On my old computer
AMD Athalon 2000+ 1.66Ghz
GeForce 5200 128Mb AGP 4X
1 Gb RAM 333Mhz (1 1Gb 400Mhz Dual Channel , 1 512MB 333Mhz)(MoBo doesnt support DC)
Res:1280x1024
Tex:1024 + hires (preloaded everything)
Detail: around 50%
everything else maxed and i got a constant 30FPS and a max of around 52FPS
(last played in the 2.07 patch thou)
if you have atleast 1Gb of ram, id say go to 1024 w/ hires, as Krusty said, if you dont see a difference between 512 and 1024 textures, youve gotta be blind.
TexInVa you can turn up all the quality if you turn VSync on, it will limit the in game FPS to the Refresh rate of your monitor, and since its a 19' LCD use 1280x960 or 1280x768, i used to play on a 19' LCD w/ my old computer (now which is my prnts) and i could see the guages and everything else