Old/before images: Using a GeForce FX5500 GT 256MB 8X AGP graphics card, had to set it up like that just to make it playable. Any higher graphics settings made the framerate suck indoors and be completely unplayable outdoors. These settings required modification of the .ini file just to get, simply adjusting the video options was not enough.
New/after images: Using a Sapphire ATI Radeon X1600 256MB 8X AGP graphics card. I simply installed the card, got the default drivers up and then started Oblivion. I didn't even tweak to see how high I could get the graphics yet, I just let Oblivion set the graphics settings for itself and went with what it decided on.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Edit: Here is after I turned EVERYTHING on full blast, this is max graphic settings with 1280x1024 resolution: