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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nullpointerus - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Really? I follow most of this site's articles, and I've never run into this problem.cgrecu77 - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
this is the article I've been waiting for, I was leaning towards upgrading to x1800xt but wasn't sure.The game is easily one of the best i've played (and it's my first RPG, I'm a TBS fan). While it doesn't have the depth and replay value of series like Civ or HOMM, it's still far better than any FPS (can't compare with other RPGs) I ever played.
Whoever says that the graphics in Oblivion are not the best is just full of b..t or lacks the hardware to turn everything on, looking from the top of the mountain at the Imperial City on a clear moon night it simply breathtaking.
The gameplay and interface are also among the best I've seen and there are few occasions where I think: "this should have been improved". The inventory system is probably a weaker point, but even that is debatable (it's quite obvious that much thought was put into it but maybe the decisions taken there are not the greatest).
However, performance is a big issue. My system is middle to upper range (a64 3200, 2gb ram, x850XT) and I can barely play at 1280x1024 with all sliders to the top and without shadows or AA.
Outdoor I get ~20fps which is ok, actually even excelent considering the huge number of objects rendered (especially grass and trees) - and acceptable since most battles are inside. What I don't get is why I have such a poor performance indoors, there are moments in a heated dungeon battle (especially where there are many fires, like inside sigil towers) where frame rates drops to low teens (from mid 50s). Graphics are average in those building, I only battle 2-3 opponents or less, the map is quite small (since any door leads to loading times )- so I don't get it, how come the game slows to a crawl there. I would consider this an obvious place where optimizations are lacking. Another thing that's missing is a way to alter the grass length (from the game menu, most people only look there to alter settings) and a few other things that were proven to greatly improve performance.
oneils - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
The hit to performance in dungeons may be due to a mix of having the shadow detail and specular lighting (or filtering?) set too high. I have the same problem with my 6800gt. Especially when I am fighting spell casters. If we are both casting spells, the system crawls.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
Opteron 165 @ 2.51Ghz2GB RAM
Geforce 7900GTX SLI
Check the tweak guides. There is A LOT you can do to make it run smoother without lowering graphic settings.
bollwerk - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
I also have 7900GTX SLI and it also runs fine for me with maxed settings at 1920x1200. (Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 2GB ram, A8N32SLI) It's obviously not high FPS, but it's also not choppy at all as far as I can tell. Totally playable for an RPG. I'm loving it and I'm glad I didn't get the 360 version. The PC mods are soooo worth it.JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
But the tweak guides ARE lowering the graphics settings, just in a different way. I'm okay with 1920x1200 at modified details on 7900GT, but there are still times when frame rates drop into the single digits.Yawgm0th - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
No, they're not. I mean, you can do tweaks that involve lowering settings, but that are tons you can do that improve graphics and graphics performance at the same time.JarredWalton - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
For example? I'd really like to get more graphics quality for less graphics work.kmmatney - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
I would also like to see the performance without Bloom and HDR. A lot of times, I prefer games without this effect (its often not implemented very well). PLays well on my setup without AA and bloom, and with AF, at 1280 x 1024. Sempron 2800+ @ 2.4 GHz, and modded X800GTO2 running at X850XT speeds. I'd rather play at the higher resolution than lower resolution + Bloom.OrSin - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
My problem is half the hipe of this game is that you a need a monster system to use it.Does any one remeber when a game bragged about the fast that it doesn't need powerful card to play it. Now its just the opposite. No wonder game will not be made for hard core gamers soon. I just can't understand have to pay $400 for a card that only 1-2 games will actually need. When in 6 months that same card is $250 maybe 6 games out might need it. Program in this age are jsut lazy or the products are being rushed. Can we get some optization and have people talk about great graphics on $150 cards.
As much as I hate consoles I'm leaning to them more and more. They will always the play the game good and mulitplayer support internet support is here (not this game).
I just hate the UI of most of them.