Sub-par Oblivion performance with 1950XT

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan
I just started the game. Everything was fine and looked great in the sewers, but once I got outside and started wandering around where there was a lot of grass and stuff, it slowed down a lot. I don't know what my FPS were, but it felt like they were below 15 because it was not smooth at all. I have Catalyst 7.1 installed, video settings sliders maxed, Bloom and 6xAA. I have an Athlon 64 3200+ and 2x512 of Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200. I checked to make sure the card is ramping up for 3D mode and it is. What's the deal? I thought the 1950XT was supposed to eat up Oblivion with settings maxed. Any suggestions on tweaks or anything to get me running smooth?

turn grass down ... or better *edit* it's length in the .ini

Grass is the *single thing* that kills performance ... especially as your rig tries to render it as you move around. [i forgot if there are Soft Shadows -OFF, if so]

1GB of system RAM is considered *sufficient* for oblivion ... otoh, NOT for Gothic3

finally run *other* games ... and 3DMark05/6 to make sure it is ONLY oblivion
[what video card did yo have before?]

you may have *issues* ... my system is VERY similar - except i have a lesser card - x1950p/512 - and i no longer have these slowdowns that you mention even OUTside ... i DID have them with my x850xt and had to turn Grass completely down.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Wolfkin

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: Eurasianman
Catalyst 7.1 blows. Use the previous one.

Cat 7.1 are great IMO...

Same here, no problems, games work great, some games are faster and some same as before but none are slower.

Nah, the Cat 7.1's aren't great.
The WarCat 7.1's are great.

And I don't really believe it but akshayt got it right.
6xAA=major slowdown in performance.

You should be able to get 4xAA+HDR.
Don't install any LOD/high res texture mods. If you don't do that then the 256mb of vram shouldn't be a problem unless your running it at some uber high resolution.
(and you actually should be able to install the two distance: LOD mods+boarder regions)

And 2gigs of ram would help.

And check out the optimizing Oblivion guide (just don't change the ugrids value)

 

[VanTheMan]

Originally posted by: apoppin
turn grass down ... or better *edit* it's length in the .ini

Grass is the *single thing* that kills performance ... especially as your rig tries to render it as you move around. [i forgot if there are Soft Shadows -OFF, if so]

1GB of system RAM is considered *sufficient* for oblivion ... otoh, NOT for Gothic3

finally run *other* games ... and 3DMark05/6 to make sure it is ONLY oblivion
[what video card did yo have before?]

you may have *issues* ... my system is VERY similar - except i have a lesser card - x1950p/512 - and i no longer have these slowdowns that you mention even OUTside ... i DID have them with my x850xt and had to turn Grass completely down.

I had a 7600GT before this card. I tried NWN2 a minute ago and it ran way better than it used to with my 7600GT. I changed 3 grass variables in the .ini. One to make it more sparse and two for end/fade distance. I looked at your system specs and our systems really are similar, except for the processor.

 

[VanTheMan]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Nah, the Cat 7.1's aren't great.
The WarCat 7.1's are great.

And I don't really believe it but akshayt got it right.
6xAA=major slowdown in performance.

You should be able to get 4xAA+HDR.
Don't install any LOD/high res texture mods. If you don't do that then the 256mb of vram shouldn't be a problem unless your running it at some uber high resolution.
(and you actually should be able to install the two distance: LOD mods+boarder regions)

And 2gigs of ram would help.

And check out the optimizing Oblivion guide (just don't change the ugrids value)

haha, I just got done following that tweak guide as well as one on Tweakguides.com and I'm pretty sure my FPS went down. Since you mentioned the texture mods, I did install Qarl's Texture Pack 2. So I guess that boosted me from 1024 to 2048. Maybe I should remove that mod. I've been using 2-4x AA recently since somebody mentioned 6x was overkill. I'm running 1280x1024. I'd love to get 2 1GB sticks of RAM, but with RAM prices the way they are... back to tweaking for now. Thanks.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan
I just started the game. Everything was fine and looked great in the sewers, but once I got outside and started wandering around where there was a lot of grass and stuff, it slowed down a lot. I don't know what my FPS were, but it felt like they were below 15 because it was not smooth at all. I have Catalyst 7.1 installed, video settings sliders maxed, Bloom and 6xAA. I have an Athlon 64 3200+ and 2x512 of Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200. I checked to make sure the card is ramping up for 3D mode and it is. What's the deal? I thought the 1950XT was supposed to eat up Oblivion with settings maxed. Any suggestions on tweaks or anything to get me running smooth?

Only the enthusiast Geforce 8 level video cards can handle the vegetation areas of Oblivion at decent frames, everything else still struggles to provide an adequate levels of FPS, espeically so in your case running Max AA and Max in game settings.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: Eurasianman
XBOX 360 runs it nicely =P

Surely that is sarcasm? I ditched the 360 version becuase chugs like mad and it's framerate often drops into the teens.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan

Originally posted by: apoppin
turn grass down ... or better *edit* it's length in the .ini

Grass is the *single thing* that kills performance ... especially as your rig tries to render it as you move around. [i forgot if there are Soft Shadows -OFF, if so]

1GB of system RAM is considered *sufficient* for oblivion ... otoh, NOT for Gothic3

finally run *other* games ... and 3DMark05/6 to make sure it is ONLY oblivion
[what video card did yo have before?]

you may have *issues* ... my system is VERY similar - except i have a lesser card - x1950p/512 - and i no longer have these slowdowns that you mention even OUTside ... i DID have them with my x850xt and had to turn Grass completely down.

I had a 7600GT before this card. I tried NWN2 a minute ago and it ran way better than it used to with my 7600GT. I changed 3 grass variables in the .ini. One to make it more sparse and two for end/fade distance. I looked at your system specs and our systems really are similar, except for the processor.

even our CPUs
:Q

a 'stock' 3.2Ghz P4 NW will be easily outrun by your stock A64 3200+ ... otoh, by virtue of being O/C'd from 2.8 to 3.2 [and 3.31Ghz] they are roughly "equal" --even in gaming performance

i'd say the mods can really screw up your Oblivion game

i'd get *everything* back at default - uninstall and reinstall Oblivion [taking care for your Saves] and try again at recommended settings

ALSO - *this is CRITICAL* * you must have uninstalled every last TRACE of your nvidia drivers

they will give random and variable *issues*

some people [wisely] do a clean O/S install

*BUT* if you are getting normal 3DMark scores and other games are running good [don't count that *BUGGY PoS -NWN2* (!)] ... i'd just concentrate on oblivion.

i am getting totally smooth frames in Oblivion with HDR with *only 4xAA*, *everything as *maxed* as it can go including grass [except for one of the shadow options].

and i will be trying 7.1 cats as soon as i finish d/ling

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Nah, the Cat 7.1's aren't great.
The WarCat 7.1's are great.

And I don't really believe it but akshayt got it right.
6xAA=major slowdown in performance.

You should be able to get 4xAA+HDR.
Don't install any LOD/high res texture mods. If you don't do that then the 256mb of vram shouldn't be a problem unless your running it at some uber high resolution.
(and you actually should be able to install the two distance: LOD mods+boarder regions)

And 2gigs of ram would help.

And check out the optimizing Oblivion guide (just don't change the ugrids value)

haha, I just got done following that tweak guide as well as one on Tweakguides.com and I'm pretty sure my FPS went down. Since you mentioned the texture mods, I did install Qarl's Texture Pack 2. So I guess that boosted me from 1024 to 2048. Maybe I should remove that mod. I've been using 2-4x AA recently since somebody mentioned 6x was overkill. I'm running 1280x1024. I'd love to get 2 1GB sticks of RAM, but with RAM prices the way they are... back to tweaking for now. Thanks.

Thats it. Quarls Texture Pack 2 is meant for 512mb cards.
Had the same problem on my 7900GT w/256mb of vram. The qualrs texture pack put it over the edge. (I think it does 4096 texture's too).

The LOD distant textures (Regions and Boarder regions) are still OK for a 256mb card. I was running them no problem on my 7900GT's.

 

[TheRealMrGrey]

Just for your info, since we have the same card (x1950xt 256mb), I am getting 5900 in 3Dmark06, with individual GPU scores over 2000.

 

[VanTheMan]

Originally posted by: apoppin
even our CPUs
:Q

a 'stock' 3.2Ghz P4 NW will be easily outrun by your stock A64 3200+ ... otoh, by virtue of being O/C'd from 2.8 to 3.2 [and 3.31Ghz] they are roughly "equal" --even in gaming performance

i'd say the mods can really screw up your Oblivion game

i'd get *everything* back at default - uninstall and reinstall Oblivion [taking care for your Saves] and try again at recommended settings

ALSO - *this is CRITICAL* * you must have uninstalled every last TRACE of your nvidia drivers

they will give random and variable *issues*

some people [wisely] do a clean O/S install

*BUT* if you are getting normal 3DMark scores and other games are running good [don't count that *BUGGY PoS -NWN2* (!)] ... i'd just concentrate on oblivion.

i am getting totally smooth frames in Oblivion with HDR with *only 4xAA*, *everything as *maxed* as it can go including grass [except for one of the shadow options].

and i will be trying 7.1 cats as soon as i finish d/ling

I'll uninstall and reinstall Oblivion to get everything back to stock, then see how it runs. If it runs well I'll go ahead and install the LOD textures. I guess I didn't read up enough on Qarl's Texture Pack. It really looks amazing, but only when I'm standing still or moving very slowly.

I've read that Oblivion is very sensitive to OCed hardware, so I was hesitant to OC my CPU. Maybe I should just try it out for myself.

I believe I cleared out all my Nvidia stuff with Driver Cleaner Professional before I installed my 7.1 Cats. I'll run some benchmarks when I get home from work to see if I get normal scores. Is the 5900 that MrGrey's rig scored average for a system like mine?

 

[akshayt]

you should manage somewhere around 4-4.5k on stock, heprobably has a c2d

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: akshayt
you should manage somewhere around 4-4.5k on stock, heprobably has a c2d

what are you? AT video forums minister of misinformation?

 

[Painman]

Long shot maybe, but I was running the current(?) beta version of ATi Tray Tools, and after a couple days my framerate tanked badly (REALLY badly) when outdoors. Went back to the latest official release and everything went back to normal.

 

[VanTheMan]

Originally posted by: Painman
Long shot maybe, but I was running the current(?) beta version of ATi Tray Tools, and after a couple days my framerate tanked badly (REALLY badly) when outdoors. Went back to the latest official release and everything went back to normal.

Yeah, I'm using the latest official release of ATT.

 

[akshayt]

try 3d mark 06, i doubt you will even touch 5000.

 

[Captante]

Another option if you don't want to lower detail settings as much is to lower your resolution to 1152x864 or even 1024x768 ... either of these changes, especially the latter will make a huge difference in FPS ... I played at 1280x1024 a lot of the time anyway but my system was a bit faster then yours & in particular had 2gbs RAM.

*(At the time I was running an Opteron 170 @ 2.4ghz, and X1900XTX & 2gb's RAM)

 

[oddity21]

Get rid of AA, then reduce grass distance or get the Shorter Grass mod. Big performance gain right there.

I run Oblivion at either 1280x960 16xAF 16xQ SSAA or 1600x1200 16xAF 4x SSAA, with Qarl's Texture Pack 2, Natural Environments, Cities Alive at Night, Phinix Waterfix, Qarl's LOD Normal Maps, and Blade9722's 4096x4096 LOD Textures among the graphical mods. The game looks fantastic!

 

[VanTheMan]

Originally posted by: oddity21
Get rid of AA, then reduce grass distance or get the Shorter Grass mod. Big performance gain right there.

I run Oblivion at either 1280x960 16xAF 16xQ SSAA or 1600x1200 16xAF 4x SSAA, with Qarl's Texture Pack 2, Natural Environments, Cities Alive at Night, Phinix Waterfix, Qarl's LOD Normal Maps, and Blade9722's 4096x4096 LOD Textures among the graphical mods. The game looks fantastic!

That screen shot looks awesome! Also, I hate you.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan

Originally posted by: apoppin
even our CPUs
:Q

a 'stock' 3.2Ghz P4 NW will be easily outrun by your stock A64 3200+ ... otoh, by virtue of being O/C'd from 2.8 to 3.2 [and 3.31Ghz] they are roughly "equal" --even in gaming performance

i'd say the mods can really screw up your Oblivion game

i'd get *everything* back at default - uninstall and reinstall Oblivion [taking care for your Saves] and try again at recommended settings

ALSO - *this is CRITICAL* * you must have uninstalled every last TRACE of your nvidia drivers

they will give random and variable *issues*

some people [wisely] do a clean O/S install

*BUT* if you are getting normal 3DMark scores and other games are running good [don't count that *BUGGY PoS -NWN2* (!)] ... i'd just concentrate on oblivion.

i am getting totally smooth frames in Oblivion with HDR with *only 4xAA*, *everything as *maxed* as it can go including grass [except for one of the shadow options].

and i will be trying 7.1 cats as soon as i finish d/ling

I'll uninstall and reinstall Oblivion to get everything back to stock, then see how it runs. If it runs well I'll go ahead and install the LOD textures. I guess I didn't read up enough on Qarl's Texture Pack. It really looks amazing, but only when I'm standing still or moving very slowly.

I've read that Oblivion is very sensitive to OCed hardware, so I was hesitant to OC my CPU. Maybe I should just try it out for myself.

I believe I cleared out all my Nvidia stuff with Driver Cleaner Professional before I installed my 7.1 Cats. I'll run some benchmarks when I get home from work to see if I get normal scores. Is the 5900 that MrGrey's rig scored average for a system like mine?

with Core2duo .... i think it's at least a thousand points ahead of yours or mine since it weighs the CPU in the score. ... last i looked, it was about 4,500 in '06 [akshayt is correct].

DON'T o/c your CPU until you get everything else stable --first[!]

my CPU is o/c'd and has zero prob with Oblivion ... a stable O/C is a stable o/c
[and now you're gonna *run away* from mine]


and 7.1 Cats have no problem or issue with my system
[stock cats]

let us know how it goes

and don't worry ... Oblivion *looks awesome* on yours or on my rig ...
:thumbsup:

[--for a *mere* +$2K more, you can have Oddity21's Oblivion results, too
. . . i know i'd need a new CRT also ... or super-expensive LCD]

 

[VanTheMan]

I ran 3DMark06 and scored 4385. 2091 SM2.0 score, 2378 HDR/SM3.0 and 791 processor. I also reinstalled Oblivion and I was getting 30ish FPS without any tweaks, so I'm going to start working on tweaking it again now.

apoppin: What, if any, mods do you have installed?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan
I ran 3DMark06 and scored 4385. 2091 SM2.0 score, 2378 HDR/SM3.0 and 791 processor. I also reinstalled Oblivion and I was getting 30ish FPS without any tweaks, so I'm going to start working on tweaking it again now.

apoppin: What, if any, mods do you have installed?

everything you posted sounds *about right* now
:thumbsup:

now O/C that CPU before you start tweaking Oblivion

and ...

i got Oblivion on Day One

after playing it for 1,000 hours [and reaching Level 93 with *all abilities maxed*] withOUT using ANY mods or cheats or the console ... i modded *everything* [textures/companion mods/user content] ... and played some incredibly good [and hard] user mods [including Kumiko's Manor and the 4 mods by the author that did the Lich King] ... and played a couple of hundred MORE hours
:shocked:

at the time i *only had* a x850xt and could only use *some* texture mods .... by the time Knights of the Nine came out, i got my x1950p but am SO *burned out* on Oblivion, i can't play it anymore ... it was "very pretty" but i can't even finish that Quest.

[and of course - in the meantime - i finished Gothic 3, NWN2, DM M&M, B&W2/BotG ... played Gun, HL2 ch1, and Darwinia and am playing PREY and Fable LC right now ... . and FEAR's xpak]
:Q

so ... i probably won't get back to Oblivion until the Shivering Isles real expansion ... with a new character.

 

[VanTheMan]

Ok, I was only able to get a 10% overclock, but it gave me almost 200 extra 3dmarks. I tried to get more, but I'm just too tired after working all night to keep messing with it. I'm going to get back on tweaking Oblivion so I can see whether or not all this work will pay off.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: VanTheMan
Ok, I was only able to get a 10% overclock, but it gave me almost 200 extra 3dmarks. I tried to get more, but I'm just too tired after working all night to keep messing with it. I'm going to get back on tweaking Oblivion so I can see whether or not all this work will pay off.

*only 10%*

by my calculations you just *upgraded* to an A64 3500+
. . . for "free"
:Q

and i bet you can easily do better than that ... check CPU forum
:thumbsup:

 

[VanTheMan]

I hope I can get a better OC. I tried setting the CPU frequency to 240 with the rest of the settings the same as my 220 overclock, but when I booted into XP cpu-z showed the 1440MHz instead of 2400. The memory divider had also changed from CPU/12 to CPU/8 even though I didn't change any memory settings. It doesn't seem like my RAM wants to do DDR400 at any timings or voltage, so maybe that was the problem since 240MHz would have put the RAM at 199MHz. It's running 183MHz fine now, but it just acts like it won't do 200.

 

[akshayt]

If you able to get around 1200-1400 CPU marks then you will probably touch or exceed a score of 5000.