Those gamers wondering if they should upgrade their CPU, or their GPU to more effectively play Oblivion, can look to Anandtech for their answer. The short answer, is both, if you can afford it. Anandtech benchmarks a series of CPUs against the current GPU leader in Oblivion performance, the ATI Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire, and then cross-examines their results by running the same CPU at different speeds against four ATI configurations to give an idea of how well the CPU scales in mid-range to high-end performance scenarios. Clearly, there are a couple of takeaways from this test. First, if gamers have a Radeon X1900XT CrossFire rig, their gameplay is likely to be CPU bound. Second, if gamers want to make the most of a top-end GPU, then they will want an AMD CPU. Very few of the Intel chips made a showing, and the AMD dual-core chips were the clear winner. As always, the middle ground is a lot less clear. There are clearly sections of Oblivion that are going to be highly CPU bound, like the towns in game, and to some extent, the dungeons. Gamers with mid-range CPUs probably aren’t going to see the benefit of a high-end graphics card in Oblivion because of this. Since Oblivion will take advantage of dual-core chips, it might make sense to upgrade to a dual-core first, and approach the GPU later.

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