Is it just me or are oblivion system demands..

[imported_goku]

I finally installed oblivion this weekend and I'm having a lot of fun with the game, a little bit 'too much fun' if you get what I'm saying. So anyways, I finally decided to fool around with the graphics settings and I don't see what all the fuss is, the graphics look great and all but it isn't obliterating my system or anything.


<Ramble>
One thing I do notice though is that no matter how few of object in the scene there are, at 1280X1024 I pretty much max out at 30fps, and when I turn up the graphics settings to high, the frame rates only drop about 15fps, with everything maxed out in most circumstances the lowest it will go is 10fps. Enabling AA and AF doesn't effect framerates the smallest bit, also overclocking will improve frame rates from lows of 8 to about 11 or 12. While 10fps is pretty bad, it's nothing like I'd have expected it to be. There is one case where the framerates will drop to like 3fps, and thats at a particular location under a bridge near some water. I can provide pics if you guys are interested at all. But yea, at full detail the game is amazing.
</ramble>
So yea, I was wondering though, 1. Why is it that turning on Large Textures improves video quality but doesn't really effect framerates? (Cause anand benched the midrange cards at 1024X768 and medium textures with the highend at 1280X1024 High Textures) 2. Why does enabling shadows create such a HUGE performance penalty?

 

[josh6079]

I don't see what all the fuss is, the graphics look great and all but it isn't obliterating my system or anything....the lowest it will go is 10fps...also overclocking will improve frame rates from lows of 8 to about 11 or 12...While 10fps is pretty bad, it's nothing like I'd have expected it to be...framerates will drop to like 3fps, and thats at a particular location under a bridge near some water.

Why is it that turning on Large Textures improves video quality but doesn't really effect framerates?

Good question, ask the developers.

Why does enabling shadows create such a HUGE performance penalty?

Good question, ask the developers.

Truth is, Oblivion has a CPU bound engine that just isn't as efficient as others. From what I've read, even those who bench it with an X6800 see this.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

the large textures mainly affect ram ussage and loading time (and stuterring)

 

[Avalon]

I'm going to have to agree with Josh here. If you're getting 8-12fps often, that really sounds like the game is obliterating your system.

I tend to find, just like you did, that the game is much more tolerable at lower framerates than first person shooters. I have no problem if my min fps is 20, but anything under that starts to bother me, whereas in an FPS I need to have 50-60 min or it will bother me.

Which shadow option are you trying to enable? Grass shadows is brutal because there are a lot of objects to calculate shadows for. Same goes with all the foliage and NPCs/monsters in the game. You've got a TON of things casting off shadows, which is why shadows are such a huge factor in performance or lack thereof.

 

[TheRyuu]

Even after all the tweaks you can do to the ini Oblivion is just really demanding.
I don't think I could even stand 10fps min. Maby 20. But I HATE IT WHEN IT GETS CHOPPY (especally in the middle of a fsck'n battle)

My 7900GT's only have 256mb of vram but I can still use large textures without a problem. As long as I don't use any LOD mods (like making every fsck'n thing in the game 2048x2048) then were good. I can still use the distance LOD mods to improve the landscape at a distance and that should fit perfectly in the 256mb of VRAM. I also have 2GB of ram but I don't know if that has anythign to do with it.

 

[aka1nas]

The game is pretty much CPU-limited on any setting/resolution that is remotely playable by current hardware. Not sure how well a fast OC'ed Conroe rig with SLI or crossfire would do as I haven't seen becnhmarks with it yet.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The game is pretty much CPU-limited on any setting/resolution that is remotely playable by current hardware.

no its not. i went from a barton xp @ 2400mhz to an opty 144 @ 2600mhz, i hardly noticed an increase in performance (playing @ 1024x768). I dont know why people say things like that for modern games, im sure if i went from my 6800gt to a x1900xt w/ 512mb i'd notice a MASSIVE difference.

btw to the original poster, if u get any of the LOD mods then u'll notice a serious penalty hit. mine is unplayable w/ them, but it sucks cause they really make the game gorcious.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: poohbear

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The game is pretty much CPU-limited on any setting/resolution that is remotely playable by current hardware.

no its not. i went from a barton xp @ 2400mhz to an opty 144 @ 2600mhz, i hardly noticed an increase in performance (playing @ 1024x768). I dont know why people say things like that for modern games, im sure if i went from my 6800gt to a x1900xt w/ 512mb i'd notice a MASSIVE difference.

A better video card would let you play higher resolutions/more eye candy, not a boost in frames if you're CPU limited. Yes that could be considered a massive difference, but not in the area of discussion.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Avalon
I'm going to have to agree with Josh here. If you're getting 8-12fps often, that really sounds like the game is obliterating your system.

I tend to find, just like you did, that the game is much more tolerable at lower framerates than first person shooters. I have no problem if my min fps is 20, but anything under that starts to bother me, whereas in an FPS I need to have 50-60 min or it will bother me.

Which shadow option are you trying to enable? Grass shadows is brutal because there are a lot of objects to calculate shadows for. Same goes with all the foliage and NPCs/monsters in the game. You've got a TON of things casting off shadows, which is why shadows are such a huge factor in performance or lack thereof.

I'm unable to enable grass shadows, while the performance penalty isn't very great in most situations, if I'm floating in the water, the sun is rising and I'm looking half at the background, half at the relfection of the bridge, with shadowns completely off, I'll get drops of 10fps, if I enable external shadows, the frame rates will drop to 3fps. I was wondering, are effects such as shadows, reflections and any other things (please mention) CPU bound?

Also I just realized something, Since I'm RMA'ing my new 2GB memory sticks that are 'overclockers sticks', I've been at the moment, using 3 512MB memory modules so that I wouldn't have under 1GB of ram when playing BF2. So not only am I running with an ASYNC memory divider but I'm in single channel mode at the moment with horrible timings, so could this possibly explain the huge preformance penalties of what I just listed above?

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: poohbear

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The game is pretty much CPU-limited on any setting/resolution that is remotely playable by current hardware.

no its not. i went from a barton xp @ 2400mhz to an opty 144 @ 2600mhz, i hardly noticed an increase in performance (playing @ 1024x768). I dont know why people say things like that for modern games, im sure if i went from my 6800gt to a x1900xt w/ 512mb i'd notice a MASSIVE difference.

btw to the original poster, if u get any of the LOD mods then u'll notice a serious penalty hit. mine is unplayable w/ them, but it sucks cause they really make the game gorcious.

Actually, it is.

"Whenever a PC game pushes the limits of what current hardware can do, it generally ends up being fairly GPU bound. In the past, as long as you had pretty much any Socket-939 Athlon 64 you had enough CPU power to drive even the fastest single GPU video cards. You would typically be running at fairly GPU-bound graphics settings - even if you were CPU-bound, frame rates would be high enough that it wouldn't really matter. However, every now and then there comes a game that is an equal opportunity stress test on your system, requiring an extremely fast CPU as well as a high end GPU. Bethesda Softworks' latest hit title, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is such a game."

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