The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GPU Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 26, 2006 1:07 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
High End GPU Performance w/ Bloom Enabled
The only Shader Model 2.0 cards we have in this comparison are ATI's Radeon X800 series, the rest of the contenders are SM3.0 capable. While the SM2.0 vs. 3.0 distinction doesn't really exist in Oblivion, there is one feature that requires the later spec: lighting. Oblivion's HDR lighting setting requires a Shader Model 3.0 capable card, otherwise you're left with a less precise lighting solution called Bloom or nothing at all. Bloom naturally runs faster on all GPUs so we couldn't really throw the X800 numbers in with the rest of the HDR capable cards from above, instead we were forced to do a second run of our benchmarks with Bloom enabled on all GPUs to show you X800 owners whether or not it made sense to upgrade just to get a higher frame rate.
We left the multi-GPU solutions out of these graphs to save time and make them easier to digest; you've already seen how having multiple GPUs improves performance in these tests, so the focus here will be on the single card upgrade paths available to X800 and X850 series owners.
The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate
ATI's X850 and X800 series performs quite well despite its age, with even the X800 GTO outpacing the GeForce 6800 GS. Unfortunately, if you want a good upgrade from your X850/X800 card you're going to have to set your sights (and budget) fairly high. The GeForce 7900 GT and Radeon X1800 GTO are probably your best bets for upgrades, but if you have an X850 XT or X800 XT don't expect the performance difference to be tremendous; instead, you'll have to look towards the Radeon X1900 series.
We continue to see this trend of NVIDIA GPUs posting lower minimum frame rates than ATI GPUs here which, unfortunately for NVIDIA, makes us strongly recommend choosing ATI instead.
The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate
Performance in our Town benchmarks is pretty much as expected and as we've seen before; the very high end GPUs all hit a performance wall right around 50 fps. The Radeon X800 series starts to pull up the rear but still offers significantly better performance than NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 GS (which is a performance equivalent to the GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra depending on clock speeds).
The white lines within the bars indicate minimum frame rate
While all of the GPUs have similar minimum frame rates in our Dungeon test, there is a pretty clear breakdown of performance once we look at cards slower than the GeForce 7800 GT. The standings however don't really change from what we've already seen, the X850/X800 cards continue to significantly outperform the GeForce 6800 GS while making any upgrade path that yields a reasonable improvement fairly expensive.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
I can't say I'd even begin to consider DOAC as better looking graphics. But if that's what you like, more power to you.dhei - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Thats easy to say when you prob don't play it currently. It has all the graphics features you see in Oblivion minus maybe HDR.
ueadian - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Lol are you serious? DAoC might look better while you are smoking the reefer bud but I've played it many times and Oblivion blows it away graphicaly.dhei - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Well your doing drugs to think oblvion has good graphics. I consider them medicore compared to other games of same kind, has I have seen people play the game.DAOC graphics look a ton better to me imo...drug free..
hondaman - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
Why play oblivion instead of MMO?1. No monthly fees
2. Oblivion has an end. MMO doesnt. Thats a good thing for those of us with lives, but little self control.
3. No annoying kids to deal with.
4. No annoying cliques
5. No annoying server downtimes.
6. Not having to answer "a/s/l" every 30 seconds.
There is a pleasant serenity about single player RPG's that is impossible with MMO.
TejTrescent - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
But hmm.My rig is no where close to the rig that you guys used for comparison, and I don't know my exact framerates because I've not yet ran FRAPS with Oblivion, but..
My 3500+ Newcastle, not overclocked, with 2GB of Corsair/Mushkin running dual channel at 2.5-3-3-7, with my AGPx8 6800OC from BFGTech (not overclocked any further either).. I pull highly playable framerates (aka no choppiness unless I'm getting jumped by 6+ Daedric mages, that lightning is killer) at settings MILDLY better than the medium GPU ones (though still 1024x768, just higher fade rates), no tweaks on either. I can even run MediaMonkey for music in the background without any choppy feelings.
I guess Oblivion isn't very CPU dependant or gains anything from multithreads really or something, because huh. I mean, I can't believe my crappy 3500+ is keeping decent pace with an FX60. o_o And better RAM. Just huh. I can generally tell if a framerate falls below 24 thanks to FPS games being painful at any lower than that.. and just huh. Weiird.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
I would say there's a good chance your framerates are below 20 on a regular basis in the wilderness. FX-60, 7900 GT SLI, 2GB RAM, 2x150GB Raptors, and at Fort Bloodford looking towards the closest Oblivion Gate, I pull 13-15 FPS. (1920x1200, most detail settings at high.) I've also found that lowering a lot of settings doesn't have much of an impact. The various "fade" settings don't do much for me.Open the console and type "TDT" to see your frame rates. I personally find anyting above 15 FPS to be acceptable for Oblivion, but opinions vary. :)
TejTrescent - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
Well.. I'll check it out later tonight, but if they are, it's absolutely the smoothest sub 20fps I've ever seen.Lot more playable than UT2004, Painkiller, FarCry, or... pretty much anything else on this comp. XD
TejTrescent - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Wish there was an edit because I feel stupid replying to myself, but. Huh.18-30 outside commonly, 18-35 in the city, and consistent 25-35 in dungeon areas.
I am so so confused right now. The 18 isn't even noticeable. How did they.. what did they.. wha.. Guess it's just the slower pace making it less noticeable..
nullpointerus - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Uh...I'm not a graphics guru, but is it possible that the dips in fps are smoother? If we draw a graph with "1" indicating a frame draw and "x" indicating stalling of some kind - such as processing sound, physics, or waiting on the GPU hardware - then I can illustrate what I'm talking about.1xx1xx1xx1xx1xx
1xx1xx1xx1xx1xx
1xx1xx1xx1xx1xx
1xx1xx1xx1xx1xx (20 fps on a 60Hz display - balanced)
1xxxx11xx1xxx1x
1xxxx11xx1xxx1x
1xxxx11xx1xxx1x
1xxxx11xx1xxx1x (20 fps on a 60Hz display - choppy)
Or do 3D games not work like this?