512MB System RAM
    * 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
    * 128MB Direct3D compatible video card
    * and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
    * 8x DVD-ROM drive
    * 4.6 GB free hard disk space
    * DirectX 9.0c (included)
    * DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
    * Keyboard, Mouse
My video card came with my computer.
It's an Intel Graphics Media-acclerator 950
    Here are the specs on it ---> http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/     
Under specifications.
Somebody please tell me if I can run Oblivion or if I need a new Video Card.

ya

That's an integrated graphics card, so it doesn't have the power to run anything well. Maybe original Quake. Get a 6600GT, an X800GTO, a 6800GS, or a 7600GT.

I hate to sound elitist, but people really need to take a hint.  If you want to play games on your computer, DON'T BUY FUCKING PRE-MADE COMPUTERS.  They'll either A) be unable to run games for shit, B) cost a fortune, or C) fall somewhere in a grey area between A and B (being able to run games to an extent, but costing way more than they should have given their performance).  Just go out, buy the parts, and put the goddamn thing together yourself.  It's not like you're busting out a blowtorch and welding a robot together.  It's like legos for christ's sake.  Snap the shit together, plug it in, install your OS, and you're good to go.

Stop feeding money to Dell and Emachines so they can build a worthless plastic box for you.  They're companies.  They want money, and they know more than anyone else that the average person probably doesn't know shit about what matters in a computer.  They will fuck you at any chance they get--usually by giving you a worthless integrated video card and then raving about how big the 22' CRT monitor is.

>>4
This is a very ranty way of describing a situation.
If you want to game, build it yourself, or be preapred to spend like three grand on a sub-par 'gaming machine'. Sadly, I heard Dell sold out of one of their lines of XPS machines. Too many suckers.

Download it first and try it out.  If you were asking so you could know before downloading it then you are a huge tool.

All my prebuilts were very cheap and somewhat top of the line when new. DELL, COMPAQ and HP. The HP kind of sucks because it's too new, new HW gets too hot, sounds like a goddamn plane. More actually, as I live next to an airport.

The COMPAQ is great, but had a bit too much junk SW. It's running Linux now. A slightly better video card would not have hurt though.

The DELL was great in every way and still is. It's running Linux as well.

>>7

No way, unless you paid like 4 grand for it. Or great is a short way of saying "has so far not exploded or experienced critical hardware failure"

>>8
No more than 1.5K for each.

Then I fall back on my alternative.

>>10
The first two are rock solid.

>>8

>>11
has so far not exploded or experienced critical hardware failure"

>>12
>>13
Same person.

Manufacturers like Dell use cheap PSUs with insanely low wattage, little to no case cooling, I could go on but there is no point, this sort of thing has been discussed too many times before. If you want something done right, do it yourself. On the other hand, I'm glad you got the luck of the draw and (obviously) take good care of your pair of Dells.
Because of the stuff I mentioned in the first few sentences, OEMs like Dell are NOT a good place to buy a gaming machine, actual performance will come at a huge premium, and will still be subpar compared to something built by a knowledgable 'enthusiast' or a company that cares about you a little more than Dell, like Falcon Northwest or AAC

Try something from Falcon Northwest or AAC.

Like J3ph42 said

>>15
Low wattage == good.
Killer case cooling is not much needed for an 8 year old CPU.

Low wattage == random crashes.
Especially when doing demanding tasks such as gaming.

>>17
The first word in the name of this thread is "Oblivion". Why the fuck are we talking about 8 year old cpus? Also, "killer case cooling" is relative. Likely, what is in the 8yr old box is sufficient FOR 8 YEAR OLD EQUIPMENT!

>>18
I've left 100% CPU apps running for days.

>>19
Not if it's DELL... OR IS IT >:O

>>20
You can waste all the time you want praising shit manufacturers who make cheap machines out of shit parts that work sometimes. I know what I am talking about. You can listen, or not.

>>21
THEY ARE NOT SHIT PARTS THEY ARE INTEL AND ATI THE SUPER GODS OF HARDWARE I ALSO HAVE A SOUNDCARD FROM A DEAD COMPANY BUT THERE ARE DRIVERS FOR LINUX WELL THERE HAVE BEEN FOR AT LEAST 6 YEARS OR SO OKAY

ALSO THE NIC IS VERY GOOD BUT I THINK IT WAS BOUGHT SEPARATELY OH YEAH AND THE HD IS WESTERN DIGITAL AFAIK THEY ARE GODS IN HD BUSINESS OKAY

THE MONITOR IS ALSO ALRIGHT KAWAII NE?

>:O

YOU ARE RETARDED OKAY KAWAII NE

Well juding from my experience, I *know* that you're going to want to get 512 more MB of RAM unless you want your gameplay experience to suck heartly.

As for video card: yes. New one is needed probably. On-board graphics cards suck.

OP:
You do not know as much as you think you do about computers. You are likely one of those people who, when asked a difficult question, replies with "I'm really more of a software guy than a hardware guy". This is synonymous with "FAIL".

I bought my computer two years ago. It cost me $300 (and I later paid $260 for my Nvidia 6800gt when it was still new). This is a total cost of $560. I scrounged a monitor.

Here are my specs:
500 watt PSU, Nvidia GeForce 6800GT 256mb ram, 1gb ram at 258mhz (1033mhz fsb), P4 2.4 @3gh

If you don't meet (within reason, i.e. a 6600 or equivalent will still cut it use your brain) or exceed these specs you will not be impressed by Oblivion. It runs well enough to make me "ooh" and "aah", but I'm only running at 1152x864 and I have some lighting features disabled.

>>25
I'm more of a software guy than a hardware guy!  What do I win?

>>26
 you don't

that's the point

>>27
Meanie :'(

Knowing about hardware is useless!!

And amasingly, every single one of you idiots have been too busy flaming eachother and ranting about the suckyness of this or that manufacturer to mention www.oldblivion.com which might help the OP  (frequent crashes have been reported on the GMA900, but with a bit of fiddling around the OP might get things working to some extent). As suggested earlier, download the game and make sure it's working and then proceed to buy if it does indeed work.

>>29

You still want to get something better then the on-board graphics card.

>>29

There'd be no flamewars if Dell salespeople/fanbois would stop coming on /tech/ and /comp/ and starting shit with people who know better and to confuse the noobs.