Oblivion + 1800 XT + X2 -> still slow frame rates..?

[melbourne720]

Hi all

I was installing an socket 939 X2 CPU (3800 as it happens, from a single core 4000) on a mates PC, and we were testing it with Oblivion (as you do ) and I noticed that he had been running it 800 x 600! I was like "Why are you running it at such a low resolution" and he said "because that is the only way I can have smooth gameplay".

Now baring in mind that he has an X1800XT with 512MB of vram on it, shouldn't he be getting much better fps? Whilst I don't have the exact numbers, walking around outside must have been 20-30 at 1024 x 768, as it did seem pretty choppy. I would have said average detail settings were medium - high, shadows turned off, no mods.

Your thoughts...

Spec:

AMD X2 3800 @ 2GHz
X1800XT 512MB
2GB of RAM (possibly 1GB, I didn't look too closely)
1 sata hard disk
Asus motherboard (exact model escapes me)

 

[thefishdude]

well i used to run oblivion on amy 2600xp with x800xl at 1280x1024 used to get about 20-30fps with most details on low.

i know thought that to run this g ame with details on high you need a monster pc as its extremely demanding espeially with all the grass and tree shadow effects if you have themup

 

[Greebo]

Getting the grass mod helps big style outside plus there are a few other mods which can help with framerates and the game doesn't look any less pretty.

According to Toms hardware

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=730&model2=722&chart=294

You are looking at 30 fps at that res. However, Tom doesn't state whether inside or outside and I beleive all his benches are run on Intel quad core processors so you won't get that with a AMD x2 3800.

Oblivion is a very demanding game. Here's some charts from xbit:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/msi8800gts-640_16.html#sect0

You can see a x1950xtx averages 38 fps but drops to 22 min. Again that's a faster card and much faster processor so I'm guessing your results are about right.

I had an oc x800xt pe before my 8800 GTS and at 1280 x 1024 I was dropping below 10 fps in some areas.

 

[melbourne720]

Thanks guys, guess I didn't realised how taxing that game is (mental note to play it on system in sig )

 

[Amonlym]

plays fine for me with decently high details at 1280*1024, X1800XT 512mb. 2 gig ram, 3gig x2 (worked fine on a 3 gig sandy also)..

no patches, no AA tho!

 

[melbourne720]

If he only had 1GB of RAM, I'm guessing this would be a big stumbling block...?

Shame DDR prices aren't as low as DDR2.

 

[Gackt]

I'm on 1900x1200 with the rig in my sig...with things up medium->high and I get 30-45 fps mostly everywhere.

 

[melbourne720]

Hmmm, I'll ask him to run 3d mark 05 and compare it with the score you have there, thanks =C0ld c4Th0d3=

 

[Greebo]

I'm on 1900x1200 with the rig in my sig...with things up medium->high and I get 30-45 fps mostly everywhere.

Pretty impressive. i don't think I get that with mine

You got mods applied to improve framerates?

 

[pastymuncher]

If you open the console and type in TDT and hit return, it will tell you the fps. Type in TDT again to turn it off. You will see what he's actually getting then.

 

[HangTime]

Oblivion is still one of the most demanding games on the planet. Even high end Intel+Nvidia rigs get brought to their knees if you crank it up high enough.

 

[metalmackey]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is the game multi-core?

 

[jrodga2k5]

Hmmm to be honest melbourne the only I way I could see the game running badly in that game, and im talking about @ high not average settings would be the system ram! Had an x1800xt 512 myself running oblivion and it was all very nice that was with an Athlon 64 3800+

 

[pastymuncher]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is the game multi-core?

Not by default but the game engine can be forced to use multicore cpu's. You have to make some tweaks in the .ini file. See tweakguides for details.

 

[melbourne720]

Hmmm to be honest melbourne the only I way I could see the game running badly in that game, and im talking about @ high not average settings would be the system ram! Had an x1800xt 512 myself running oblivion and it was all very nice that was with an Athlon 64 3800+

Yeah, I just had a peak around in the case when I was changing the CPU, and there was two DIMMs, and they were probably 2 x 512MB.

Thanks for the info about the tweak guide, I'll send it to him to think about, ta everyone

 

[Uriel]

I find one of the best areas for dragging down the framerate in Oblivion is Kvatch. I found it was CPU limited, probably due to the particle effects (smoke). My minimum framerate in that area with an A64 3000+ was 11FPS (with 2GB RAM, X1800). It's roughly double that with my current X2 4600+.

I currently play at 1280x800 (which fortunately seems to scale reasonably well on my monitor) on default high settings and no graphics mods. That keeps the framerate comfortable most of the time. After experimenting, I decided keeping the eye candy was preferable to playing at native res.

Edit: I remember seeing some benchmarks that indicated Oblivion benefited from Dual Core, even without the ini tweaks. I'll let people know if I remember where they were.

Further Edit: Here you go- http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/oblivion_athlon_64_x2_fx_cpu_performance/page3.asp