8600M GT performance in Oblivion

I bought Oblivion yesterday for PC and I am a little disappointed at how my laptop is handling it.

The specs of my system are in my sig. It is the DDR2 version of the 8600M GT I believe. I was still expecting better performance than this.

The settings for the game are:
-1024x768 (widescreen)
-Bloom
-Fullscreen
-V.Sync
-No Antialissing
-Distant Landscapres
-Distant Buildings
-Distant Trees

My framrate on these settings averages from 8-15 very rarely going above 20. I am using the 163.14 drivers for the card.

When I use the setting "Very Low" for the game it just looks terrible but my framterate stays at 45-50.

My questions are:
-Is this how all games are going to perform is, Oblivion just too demanding?
-Is there anything I can do to improve the quality of play (I don't want to overclock my card)


Thanks guys,
-Taylor

 

Really wondering about this myself.

Im thinking about using the G2s A1, i think the cards respond well to overclocking too. As far as actual performance, not just frequency gains.

 

To be honest with you, i too tought that the 8600m GT really had a lot of trouble to play oblivion on med settings. Kinda weird. Other games run real smooth...

edit: if you reduce the distance trees, buildings and landscapes the game will perform much better with higher settings!

 

I have an Asus G1S:

512MB (Turbo Cache) 8600GT
DDR3
3GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz

For Oblivion I can run at max:
HDR
Everything Distant at tops
Shadows max
Water Effects max...etc.

I do get a tad choppy when riding a horse through the wilderness but other than that its crystal clear. Try lowering the shadows or put the view distance at medium. I know that when I turn shadows off I get a faster FPS.

 

I'll definitly try it guys thanks.

Btw: What drivers are ya'll using? I'm just a little scared to overclock my card. I havn't my laptop long and I need it last me a few years. Also, I've never overclocked before so lol kinda scared.

-Taylor

 

I have the latest 163.44. I havent had any problems with that one.

Can be found here: (Vista 32bit) http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14562

 

Is there an option for "dynamic lighting"? Usually this kills framerates. Haven't played it in a while so don't remember.

 

Ok, I used fraps to save the fps info. I lowered some things. Most imporantly I just set everything on Medium.

btw: I didn't see a dynamic lighting option.

Here's the info from fraps:
2007-08-27 19:04:47 - Oblivion
Frames: 6773 - Time: 156380ms - Avg: 43.311 - Min: 9 - Max: 64

Now, I didn't play over a long period of time because I died lol. Also keep in mind all of this was played while I was inside. (In the sewers at the beginning of the game.)

Everything is ok ranging from 20-30 fps but everynow and then the game "jerks" it's like the it's trying to catch up. If I move really fast I get a jerk. If I encounter an enemy (sometimes) it'll jerk not all the time. It's definitly playable just not near about as smooth as the 360 version.

I might update my drivers later and see if that helps. I may even try "oldblivion" I don't really care much about the graphics as long as it doesn't look like it was made in the 70s. I just want it to play smoothly.

-Taylor

 

eek, i imagine it wont be great once you get outside.

 

Hmm, that's odd. My G1s, GDDR3 8600m GT, 163.14 drivers:
--Medium Textures
--HDR
--Distant Everything
--Sliders between 25-50%
--1200x800 Resolution
I get 60ish FPS indoors, 40 outdoors with occasional stutter to 20.
Use the Oblivion Tweakguide at www.tweakguides.com to get best performance.

 

yes but your GDDR3 version is MUCH better than his ddr2 version, even if he overclocked it would not match your performance, your mem is at 1.4ghz and his is at 800mhz(i think?)

 

It's not that much better. If he turns off HDR, which is a FPS killer, he should get similar FPS that I get. I suspect that he hasn't optimized his PC and all the Dell bloatware is killing the performance.

 

I just started to play Oblivion on my laptop, it can take it at max settings plus HDR

 

You guys are insane. Do you guys realize that the biggest FPS killer in oblivion is the Grass? Turn the grass distance dial all the way down and you'll see an instant boost of FPS. It definitely gives me a huge boost on my go 7900 gs. Outside it goes from 20-30fps to 40-50fps running 1440x900, all high settings, no AA, HDR on. Grass = Killer.

 

I remember hearing all this noise about how not even the 360 could play it without a frame rate drop. And it was taking on the top cards in SLI mode and they couldn't keep up, and blah blah blah. Now i'm hearing that a laptop with a midrange graphics card can handle it fine at high resolutions.

Somewhat amusing, but im very happy about that.

 

the desktop 8600GT can easily run Oblivion with everything maxed out(HDR w/o AA or Bloom with max AA) at 1280*1024 resolution.
8600GT series seems to excel at Oblivion

 

If you people are still stuggling try the optimisation mods listed in the following thread:

http://www.oldblivion.com/sm/index.php?topic=3607.0

Wish i had a 8600GT

 

You have to optimize Oblivion, it doesn´t run like a dream out of the box. Also there is low poly grass which helps FPS a lot and looks the same as the grass in Oblivion which uses ridicilous many polygons for just the grass alone.

Mine which I play at both my laptop my XPS M170 with a 7800GTX and of course my desktop I don´t even have to mention since it eats Oblivion with a 8800GTX.

But with my laptop I can run the game in 1920x1200 with HDR, Max Draw Distance, Large Textures, sliders lowered here and there, low poly grass and my fps ranges between 20-35fps outside depending on where I am, but usually around 25-27fps running the woods

You just have to optimize the game a lot so it suits your laptop and GPU. This with tweaking I mean .ini editing.

I could play the game at lower resolution of course then I get up to 40´s fps outside, but I like to play at native resolution the game looks so sharp on my 1920x1200 display, looks awesome.

On funny thing I have noticed is that my GPU doesn´t like any of the newer 100+ drivers for XP. I recently tried 165.01 but my FPS in Oblivion were lowered with at least 5 frames average. So I´m still stuck to my favourite 91.47 drivers which are excellent gaming drivers, do note these are Xtreme-G drivers.

 

If you take off the bloom you should be able to increase the other settings a lot, as it uses a lot of power

 

Bloom isn´t as demanding as HDR by the way. Take off bloom and you will have a very dull lookin game trust me.

 

Better to have a playable fps than bloom though. I guess you're right though, but if your system isn't up to it then bloom can make the game just look wierd (it did on my old desktop), although I really would've thought that with that card the TS should not have too great a problem playing the game... I don't know.

 

I've wiped Vista, installed XP, nice and clean. Runs Oblivion with the highest settings at 1440x900 with little problems.

 

I took off bloom... it looks terrible. It's all washed out and the only color in the game are the people everything else looks like it's been dowsed in milk.

I'm going to try and edit the ini file and then check out Oldblivion if that doesn't help. I'll also lower the grass thing. Thanks guys for all your help.

I'll post how it helps in the longrun. I'd love to switch back to XP, but I'm liking Vista too much lol. I'm sure that in time Vista will be just as good if not better than XP at gaming. I hope.

-Taylor

 

No need for Oldblivion, just tweak the ini. But do also remember that your card is no high end card in itself and Oblivion is a pretty demanding game. But at 1280x800 you should play the game fine.

 

Ok guys. Here's my configuration:

-1024x768 Resolution
-Bloom
-Distant Landscapes
-Distant Buildings
-No Distant Trees
-I have reduced grass to about 20%

I am using the 163.44 drivers for the 8600M GT GDDR2. I am getting absolutely horrible framerates now. It has dropped down to 2 at some points, and a high of 40. If I can get a steady 20-25 I'd be doing good. But when it drops like that it's not even worth playing. I think I was getting better FPS with the 163.14 drivers.

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

Highest settings-right:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=716&model2=855&chart=296

 

By "Highest Settings @ 1440x900" he probably means "Mid settings @ 1280x800". And by "no problems" it's "the walls are rendered very nicely if I don't move the mouse".

 

Excellent translation .

 

Wow... so basically I stand no chance of getting an average of 25fps? Unless I turn everything off?

Please tell me that other games will perform better on the 8600M GT. I was wanting to get into game modding :/.

-Taylor

 

So it plays fine on an Asus G2s a1, but isn't tolerable on the dell? Isn't the only main difference the graphics card speed and a minor processor difference?

 

False.

After a bit of testing I have found a very very pleasant medium. I have set the resolution to 1024x768 (I will try upping it to 1280 later) Medium Texture Quality, Distant Landscapes, Distant Buildings, Lowered Grass, No V.Sync and I'm getting an average of 40fps. And the game looks terrific. It has dropped but the lowest it has went is 32. I will post some benchmarks and the full configuration that I am using later.

I just want to say that if you have a 1520 or planning on purchasing one and want to play Oblivion don't fear it will play fine!

Thanks guys,
-Taylor

 

Oblivion should play fine on a Dell Inspiron 1520 w/ a 8600m GT. Use medium textures, 1200x800 resolution, turn off grass or use a mod, use bloom instead of HDR. BUT, before you play, follow the tweakguide and optimize not only the Oblivion INF, but your system as well. Dells come preloaded with a ton of bloatware and that will hurt your framerates.

 

What exactly is Oldblivion if you don't mind me asking?

 

It's a user-created mod to run Oblivion on older video cards that aren't officially supported. It looks better than running oblivion on very low settings, but by no means does it mean anyone can run Oblivion. You still need a respectable dedicated card.

 

or overclock the core, and a 8600M GT should get you max or near max settings on Oblivion. my desktop's 8600GT can play Oblivion with everything turned up to the max at 1280*1024 resolution.

 

This game had better keep me occupied for a long time. I <3d elder scrolls III

is the IV game of the year edition out?

What mods would you say are worth looking into?

 

Maybe with 200% performance increase after overclocking
Check link from previous page.

 

My Asus G1s can do Oblivion at WUXGA maxxed if I hook it up to a desktop with SLI'd 8800 Ultras, and turn of my Asus G1s.

 

IMHO with combo like that, you should go for QXGA

 

Ok, so I've spent most of my day trying to get Oblivion running decently on my system. Shows how much of a life I have lol.

System Specs in sig.

Game Config:
Resolution: 1280x800 (widescreen)
AntiAliasing: 2x
Lighting: Bloom
-Distant Buildings
-Distant Landscapes
Medium Quality Textures

Mods:
-Low-Poly Grass
-Grass textures

Ini Changes:
-Changed Cache (I believe if that's right)
-Added the Dual Core options

Test Results:
(Taken over a span of 5 minutes, while outside, outside of the Imperial City during a rain/lightning storm and fighting a couple deer.)

Frames: 8730
Min: 16
Max: 51
Avg: 29

It's definitly playable. There is a little stuttering. Although when I turn the AA up to 4 and 8 I get no stuttering at all. This does lower my FPS overall though.

Tomorrow I will try to lower some other options so that I can raise the AA to get smooth gameplay. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Thanks,
-Taylor

 

well other review sites contradict toms results.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/12285/7

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970&p=6

 

I would really like to now what framerates you get when playing at maxed resolution with a 8600GT It can´t be smooth at all no matter how much you tweak the ini. Especially this guy running the game at 1440x900 no way in h..l is i playing the game smooth at all at that resolution. Some people are just dreaming, why not tell the truth directly instead of thinking into "My laptop isn´t able to run the game maxed due to my GPU but I can lie and tell people it can anyway" Hard to fool people who really knows how the game performs on different cards

 

Anandtech test in 1024x768 resolution, and shows lower FPS then test from other site at 1280x1024-strange .
And don't forget, those are average FPS. Tom's test shows how fluent play is outdoors.

 

It has to be stressed again how much you can modify Oblivion to improve performance (without sacrificing image quality). Just visit the Oblivion mod forum on Elderscrolls.com, and look around for lots of awesome mods.

 

TS: There is a new thread just appeared in this sub-forum about hotfixes for vista by nvidia for people with geforce graphics cards, maybe that would help you. I hope this helps

 

Don't know about game of the year edition, but there was a special edition available, when the game was released. If you have any spare money, be sure to get also the expansion Shivering Isles and the official plugin pack, Knights of the Nine.

About mods; Well there's quite many "essential mods" for Oblivion, which atleast I can't play the game without. I won't list anything here, since it's been a while when I actually played the game, so there's lot's updates and new "essential mods" available. But a very good place to start is this: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Recommended_Mods

It takes some research and propably some testing to know for sure which mods you actually need and can't live without. Most important are unofficial bug fixes, which can save you later on when you have spent hundreds of hours into the game. Try not to over do it, just start with "the essentials".

 

From my personal experience with 8600GT and Oblivion. With everything max(HDR and no AA or Bloom with max AA), my old 8600GT Pentium D 2.8 PC played Oblivion just fine. I didn't use FRAPs to get the FPS but I did a little test and ran around on a horse between two cities with all max and all minimum settings. I didn't notice any stuttering or lag at all max and gameplay felt exactly the same as the all minimum setting.

 

It's all about personal preferences what fluent/smooth gameplay means to different person.
For me-translating to number of FPS is about 30 (off course more is better). I've saw some screenshots on NBR forum (different games) with FPS numbers in teens and statement, that game is still playable . But it's just my "point of view" in this subject .

 

The game is fine for me until I get stuttering the stuttering makes the game not worth playing when that happens.

 

Maybe I´m spoiled or just have sensitive eyes, but I need 30fps at a minimum for the game to feel fluent. preferably 40-60fps.

But for people saying that 10-15fps or even 20fps is playable, well sure it is playable but I would never play at such a low framerate. Then it´s better to cut on the eye candy and get some additional frames.

As for Oblivion in max and minimum that´s a hell of a difference frame wise.