7800GT + Oblivion = #$#*&@$(!!!!

[TecHNooB]

Try setting the affinity to core1 and see if that helps. BF2 fluctuates a lot for more, despite having the correct drivers/mshotfix; setting the affinity fixes everything.

 

[Sonikku]

Originally posted by: fliguy84

Originally posted by: Sonikku
The game was made to run on a ATI 500 series card. I can imagine why some Nvidia cards would have a harder time with the title.

you mean the X1 series?

I mean the card running in the 360. I think it's the 520 series that is a X1800XT.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead

Yup... unless you're priming both cores. Once you go dual... you'll never wanna go back. If I had a dime for every time I saw somebody fly onto this board and proclaim "Holy crap dual core rocks!" after upgrading, I'd be very very rich.


So back to topic... after the replies, it seems the game just runs slow to begin with, what with all the effects, especially the grass. I'm going to upgrade I guess... now I'm stuck between X1900XTX or 7900GTX. I don't like the noisyness of the X1900, but I don't like that I can't use AA with HDR on the 7900. The jaggies drive me crazy!! I figure either card will probably keep Oblivion above 30 where I'd like it... no more of this 11-12 FPS crap.

Without any good benchmarks it's hard to tell which card will run Oblivion better. Initial reports, however, seem to indicate that the X1900XT runs the game better.

The X1900Xt really isn't that loud either. The only time I ever heard mine, when it had the stock cooler, was for a few seconds at startup. After that the chipset fan was always louder, even during gaming.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Actually, the X1 series cant run the game with AA and HDR. Dont know why, but if you want HDR and AA in oblivion, you will have to enable 'bloom' in the game, and then enable 4xAA.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: AdamK47 3DS
It must be an nVidia thing. When running the game on my system I have never had to be bothered with slow framerates. The lowest framerate is roughly around 30fps. This is at 1280x1024 with no AA and AF. HDR is on and the settings are higher than the highest default settings. The tree and grass distances are maxed out using the sliders. The object and actors view distances are also bumped above the default settings, but not maxed out on the sliders. Soft shadows are enabled with high quality shadows, but self shadowing is not since it looks bugged. Click the link my sig for system specs.

With a X1900XT...I guess you otta have better FPS than a PC running a 7800GT

 

[acx]

The developers restricted the PC version of Oblivion so that AA cannot be used with HDR on any graphics card.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: fliguy84

Originally posted by: Sonikku
The game was made to run on a ATI 500 series card. I can imagine why some Nvidia cards would have a harder time with the title.

you mean the X1 series?

No, he meant the R5x0's.

 

[obeseotron]

The running like crap on nvidia hardware is only partially true. Everyone with ATI hardware pre x1x00 series is running without HDR and thus gets much better framerates, it's an SM3 feature. As far as the x1x00 series goes, it does appear to run the game a lot faster than nvidia stuff. Keep in mind that the xbox360 gpu is probably closest to a x1900 in terms of shading ability, nvidia hardware has different ratios of shaders and ROPs and all that stuff and it might not be as well suited to Oblivion. Dunno why x1x00s can't do AA, I'd imagine it might just be a software bug because up until recently you couldn't do both at the same time.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: obeseotron
The running like crap on nvidia hardware is only partially true. Everyone with ATI hardware pre x1x00 series is running without HDR and thus gets much better framerates, it's an SM3 feature. As far as the x1x00 series goes, it does appear to run the game a lot faster than nvidia stuff. Keep in mind that the xbox360 gpu is probably closest to a x1900 in terms of shading ability, nvidia hardware has different ratios of shaders and ROPs and all that stuff and it might not be as well suited to Oblivion. Dunno why x1x00s can't do AA, I'd imagine it might just be a software bug because up until recently you couldn't do both at the same time.

Slow down there buddy.

So far, no benches prove ATi runs better than NV on oblivion.

The Xbox360 GPU is NO way similiar to the R580.

Secondly, if you talk shader performance, check out F.E.A.R benchmarks(or anyother benchmark) where 24 NV pixel shaders beat 48 pixel shaders of ATi at 16x12 (noAA/AF).
(ATi normally wins because of efficent AA modes NOT shader efficeny/performance like many are misled to believing).

The makers of Oblivion already have said that ATi will not be able to do AA and HDR at the sametime. Dont know the reason but this is replaced by enabling bloom and AA which sort of gives you HDR plus AA, but this can be used by both NV and Ati cards.

"nvidia hardware has different ratios of shaders and ROPs and all that stuff and it might not be as well suited to Oblivion."

This makes no sense what so ever.

Where are the oblivion benchs?

 

[Mem]

I am at the end of my chain.

Oblivion runs like crap on a machine that should run it well.

I have an Opteron 165 with slight OC to 2.25 GHz.
eVGA 7800GT OC, that was OC'd up to 500/1.17 GHz.
2x512 MB OCZ Plat Rev. 2
DFI LP mobo
running 84.25 drivers from nVidia

Something is not right with your system,I have a 7800GT OC and it runs fine outside at 1600x1200 res even with HDR(apart from the odd black screen NPC dialogue bug).

I'm using the 84.21 drivers and dual core cpu with AMD x2 driver .I suggest you try the Obilvion tweaks ,disable anit-virus et...

You don't need high FPS for RPG games.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Secondly, if you talk shader performance, check out F.E.A.R benchmarks(or anyother benchmark) where 24 NV pixel shaders beat 48 pixel shaders of ATi at 16x12 (noAA/AF).
(ATi normally wins because of efficent AA modes NOT shader efficeny/performance like many are misled to believing).

FEAR - 1600x1200 - noAA/noAF
X1900XTX = 75
7800GT SLI = 85
7800GTX 512mb = 67

Although you are right that Nvidia tends to win without AA/AF modes in most games, that has been historically the case, but it's not that simple. Since with 4AA you are shading 4x amount of pixels in simple terms, the pressure on effective shader units is increased. Maybe at 0AA, ATI's performance benefits aren't as prominent. Sure, effective AA algorithms help, but with increased load ATI's shaders are most taxed. So it's hard to separate the effect of better shaders and the effect of better AA algorithms from ATI's performance advantage in shader intensive games. Your statement certainly doesn't explain why X800 series outperformed 6800 series in Perimeter, Nature tests in 3dmark suites, BF2 and the performance increases X1900 series have in shader intensive games without AA like:

COD2
Much higher minimum framerates at 1600x1200 in Splinter Cell
The whole reason why 5900 series lost to 9800 series was because their weaker performance with SM2.0 shaders.

Pure shader benchmarks:
Simple & Complex Shaders
X1900X1800 Shader Analysis vs. G70 - look at Geometry Processing speed test (the simplest shader - ambient, complex shader - diffuse), and other tests with 3 point lights and more where the PS2.0 shaders come into play even more and ATI starts to pull away. ATI sweeps through VS2.0 static branch, holds serious advantage in SM2.0 shaders with parallax mapping and when it comes to HDR and SM3.0 shaders, it's not even close. Of course these are synthetic tests and so forth. In real world textures are used and this allows Nvidia to gain serious ground since ATI can only process 16 textures.

I think saying that ATI only wins because of better AA algorithms is a bit misleading because ATI cards often excel in shader intensive games period, regardless of AA modes. But I agree that until definitive benchmarks come out on Oblivion, it's basically word of mouth from users who report how the game runs and we know how subjective that can get.

 

[R3MF]

i think i get around 25fps running at 1920x1200 outdoors with the shacknews ini tweaks.

what command is used to show FPS anyway?

 

[obeseotron]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: obeseotron
The running like crap on nvidia hardware is only partially true. Everyone with ATI hardware pre x1x00 series is running without HDR and thus gets much better framerates, it's an SM3 feature. As far as the x1x00 series goes, it does appear to run the game a lot faster than nvidia stuff. Keep in mind that the xbox360 gpu is probably closest to a x1900 in terms of shading ability, nvidia hardware has different ratios of shaders and ROPs and all that stuff and it might not be as well suited to Oblivion. Dunno why x1x00s can't do AA, I'd imagine it might just be a software bug because up until recently you couldn't do both at the same time.

Slow down there buddy.

So far, no benches prove ATi runs better than NV on oblivion.

The Xbox360 GPU is NO way similiar to the R580.

Secondly, if you talk shader performance, check out F.E.A.R benchmarks(or anyother benchmark) where 24 NV pixel shaders beat 48 pixel shaders of ATi at 16x12 (noAA/AF).
(ATi normally wins because of efficent AA modes NOT shader efficeny/performance like many are misled to believing).

The makers of Oblivion already have said that ATi will not be able to do AA and HDR at the sametime. Dont know the reason but this is replaced by enabling bloom and AA which sort of gives you HDR plus AA, but this can be used by both NV and Ati cards.

"nvidia hardware has different ratios of shaders and ROPs and all that stuff and it might not be as well suited to Oblivion."

This makes no sense what so ever.

Where are the oblivion benchs?

I understand the R500 (360) and R580 are very different chips, the R580 is a more advanced one. However, in terms of hardware available now on the PC the x1900 has more in common with the R500 than say a G71. The G71 is faster in a number of games and I was not attacking nvidia (I've never even used an ATI card in my main personal system). Graphics card companies make choices about the amount of parallelism to put in various parts of the graphics chip - pixel shaders, texture units, ROPs, etc. Inevitably one of them is a bottleneck, the trick for ATI and nVidia is to figure out the best mix of features that they can fit on a given die size/process. A game performing better on one company's hardware is not necessarily because the hardware is "faster" just that for that mix of operations it is faster. An xbox 360 game is designed knowing the strenths and weaknesses of the R500, which are a lot closer to the R580's strengths than the G71's

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Yeah, grass is one of the main culprits in terms of low outdoor performance. I'm getting lows as low at 15-16 FPS outdoors @ 1440x900 tweaked High settings with HDR (7900GT @ 590/1800) . . . though usually I get around 30 FPS outside if there's not too much grass/trees/fog, etc. or if I'm not fighting . . . indoors usually I get 60+ FPS . . .

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: R3MF
i think i get around 25fps running at 1920x1200 outdoors with the shacknews ini tweaks.

what command is used to show FPS anyway?

I use FRAPS to get my FPS data. Download for free at fraps.com.

Anyway... I had a chance to replace my 84.25 drivers with the XG ones wizboy mentioned early on in this thread, and all I have to say is... holy **** did that work wonders! I'm now playing with every setting on high/full/max/whatever, grass included, Bloom + AAx2, and have never encountered a framerate in the teens. Low 20's on occasion. I dunno what those guys did to the drivers but it did the trick for me. I added back in my GPU overclock to roughly 500/1.10Ghz and got a further, albeit minor, improvement.

It's too early to really be sure, but in the short term this seems to be the fix I was hoping for. I feel like my card is now performing as I would expect it to.

 

[rise]

how bout with hdr?

are you using any of the tweaks like uloaddistance and extra tree, water?

just curious as i might try those as well. i just have bad luck with game compatability, mostly civ4, another buggy game

 

[hans030390]

Try the new drivers and get 2gb of ram

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: rise4310
how bout with hdr?

are you using any of the tweaks like uloaddistance and extra tree, water?

just curious as i might try those as well. i just have bad luck with game compatability, mostly civ4, another buggy game

I think HDR performed at good FPS too, but I don't use it because it disallows AA and I absolutely HATE jaggies. I wish there was a way to enable both! I haven't tried using any .ini tweaks with these new drivers, but I think I'll give that a whirl later this evening.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I think HDR performed at good FPS too, but I don't use it because it disallows AA and I absolutely HATE jaggies. I wish there was a way to enable both! I haven't tried using any .ini tweaks with these new drivers, but I think I'll give that a whirl later this evening.

cool, i might try those drivers tonite as well. like i said though, i have had problems with other tweaked drivers conflicting with games. of course, its hard to pull away from oblivion to play anything else.

i'm interested in seeing your performance with some tweaks. its hard to get a feel for other performances because many don't list what they've changed.

 

[Hauk]

The tweaked 84.25 drivers, do they do anything funky to Control Panel screens, any non-nvidia logos or other stuff?

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: SteelSix
The tweaked 84.25 drivers, do they do anything funky to Control Panel screens, any non-nvidia logos or other stuff?

Not that I noticed... the only difference I notice so far is that when I look up my display adapter, isntead of saying 7800 GT it says 7800GT by Tweaks R Us or whatever their name was... I forgot. That also pops up in the drop-down list in the Oblivion Options menu before you start the actual game. Otherwise, all the interfaces seem to be the same. I had to go in and re-do my OC and drop my "frames to render ahead" back down to 0, as with any driver change.

 

[rek075]

Running a 7800GS close to 7800GT speeds and have fx-53 @ 2.5 GHz and 2Megs of Ram

1024x768
All options on max
HDR
25+ fps on outdoors.

 

[Hauk]

I've been sitting on a fresh OS reinstall, new processor, 2GB new memory, and Oblivion unopened. I upgraded in a mad dash as I went from #293 to #6 in the EVGA step-up cue. And then the supply chain failed. Been at #6 for over a week.

I've been surfing only with XP default drivers for graphics and LCD. Screw it! I'm gonna start playing using my 7800GT. Installing 84.25 drivers and game 2nite.

 

[Reznick]

I have been messing around with the "oblivion.ini" file quite a bit (located in My Documents/My Games/Oblivion). Checking out the official Elder Scrolls forums, there are a lot of hints about tweaking a few settings in that file that have made a difference for me.

For example, you can adjust the size of the grass texture such that you can have less dense grass areas in general, increasing framerate. There are other tweaks you can mess with to improve framerate or improve image quality beyond the Video settings allowed under Options.

You may be able to find a balance between those things that improve framerate and improve the graphics. One thing I noticed was the bland textures on the ground in the distance, and the draw in being too close. Adjusting a few settings in the .ini file now gives me a much better looking image with draw in farther away than before.

Changing the file, entering the game, running some tests, etc., can be a pain to do, and it would be nice if there was a utility that helped with this, but once you find the settings that work for you, you may get a workable framerate and a better looking environment. I am at work, and don't have access to the file to show specifically what to change, but that .ini file has a lot of configurable settings that could help solve some of your framerate dilemmas.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I'm going to definitely spend some more time tweaking with the .ini.

But I also, rather spontaneously, just purchased a new GPU altogether. I went straight to the top and got an X1900XTX. Seems this will all but slaughter my 7800GT. I'm sure that will help too! Guess I'll wait for that to arrive, then tweak the .ini with this card pushing the game.