Very low fps with 9800 GT and Core2Duo

[Raestloz]

First things first: The Problem

 

For some reason, I'm getting low fps, very low compared to what I think I should be getting, and the very wrong thing is that I get the lowest FPS in a place where there is almost no characters around. It's at the Imperial City Waterfront

 

These are the screenshots I took at the most horrible places:

Imperial City Waterfront, 16 FPS

 

Imperial City Waterfront, 10 FPS

 

They are outside alright, but no characters are displayed (ok, so there's a horse). I imagined that more objects on screen = more stress, but this condition's FPS is far lower than when I'm fighting some bandits near an Ayleid Ruins or when I'm inside/in front of a Gate to Oblivion

 

For your information, this is what Game-o-Meter tell me

 

Hardware-wise I'm more than capable of running Oblivion with high settings. Also, for your information, the usual fps outside is 25-40 fps

 

My PC

This is the specifications of my PC:

 

Hardware-wise:

Processor: Intel Core2Duo E4600 @2.4 GHz

Video Card: nVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT

RAM: 2GB

 

Software-wise:

OS: Windows 7 32-bit, updated with the latest update I can think of (which doesn't seem to improve PC performance)

nVIDIA driver: 196.21

Oblivion version: 1.2.0416 (isn't it the latest?)

Window mode: full-screen, with vSync off

resolution: 1280x1024

in-game settings: I set everything to max, and if there's an on/off option, I choose on

HDR: on

Bloom/AA: off

 

Mods I use that might impact performance:

- HGEC Body Replace dan 2048 body texture

- Landscape LoD Normal Map Fix

- Landscape LoD Texture Replacement

- Streamline 1.3 (they say it improves performance, and yes I'm using OBSE for this)

- Noise Replacer

 

What I've tried

In my effort to better understand what is happening to my system, I tried these:

1) Lowering the texture from large to medium (this helped in my case with MW2, thought it will do the same)

2) Removed 2048 Body texture (only the texture, I haven't tried removing the body replacer)

3) Removed the LoD fixes

4) Disabled HDR

5) Changed the resolution to 1024x768

6) Reduced shadows

 

And to my amazement, nothing works. Whatever I do the fps is just the same as when I activated them at full settings, moreover when I forced Anisotropic Filtering 16x and Anti-Aliasing 8x from nVIDIA Control Panel the performance is not affected. I figured that my hardware is not the problem then...

 

Also, I noticed that changing the water detail to "normal" increases my FPS from 10 to 12 at the second screenshot, but considering normally I get around 25-40, I switched it back to high

 

What confused me is this:

When I'm actually facing the water (in the second screenhot I'm backing it), my FPS is good, but when I turn around (facing the direction at which I'm looking at just like at the second screenshot) my FPS drops

 

I do get more fps (not at both places, tried it near Kvatch) when I set the settings to Very Low (still with 1280x1024) to virtually around 50 from the usual 30s. But considering my rig, I think this is a serious problem. I mean, it's 9800GT, it should be more than enough.

[bben46]

This should get you startrd

 

Here are my Slow Game suggestions

http://tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=255

[nosisab]

Try reducing a bit the graphical options. Oblivion is a known resources hog that can make even the most uber SLI/Crossfire last generation rig craw helplessly. That is because the taxing over the system is far far beyond the visual enhancement it provides (and grows exponentially against linear visual enhancing).

 

It's a somewhat old engine that does not make good multi-core usage, alright it can do some multithreading but it's not optimized at all. That is the reason the performance falls drastically in heavy populated locations, like IC for instance, with many AI and overall scripts running at once.

 

So, don't be afraid doing some tweaks and reducing some specs. Don't feel bad about it too, the visual differences will be minimal if perceptible at all. Mainly avoid high AA and anisotropic filtering. Resolution I prefer keeping the monitor native. The texture mods actually helps any video card with 512MB VRAM or better since that can host them well and by being of better quality it minimizes any drawback of reducing the overall graphics quality a bit. pulling down the distance bars at the ingame options will do wonder without even any perceptible visual change.

 

PS: some "ancient" mods, like "Quiet feet" are yet a must, does not matter the power of the rig. There is a sound issue that does not depend on processor speed and graphical power to manifest in all it's glory when several pawns are toomping the floor at once.

[Raestloz]

This should get you startrd

 

Here are my Slow Game suggestions

http://tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=255

Thanks, but I've read the article and it didn't help my problem

 

You see, game-o-meter's approximate power of my PC is around 3 times the optimized requirement, with a "you can run it at very high visual settings" note. I really don't see how hardware could be the problem

 

Also, like I said, I tried lowering the video settings, and game-o-meter turned out right: my fps doesn't improve nor get worse with each settings activated/deactivated

 

I've scanned my PC for viruses, and it's clean, I've also defragged the HDD and the performance does not increase

 

Although I have to admit, I haven't tried turning the sounds off or playing with clean boot mode.

[nosisab]

This should get you startrd

 

Here are my Slow Game suggestions

http://tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=255

Thanks, but I've read the article and it didn't help my problem

 

You see, game-o-meter's approximate power of my PC is around 3 times the optimized requirement, with a "you can run it at very high visual settings" note. I really don't see how hardware could be the problem

 

Also, like I said, I tried lowering the video settings, and game-o-meter turned out right: my fps doesn't improve nor get worse with each settings activated/deactivated

 

I've scanned my PC for viruses, and it's clean, I've also defragged the HDD and the performance does not increase

 

Although I have to admit, I haven't tried turning the sounds off or playing with clean boot mode.

Try that "quiet feet" mod, I think it is yet here in the nexus, what it does is eliminating the creature pawns sounds (strangely the issue does not happens with NPC feets). I think the newer version allows levels of 'aggressiveness' it acts and is by far better than removing all sounds. As said that issue manifest and reduces FPS for any rig does not matter it's power, because it's related with load files issues.

 

PS: actually sound issues in that games reflects in overall FPS as a whole. If you didn't it yet, try installing 3rd part codecs, like k-lite or CCCP. Former villain because the ffdshow, they are now the better all around solution, mainly with onboard sound cards (notice ffdshow is 'disabled' by default for many games, including these from Bethesda where the problems are worser).

[Raestloz]

Just tried with clean boot and no music. Nothing. Both don't improve performance

 

EDIT: I have K-lite codec pack installed. for a note I'm playing it on a partition, 27.6 GB free out of 116 GB available. Does that matter?

[bben46]

The game o meter is actually just an indication of how your system should work. Not how it really does work. Every system is different and will respond differently based on many factors. Such as what else is running. There are auto defrag and auto indexing programs that will start up and take half of your computing power. Some anti spyware or Antivirus programs will check every file as it is read from the hard drive, then again when it is written back. Any background downloading will Kill FPS if it doesn't crash your game. Instant messengers constantly check for new messages in the background. VOIP, skype and any telephone application take a portion of your computing power just to keep alive in the background.

 

One of the biggest FPS killers is onboard sound, If you are using the built in audio on your motherboard it steals both RAM and CPU clock cycles. A cheap sound card can work wonders. Another gig of ram can also help a lot. I saw a large jump in performance when I went from 2 to 3 Gig of Ram when I was using WinXP. But not nearly as big of a performance boost when I went from 3 to 4 Gig. Oblivion can use only 2Gig, the rest is used by everything else you have running - like the operating system.

 

Any background process also takes clock cycles. Use the Game Booster program to kill off as many as possible. It allows you to turn them back on when you stop playing.

 

The Music does not seem to have as much effect as the other sounds. when we suggest turning off sound it is for troubleshooting. You can always turn it back on if it has no or little effect.

 

Have you looked into the tweak guides I recommended yet? It allows you to optimize a lot more than just the game - It may be a setting on your video board that is holding you back, or in your operating system.

 

Streamline works by trading visual effects for FPS. It changes your video settings as you play to try to keep the FPS up at the expense of visual effects like being able to see that bandit before he sees you.

[nosisab]

Just tried with clean boot and no music. Nothing. Both don't improve performance

 

EDIT: I have K-lite codec pack installed. for a note I'm playing it on a partition, 27.6 GB free out of 116 GB available. Does that matter?

No, at least it shouldn't, even if the partition mft is itself heavily fragmented. You should not be having such performance problems based on your specs and the steps you already performed. Maybe a complete and really clean reinstallation should be attempted. It means saving (if wanted) the actual Oblivion's folder, both in the install place and "Documents", uninstall from DVD's Setup, not the windows uninstaller, delete those remaining folders and proceed with the reinstall.

 

Sure it's a drastic measure and you may want to wait and hope someone can shed some more light into the problem.

[Raestloz]

@bben46:

I've tried the cleanboot and no, performance doesn't improve. I turned my antivirus before playing too.

Do you mean the tweakguide.com guide? It was my second step in playing with installing Oblivion being the first.

I'll try Gamebooster, although it pains me at how my dream of enjoying games without any kind of troubleshooting has gone

 

No, at least it shouldn't, even if the partition mft is itself heavily fragmented. You should not be having such performance problems based on your specs and the steps you already performed. Maybe a complete and really clean reinstallation should be attempted. It means saving (if wanted) the actual Oblivion's folder, both in the install place and "Documents", uninstall from DVD's Setup, not the windows uninstaller, delete those remaining folders and proceed with the reinstall.

 

Sure it's a drastic measure and you may want to wait and hope someone can shed some more light into the problem.

Exactly, that's why I'm wondering. I mean, my specs are newer than the specs available when Oblivion first arrived. At that time, there's bound to be someone capable of playing smoothly, yet for some reason I'm struggling just to get a constant 30 fps :(

 

I'm lucky I kept my add-ons at a different folder. If the worst comes, I'll try clean re-install :(

[bben46]

Before reinstalling try this

Here is my revert to vanilla article - how to go back to the original state without reinstalling.

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=340

 

If you must reinstall:

Here is a link to my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure located in the articles section of the Nexus

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=240