Low frame rate for a Radeon X1800XT 512MB

[drunk3nrabbit]

While playing oblivion i get a very low frame rate for the power of my graphics card. I recently upgraded from an X300 to an X1800XT 512MB. On the X300 I got about 10 to 15 FPS in the wilderness, and now on the X1800XT I only get 10 to 22 FPS even with NO grass. Indoors I now only get 20-30 FPS. I have the resolution set way low to 800x600 and I don't see an improvement in FPS over 1024x768, at all. I do have quite a few mods running, so it could very well be that some of them are slowing me down, but I don't want to go through each one to find the FPS killers.

 

If someone could suggest some particular/catigories of mods that could hit FPS I'll try disabling them.

 

Here is a more detailed system list

 

1 GB RAM 533Mhz

3.4Ghz Intel P4 HT

Asus Radeon X1800XT 512 MB

Raid 0 HDDs (~1400 RPM effective)

 

I've shut down just about every program reasonable and that maybe gives me 1-2 FPS, but not enough.

 

I also have operation optimization and low Poly grass installed, I don't like streamline because it keeps saving my game too often.

 

OOO

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

Unofficial SI Patch

[Karasuman]

If you're seeing no improvement at all between 800x600 and 1024x768, then you're most likely bottlenecked elsewhere besides your video card, and I'm thinking RAM here. Even though 1 gig is the game's recommended suggestion, that goes out the window once you start adding mods. I'd strongly suggest adding more, especially if you do have a fair amount of mods going. Oblivion is more than capable of stressing a gig of memory by itself, without help from a bunch of mods. Your memory is pretty fast, but it's still only a gig.

 

A note of reference as to why I think the problem is not primarily your card (unless you don't have the latest drivers) is because I had an old x1300 256MB, and it ran better frames than those you listed at those same resolutions, and your card should be beating the crap out of that one.

 

In my personal experience, the mods which seem to hit framerates the most are landmass/area mods and graphic-enhancement mods (such as texture replacers). Try disabling some of these if you have any and see if it improves your situation at all.

 

I am also not crazy about the unofficial Oblivion Patch. When I had my ATI, it seemed to create more glitches for me than it fixed (such as exposing the mesh in certain parts of the Imperial Bridge). I'm not saying it's bad unto itself, and a lot of people seem to have had success with it, but it didn't work very well for me.

[drunk3nrabbit]

If you're seeing no improvement at all between 800x600 and 1024x768, then you're most likely bottlenecked elsewhere besides your video card, and I'm thinking RAM here. Even though 1 gig is the game's recommended suggestion, that goes out the window once you start adding mods. I'd strongly suggest adding more, especially if you do have a fair amount of mods going. Oblivion is more than capable of stressing a gig of memory by itself, without help from a bunch of mods. Your memory is pretty fast, but it's still only a gig.

 

Do you think that adding just 512 would be more than enough, because I'm tight on money from buying that x1800xt. Esp because the only ram that works in my system is dell's, b/c i put some in from my other pc in before and it crashed my system.

[Karasuman]

Any amount you add should help. The more the better. I would suggest running with 2 gigs, but even another 512 should help quite a bit. You might also wish to overclock your card a bit (or more than a bit) as well if you don't already. That plus adding RAM should help remedy your performance issues pretty nicely, and if they didn't, you would know you probably have either a driver issue or simply too many mods.