Oblivion lagging

[ArchNihil]

Hey all !

 

Let's make it short and sweet. I thought my computer would be fast enough to run any Oblivion mods I could ever want, however I had to come to the realisation a few days ago it was not the case.

 

Here are my specs :

 

I7 920 2.66GHz, currently OC'ed to 2.9GHz... Totally stable. I could also OC to 3.2 and even 3.6 easily, but I doubt it's worth it...

6GBs of Triple Channel 1600MHz memory... I honestly doubt I'd need to invest in Quad Channel 2000MHz memory. Ain't I right ?

ATI Radeon HD 5850... 1GB GDDR5. Here is where the problem comes from I think... Would that make sense ?

 

Anybody playing with that kind of card that can play Oblivion with HI-Res texture replacers all over, RAEVWD and All Natural ? (No Better Cities, though.. I like how it looks but 12 fps in the city is already low enough, eh...)

What I've been considering adding another 5850 in crossfire. Anybody plays this game with two cards ? Does it help any ? I know Oblivion supports only one CPU core... What about dual GPUs ? I saw on the UESPwiki I think as a suggestion to lag and stuttering.

 

I've been playing for a while with approximately 20 fps (And less...) and I just can't stand it anymore.

 

Thanks already for your help.

 

Cheers,

Arch.

[David Brasher]

Oblivion is just very badly designed. It could not run well on the computers of the day, and it runs worse in ways on more recent computers. (I think what people need is a really really fast single core processor. They don't build them that fast these days because they rely on multiple cores and don't need that much pure speed for modern applications.)

 

I spent time and money upgrading my computer so that I could play Skyrim. I can now play it with the best graphics settings. So I said to myself, "Now I really ought to be able to play Oblivion with an awesome frame rate!" I went and tested and got really ticked off that Oblivion is still laggy.

[ArchNihil]

Oblivion is just very badly designed. It could not run well on the computers of the day, and it runs worse in ways on more recent computers. (I think what people need is a really really fast single core processor. They don't build them that fast these days because they rely on multiple cores and don't need that much pure speed for modern applications.)

 

I spent time and money upgrading my computer so that I could play Skyrim. I can now play it with the best graphics settings. So I said to myself, "Now I really ought to be able to play Oblivion with an awesome frame rate!" I went and tested and got really ticked off that Oblivion is still laggy.

 

Thanks for the answer.

As I will buy Skyrim soon enough, 2 cards will definately help me anyway.

 

I should basically have broken down my posts in many small questions... I tend to make elaborate posts which get me nowhere, so I'll try it this way this time.

 

1. What mods can people usually/exceptionally run at the same time with decent (24+ most of the time) fps ? I run FCOM/Qarl/RAEVWD plus hi-res replacers for pretty much everything and it just seems to be overkill. Can some manage that ? What about BC ?

 

2. Does anyone play this game with a dual GPU configuration ? Does it help ?

 

3. Is 15-20 fps in towns and exteriors normal with such settings ? Or is it a lack of skill installing mods ? (I know Oblivion's engine is flawed, full of stuttering and lag spikes... But 15 constant fps really seems little to me.)

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Cheers.

Arch.

[Nitefox98]

Do not install every option that comes with RAEVWD, just do the forts, ruins, wilderness buildings, and maybe rocks. Leave out the city and imperial city plugins, architecture, etc, and that should help your framerate quite a bit.

[Keirgarth]

Part of the reason you are a little slow is due to the CPU. The game will run better with faster clock speeds per core, as it was already mentioned that the game doesn't really use more than a single core. Adding a second graphics card should improve your performance, but not because you are using 2 GPU's. The reason is because of the extra 1Gb of texture memory. This will allow you to run the game with larger graphics files and still not bog down as much. I run an HD 6950 w/2Gb ram with all options turned up and I have the complete set of UL landscapes installed along with better cities and the full FCOM setup.

 

On a side note, I just upgraded, so have a spare 5750 for sale, Only $70 US dollars. :)

Edited December 11, 2011 by Keirgarth

[ArchNihil]

Part of the reason you are a little slow is due to the CPU. The game will run better with faster clock speeds per core, as it was already mentioned that the game doesn't really use more than a single core. Adding a second graphics card should improve your performance, but not because you are using 2 GPU's. The reason is because of the extra 1Gb of texture memory. This will allow you to run the game with larger graphics files and still not bog down as much. I run an HD 6950 w/2Gb ram with all options turned up and I have the complete set of UL landscapes installed along with better cities and the full FCOM setup.

 

On a side note, I just upgraded, so have a spare 5750 for sale, Only $70 US dollars. :)

 

What CPU do you have ? Is it clocked much higher than mine ? (2.92GHz)

I somehow feel like a second card would greatly help me... Just ain't sure.

 

How did it play with such a setting on your 5790.... ? Must have been pretty ugly at times.

I doubt I could run Better Cities with more than 10 fps... And my card is faster than that.

However, UL wasn't nearly as bad as Better Cities. I just can't make it work. Too much patches. Waaay too much patches. What makes me lag are the NPCs... Must be the fact they have replacers for clothes, weapons, armors, faces... ;S Pretty sure that's what kills me, ;S

Thanks for the answer.

 

Do not install every option that comes with RAEVWD, just do the forts, ruins, wilderness buildings, and maybe rocks. Leave out the city and imperial city plugins, architecture, etc, and that should help your framerate quite a bit.

 

I didn't install the IC and city plugins, only the architecture... I'll try disabling the architecture also. Thanks for the answer.

 

Nobody else is playing with two cards, eh ?

[Keirgarth]

I was running better cities prior to the upgrade and the only area I had issues with lag was the IC area. I had been using an Athlon II X3 at 3Ghz but now I am running a Phenom II X6 @ 3.2Ghz so not much difference. The key for me was the upgrade which like I said gave me the extra Gb of ram on the graphics card. It might also help that I am using 16Gb of system ram now, but I don't think that Oblivion can address anything over 3 or 4.

[ponyboy10]

FYI, there are some mods you can try to improve performance. Some of the ones I've used are: OSR, OCPS, and Fast Exit (the last two help with crashes). There is also Streamline, and maybe others. I've done a lot of the high res texture mods and have the video settings jacked up. You can also try some of the Oblivion.ini tweaks at http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html.

[David Brasher]

Streamline stinks! If you are a person who likes nice graphics, then you most certainly don't want to use Streamline. Streamline is advertised as something to improve framerate, but in some cases it actually backfires and lowers framerate. So you get the worst of both worlds. Bad framerate and bad graphics. If you have a computer that is so weak that you need Streamline, just manually turn down your graphics settings and leave them there. Don't have Streamline do it for you.