Elder Scrolls: Oblivion PC performance and troubleshooting.

I have similar specs to your Roo. I'm running at 640x480, no bloom, no Anti-Aliasing, and textures something-or-other set to small on the in game options menu. I'm leaving Distance rendering on for all things because I really enjoy that aspect of the game. Everything else is pretty dialed down as well. Game still looks good to me, and the gameplay is awesome.

There's others who can probably explain the acronyms better than I. To be honest, I don't really know most of that stuff myself.

Update: The drivers solved the crash problem as expected. Have played for half hour or so now. Seems to be fine.

I tried higher resolutions and the mouse pointer went all whonky (responded after the fact) but seems to work fine on 1024x768.
Still in the intro so I haven't seen, um..spoiler? not really? big graphics. i'll probably have to go down to 800...

I had no idea what Bloom was so I left it on just to see if I blew up. No Anti-Aliasing, and textures set to whatever they already were when it autodetected my system.

Druid, you think once I'm in serious melee with lots of distance drawn stuff that I'll have to go down as far as 640? Have you tried 800 or 1024? With 9800 pro doing the work (and not my 1GB of RAM...as opposed to 2GB), I would think it would be good enough for higher than 640 unless there's epic battlage afoot.

I didn't go through all of this because honestly I've read too much about oblivion in the forums already and I think it's about time to get back to the game. But I figured I would share my fortune playing Oblivion on my PC:
-AMD ATHLON XP 2600 +
-ATI Radeon 9600 128
-2x256 Mo RAM
As you can see, for Oblivion this is way low end, but it runs surprisingly well. I still find it beautiful and the load times aren't that bad (I must just be patient). It's definetly worth playing even with graphics at minimum and I must say I'm thankful I didn't have to upgrade...cause I would've...

I am upgrading for this game, although I am sure most of you would tell me that I should have upgraded already

I had a *gasp* GeForce FX 5200 128 with a gig of ram and an AMD 64 2800 +. I am upgrading my motherboard to one that supports PCIe and getting an x850XT 256. I am keeping the chip and my ram, although I will probably add another gig of ram in the next couple of months. I also picked up a nifty new case that has more fans and a bigger PSU. Newegg says the goodies should arrive on Wednesday.

My question is for those who have an x800 or x850: how does the game run? Is this card sufficient for running the game? Will my processor or lack of ram be a bottleneck?

Wow, so it autodetected to "high" @1024x768.

I upgraded to the 84.25 drivers

The opening movie gives weird artifacts where frames don't upate. Parts of the image get "stuck".

The main menu is slow as hell. Extremely sluggish response.

I didn't expect it to be good, but I figured it'd be better than this!

2700+
1GB DDR
6800GT

I'll look through the threads and see if I can find any applicable recommendations.

[edit]
Ok, so the coolbits / pre-render frame 3->0 thing smoothed out the mouse movement a lot. Game seems almost normal now... but the movies are still doing that weird "stuck parts" thing. It's very odd. Parts of the emperor just don't update on the screen. Rather, they don't update in a timely fashion.

I tried 800x600, but hand to hand got a little too choppy(maybe not too much for some folks). 640x480 keeps my battles running smooth.

xp 2700
9700pro
1 gig

Users' experiences seem to be all over the place, but what the heck, I'll throw this out there. Wondering whether the game should play OK with my rig. I'm willing to turn off HDR, lower aliasing, etc., I just want to make sure it's still an enjoyable, good-looking experience before I buy. And my computer consists of:

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
Athlon 64 3200+ 2GHz
eVGA Geforce 6600 256 MB AGP
Corsair 1GB DDR
Windows XP Pro SP2

Would throwing another gig of RAM in there make much of a difference? Seeing as that would be the cheapest upgrade...

Duttybrew wrote:

I am upgrading for this game, although I am sure most of you would tell me that I should have upgraded already

I had a *gasp* GeForce FX 5200 128 with a gig of ram and an AMD 64 2800 +. I am upgrading my motherboard to one that supports PCIe and getting an x850XT 256. I am keeping the chip and my ram, although I will probably add another gig of ram in the next couple of months. I also picked up a nifty new case that has more fans and a bigger PSU. Newegg says the goodies should arrive on Wednesday.

My question is for those who have an x800 or x850: how does the game run? Is this card sufficient for running the game? Will my processor or lack of ram be a bottleneck?

My Dad is playing on an AMD64 3700+ with an x850XT 256 card, and it's smooth as silk at 1024x768 with high quality textures.

Sadly, the x850 doesn't support shader model 3.0, so no yummy HDR. :\

Would throwing another gig of RAM in there make much of a difference? Seeing as that would be the cheapest upgrade...

I imagine it will improve load times, and in game pauses for loading additional surroundings, but your biggest improvement will come from upgrading that 6600 to something snazzier. A 7800GS, for example.

Like this one, at Newegg?

Far more expensive than an extra GB of ram, tho.

Renji wrote:

-AMD ATHLON XP 2600 +
-ATI Radeon 9600 128
-2x256 Mo RAM
As you can see, for Oblivion this is way low end, but it runs surprisingly well. I still find it beautiful and the load times aren't that bad (I must just be patient). It's definetly worth playing even with graphics at minimum and I must say I'm thankful I didn't have to upgrade...cause I would've...

I didn't think that Oblivion would even run on this setup. It's not choppy or anything for you? If not, I'm guessing there's hope for me after all....(AMD 2600+, Geforce 6600 256, 1 GB RAM).

Just for prosperity's sake, I thought I'd add a data point:
AMD Althlon64 3000
Nvidia 6600GT
1.5 GB Ram, unmatched
I run at 800x600, using Bloom and 4xAA. Also modded the ini file to increase the grass drawing distance by a factor of 5 so I don't the "ring of grass" effect while walking in the woods. Didn't effect the performance at all.

neuromancer wrote:
Renji wrote:

-AMD ATHLON XP 2600 +
-ATI Radeon 9600 128
-2x256 Mo RAM
As you can see, for Oblivion this is way low end, but it runs surprisingly well. I still find it beautiful and the load times aren't that bad (I must just be patient). It's definetly worth playing even with graphics at minimum and I must say I'm thankful I didn't have to upgrade...cause I would've...

I didn't think that Oblivion would even run on this setup. It's not choppy or anything for you? If not, I'm guessing there's hope for me after all....(AMD 2600+, Geforce 6600 256, 1 GB RAM). :D

Well I can't say it's not choppy. If I turn everything else on my computer off its okay. After loading a new zone I usually have to wait a few second for the frame rate to stabalize. I think your 1 GB of RAM will really help though, especially for load times. I think that will be my next upgrade. What I really mean is that it's totally playable and enjoyable on my PC and therefore it probably would be on yours too since it's a little better than mine, there ^^.

Renji wrote:

Well I can't say it's not choppy. If I turn everything else on my computer off its okay. After loading a new zone I usually have to wait a few second for the frame rate to stabalize. I think your 1 GB of RAM will really help though, especially for load times. I think that will be my next upgrade. What I really mean is that it's totally playable and enjoyable on my PC and therefore it probably would be on yours too since it's a little better than mine, there ^^.

That's great to hear. Thanks very much!
I ending up doing a system check on srtest.com. If that is reliable then my PC's not completely at risk of kicking the bucket while running Oblivion.

Alright anyone having trouble INSTALLING the damn game? I've been fighting with it for 3 hours now. I get CRC errors during the install. How long did it take to install for everyone. Takes about 30 minutes for the thing to install on my machine. I can ignore the CRC errors but then it just gets to the end and hangs at 100% VERY FRUSTRATED

That a new one to me, I can't find any mention in the official forums about it. Any scratches on the disc or anything? Sounds like a physical CD problem.

JC wrote:

Alright anyone having trouble INSTALLING the damn game? I've been fighting with it for 3 hours now. I get CRC errors during the install. How long did it take to install for everyone. Takes about 30 minutes for the thing to install on my machine. I can ignore the CRC errors but then it just gets to the end and hangs at 100% VERY FRUSTRATED

Check to see if there is updated firmware for your DVD drive. Are you overclocking? Other than that what Certis said.

not overclocking. Problem seems to be rampant on the oblivion forums. just do a search for "cannot install" I've got one dvd rom that can see the disk and installs with the CRC errors the other DVDRW can't even see the disk. it just spins and stops spins and stops.

Sounds like bad media, the store you bought it from should take it in exchange for a fresh copy. Most will still do an exchange like that on opened software.

driving me nuts. You would think bad media but the forums have other folks having the same problem. I'll muck with it till ebgames opens in the am.

well I ignored the CRC errors and let it install and it appears to be ok.... launches and lets me start the game. Weird thing is that I had less CRC errors this time then the last. *shrug*

JC wrote:

not overclocking. Problem seems to be rampant on the oblivion forums. just do a search for "cannot install" I've got one dvd rom that can see the disk and installs with the CRC errors the other DVDRW can't even see the disk. it just spins and stops spins and stops.

I wonder if you guys have starforce on your system from other games that you had. It can do screwy things to your burners. if you don't know already, I recommend checking yourself out just to be sure:

more info here

Looked for that and it wasn't there. Even did the registry dive to confirm. Who knows.

JC wrote:

Looked for that and it wasn't there. Even did the registry dive to confirm. Who knows.

I would blame Certis, or Fletcher. They are members of the Dark Brotherhood (aka Cylons).

Nimcosi wrote:
JC wrote:

Looked for that and it wasn't there. Even did the registry dive to confirm. Who knows.

I would blame Certis, or Fletcher. They are members of the Dark Brotherhood (aka Cylons). ;)

You have no idea how true that is, my level 20 Thief Conjurer is a bad Bosmer

well the plot thickens. Went over to EB and had them replace the DVD. Came home and popped it into the DVDRW that couldn't read it. Same problem disk would spin but it would not recognize the thing. Then I remembered Pool of Radiance. or was it Ruins of Myth Drannor.... anyway.. Switched the drive to PIO only. slapped in the disk and what do you know it found it and started the install. So now it's installing and I'm praying to the Oblivion gods that it will go through without any CRC errors.....

@#$@#%#$%#$%#!@#$@!#$@# CRC errors. well at least I've established that it isn't the DVD disk. Looking like it might be time for a reformat.....

How old is that DVD Burner? I would try an external drive or something else. I've had similar problems in the past and a new burner fixed it right up.

Sony DDU1612 and a Pioneer DVR109 so about 2 years. Both with current firmware. I don't know what I did different but I switched over to the sony DVD and it installed with only 1 CRC which I told it to ignore. Just played for 2 hrs. HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THINGS SWEET AND TASTY. This game is incredible. I walked outside and fell over. Then I bumped it up to 1600x1200 with all the upgrades, reflections, etc in the INI files. HOLY CRAP.... I have to tell my fiancee that she isn't going to be seeing me for a while. This game is amazing.

So, for the record, it's just the movies that are experiencing image tearing. I don't get it. I'm running 800x600 2xaa without a hitch, though I haven't gotten into any extended combat. Game is really really pretty, and a lot of fun. However, like everyone who plays it, I already feel the need for more carrying capacity.

In case anyone out there is running on the very popular (err.. as of about two years ago) Radeon 9800 PRO:

A64 2800+
1 gig ram
radeon 9800 pro 128 meg
texture large, fade high, all other settings on medium
no AA
bloom on

probably about 25 FPS or so in most areas... chugs a bit in outdoor areas when it's raining, but still quite playable.
Quite playable at these settings...