Whenever I see system requirements for a game I think, the recommended system requirements are the minimum system requirements. In Oblivion this is very true, as even a X1900XTX running the “Chuck Driver” has areas in the game where the frame rate drops below 30 fps, the “optimal” frame rate for this type of game. ATI cards have a distinct advantage over NVIDIA cards in Oblivion. The X1K series are the only cards able to play Oblivion with HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Anti-Aliasing at the same time. The average frame rate was around 30-60 fps throughout with 1280x1024, HDR, 4x AA 16x AF settings on my 17” LCD monitor. That was totally playable.

Recommended:

• 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
• 1 GB System RAM
• ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card
Minimum System Requirements:
• Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit
• 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

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

• ATI X1900 series
• ATI X1800 series
• ATI X1600 series
• ATI X1300 series
• ATI X850 series
• ATI x800 series
• ATI x700 series
• ATI x600 series
• ATI Radeon 9800 series
• ATI Radeon 9700 series
• ATI Radeon 9600 series
• ATI Radeon 9500 series
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
• NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
• NVIDIA GeForce FX series

Game System
AMD Athlon 3800+
1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 memory
Diamond X1900XTX running “Chuck’s driver”
2 120GB SATA HDDs in RAID 0
Windows XP with SP2
DirectX 9.0c
Retail Collector’s Edition Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion game