Does Oblivion have engine-level performance issues?

[seppesusi]

Fallout 4 has of course been confirmed not being able to sustain 60fps. While I'm not entirely sure how Skyrim runs with no graphics mods, Oblivion's performance with a high-end PC has been very disappoint. Fps drops to 40 and slightly below in cities (no framerate-issues encountered on the wilds and apparently not in dungeons either).

 

I've maxed out the game with the exception of anti-aliasing (4x MSAA, I will switch to the less demanding SSAO and SMAA only ENB when I get it installed) and I don't want to lower any other setting unless one can be proven as unreasonably demanding. I'm not aware of any true "optimization" mods (i.e. no or close to no visual impact) for Oblivion like these for Skyrim:

 

Skyrim Project Optimization

Skyrim Performance PLUS

 

system specs: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super and Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.50GHz

 

installed mods:

#Mod_Priority,#Mod_Status,#Mod_Name,#Mod_Nexus_URL,#Mod_Version
"0000","+","DLC: Knights","",""
"0001","+","DLC: DLCVileLair","",""
"0002","+","DLC: DLCThievesDen","",""
"0003","+","DLC: DLCSpellTomes","",""
"0004","+","DLC: DLCShiveringIsles","",""
"0005","+","DLC: DLCOrrery","",""
"0006","+","DLC: DLCMehrunesRazor","",""
"0007","+","DLC: DLCHorseArmor","",""
"0008","+","DLC: DLCFrostcrag","",""
"0009","+","DLC: DLCBattlehornCastle","",""
"0010","+","Unofficial Oblivion Patch","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/5296","3.5.6.0a"
"0011","+","Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9969","24.0.0.0"
"0012","+","Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10739","1.5.9.0"
"0013","+","A To Take All","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/27638","d2019.9.22.0"
"0014","+","FOV Modifier","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23080","d2019.9.22.0"
"0015","+","Toggleable Quantity Prompt","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/12859","d2019.9.23.0"
"0016","+","Keychain","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/3409","d2019.9.23.0"
"0017","+","Book Tracker","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/18434","d2019.9.23.0"
"0018","+","Lights Out","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/4893","d2019.9.23.0"
"0019","+","Vacuity","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/29283","d2019.9.23.0"
"0020","+","EngineBugFixes","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/47085","2.22.0.0"
"0021","+","Oblivion Stutter Remover","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23208","4.1.37.0"
"0022","+","Fast Exit","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/22410","d2019.9.22.0"
"0023","+","MenuQue - OBSE Plugin","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/32200","16.0.0.0b"
"0024","+","Console Paste Support","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49104","1.1.0.0"
"0027","+","QZ Easy Menus","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23404","d2019.9.23.0"
"0028","+","Denock Arrow","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9333","d2019.9.23.0"
"0029","+","Auto Update Leveled Items And Spells","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/39635","1.2.5.0"
"0030","+","Menu and Camera Toggler","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/39435","1.2.0.0"
"0031","+","Fasttravel from anywhere","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35279","d2019.9.23.0"
"0033","+","Unlimited Torches","https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/14198","d2019.9.24.0"

Edited September 24, 2019 by seppesusi

[Striker879]

The Oblivion game engine was designed way back in the heydays of the "GHz Wars" (i.e. back when each new processor release was primarily just faster, with no design changes that weren't primarily focused on allowing that faster CPU speed).

 

When the CPU manufactures ran into the brick wall imposed by the limitations to speed that came from the actual materials used to manufacture chips (faster required smaller structures in the CPU and smaller became impossible at a molecular scale). they changed to making CPUs "seem" faster. The primary tool for giving the appearance of faster was predictive processing (basically guessing what a program is going to want to do next and starting to calculate the result of that hypothetical next program request before it even asks for it).

 

When the CPU guesses right it has the result as soon as the program asks for it (hence appearing faster than it actually is) ... when it guesses wrong everything the program (i.e. Oblivion.exe) has to wait while the entire executuion pipeline is flushed and refilled with the information the program actually wanted (i.e many CPU cycles are lost).

 

To accomodate this guessing game CPUs have added more pipelines and made each pipeline longer (i.e. each pipeline has more individual steps it must go through from the time that information enters the pipeline to when the pipeline has it's answer waiting at the end). The longer the pipeline the longer a failed prediction takes to resolve to the correct answer.

 

Modern programs are designed to both take advantage of predictive processing and to minimise the impact of failed guesses. None of this was even on the radar back when the Oblivion game engine was being developed, so it takes it on the chin big time each time a failed guess grinds everything to a halt.

[Wiepman]

Right on the money as always Sir @Striker879!

 

 

Ergo @seppesusi: Oblivion doesn't care what a beast your pc gaming rig is.

 

Besides everything Striker879 perfectly summed up,

I think Oblivion's engine greatest handicap is

that it just can't take advantage of our current multi-core capable pc's.

 

Case in point: Skyrim, which is in essence basically Oblivion's old game-engine

(granted with some tweaks here and there, for instance real-time shadows come to mind),

but it's the added multi-core support that undeniably makes the biggest difference in performance.

 

In contrast to it's successor Skyrim,

everything you add to Oblivion's engine with mods for bells and whistles,

it all has to process with the usage of only one CPU-core,

which is why your CPU's raw GHz-speed matters relatively much more.

 

Oblivion will thus run better on a desktop-pc than (mostly lower clocked) laptop.

 

Take note:

Although 60 fps is certainly achievable with some tweaks

(but fps-dips are not completely avoidable especially when modding),

for a more stable fps Oblivion is better advised to settle playing @30 fps or perhaps @45 fps.

 

That being said, there are certainly things you can do to optimize it's performance.

 

First thing that comes to mind: OSR (Oblivion Stutter Remover)

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23208

 

The Bevilex modlist from start to finish contains a treasure trove of helpful little mods

and other suggestions to help you further:

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/47591?tab=description

 

 

ENB's is quite taxing on the already fragile Oblivion-engine and especially when modded,

might I as an alternative suggest Oblivion Reloaded (OR)?

 

OR can bring you near-ENB like eye-candy,

but way less hefty on the Oblivion game engine.

 

Besides SMAA and SSOA/Ambient Occlusion,

it brings improved Memory Management (for potentially way better stability)

and a very capable Frame Rate manager/ memory purger,

 

(and all that other good stuff, such as ShaderModel3, wonderfully improved water,

terrain shaders, skin shaders, better shadows, bloom, better HDR, DOF, GodRays,

among others... )

 

For reference, please read 1Mac's excellent Oblivion Reloaded for Dummies here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48637

 

Hope that helps!