The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GPU Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 26, 2006 1:07 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Setting Expectations
While we've been used to running high end SLI setups at 3MP resolutions and still getting reasonable frame rates in games, the same is not true for Oblivion. In fact, there isn't a single GPU or pair of GPUs today that will run Oblivion at 1600 x 1200 with everything turned on smoothly. Our highest end X1900 XT CrossFire setup can't even run our most stressful real world Oblivion test at 1280 x 1024 with all of the detail settings set to their highest values. That's right, $1200 worth of GPUs will get you less than 50 fps at less than the highest image quality, and we're not talking about having AA enabled either.
With Oblivion, you've got to set your expectations appropriately for what good performance is. If your frame rate never drops below 30 fps, then you've put together a very fast system for Oblivion. The problem with Oblivion is that while performance may be in the 60 - 70 fps range indoors or while taking a stroll around town, as soon as you engage a few enemies or walk near an oblivion gate your frame rate may drop into the teens. A choppy frame rate really impacts your ability to do things like slice the correct opponent and not someone you're trying to protect. If a video card can maintain a minimum of 20 fps in our most strenuous test (the Oblivion Gate benchmark) then it will do you very well, otherwise you may want to start turning down some of the visual quality options.
Oblivion is also one of those rare games where turning down all of the image quality options not only impacts how good the game looks, but it actually can have a pretty serious impact on gameplay as well. Turning down your view distance is a sure fire way to increase performance, however the lower your view distance is the more difficult it is to spot landmarks you're searching for. You can decrease things like the distance which characters, items and other objects will appear, giving you better performance, but also putting you at a disadvantage when you're looking for a particular item or when someone is about to attack you. With Oblivion it's not all about performance and dealing with slightly blurred textures and jagged edges to maintain higher frame rates, the total experience of the game is very dependent on having a powerful system with a fast GPU.
The Test
Given that we're looking at GPU performance we tested all graphics cards with the same, very fast CPU, to minimize any CPU bottlenecks. In future articles we will look at how the CPU impacts performance under Oblivion, but for now the GPU is our focus. All ATI cards were run on a CrossFire 3200 platform while all NVIDIA cards were run on an nForce4 SLI x16 platform.
The latest drivers from ATI and NVIDIA were used, including ATI's Chuck patch for Oblivion that enables CrossFire support and AA+HDR rendering support. Given the low frame rates that we're talking about already, enabling AA simply didn't make any sense as you will see from the performance results on the coming pages. We would much rather increase detail settings than turn on AA in Oblivion.
| CPU: | AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 (2.6GHz/1MBx2) |
| Motherboard: | ASUS A8N32-SLI ASUS A8R32-MVP |
| Chipset: | NVIDIA nForce4 SLI x16 ATI CrossFire 3200 |
| Chipset Drivers: | nForce4 6.85 ATI Catalyst 6.4 |
| Hard Disk: | Seagate 7200.9 300GB SATA |
| Memory: | 2 x 1GB OCZ PC3500 DDR 2-3-2-7 |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 6.4 w/ Chuck Patch NVIDIA ForceWare 84.43 |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1280 x 1024 - 32-bit @ 60Hz |
| OS: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
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Yawgm0th - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
...or Oblivion is playable with an average of 20 FPS. I did a benchmark of my own (at a big Oblivion gate with 6-10 enemies and several allies fighting) with settings completely maxed (everything at it's highest except AA) at 1280x960, and my system pulled framerates slightly better than the 7900GT according to the FRAPS results. More importantly, the game is completely playable in all areas. Framerates are low for about four seconds anytime I enter a new area through a door of some kind, but that's not unusual for most games. After those first couple seconds, things pick up and I see no reason for the game to appear to have such abysmal performance as the article would indicate. My system consists of the following:2x1GB of Patriot 2-3-2 at 205MHz in dual-channel
Venice: 274x9 (about 2.47GHz)
7800GT with a slight overclock
Audigy 2
XP Pro x64 with latest nVidia drivers
Furthermore, that RAM was a recent upgrade. I had the game maxed with 1GB of the same stuff in single-channel.
At this point, I'm convinced that either there's something wrong with FRAPS (and there's certainly something different that caused the low frames in this article, because I shouldn't be outperforming the Anandtech test system when it's better than mine) or that the game is completely playable with mid-20s framerates. I don't think I've ever played a 3D game and found anything less than high-30s to be playable.
ueadian - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Yep you nailed it that's my exact feeling. I played the game with my X800XL and it was very playable on high settings, oblivion gates killed my computer but not enough to drive me insane, other then that i didnt see any lag other then after entering a new area. Benchmarks are overrated I played Counter-Strike : Source at 20-30 fps for a year just fine and when I got a card to do 50+ fps miminum I really didn't notice that much of a difference.TejTrescent - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Crazy.Testing just now, I got 20-30 on my system, no matter where I was, with a bit higher than those medium settings.
The game's ENTIRELY playable at even 18.
Dunno how, but it doesn't feel choppy when it falls, as long as it's above 15. Weird.
dhei - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
Laugh, real excitement comes from online play. Might as well pay $15 a month for a game with just as good graphics that is updated constantly. Plus you can play missions and fight monsters yourself just like a single player game if thats your bag or slay other people that are actull people online.Looking at screenshots, i've seen 4 year old MMO games that look better after they got free graphics updates. /shrug
I never understood why people pay for single player games like this. :D
kmmatney - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
You really can't judge the graphics of Oblivion by screenshots. The actual look and feel is much more impressive than the screen shots show.ueadian - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
Agreed. Screenshots do not to ANY game justice. HL2 didnt really impress me visualy with screenshots, but then I played the game all the way through and was blown away by the graphics.poohbear - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
"i've seen 4 year old MMO games that look better after they got free graphics updates. /shrug "name one
bobsmith1492 - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
What's "mmo" ??xsilver - Thursday, April 27, 2006 - link
when a cow is on crack it cant say "moo" properly :PMassivly Multiplayer Online
as mentioned before its difficult to play a game that has no end and is pressuringly addictive if you join a guild/faction
eg. most deaths that have resulted from gaming have been from players of such games; most recently from WoW i think
dhei - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - link
Dark Age of Camelot.