Granted.. I don’t have the latest rig available.
But my P4 3GHz with HT, 3 Gb of RAM and Radeon X1600 is able to run other graphically intense games smoothly – including Call of Duty 4 or Crysis.
I keep reading of people running several mods and getting framerates in the 40 to 60.
The most I can get at the moment is an average of 13 ! indoor and outdoor.
Edit: I am running the game under Vista – with minimum services running in background – 1360×1050 resolution, shadows from tree canopy only and HDR (no AA)
So… what am I missing ?
I read Oblivion optimization guides (and updated my Oblivion.ini file accordingly).
I installed Oblivion on a SATA hard drive with 10000 RPM and keep it defragmented frequently.
I use Streamline with fairly aggressive settings.
On the other hand, I am using Almost Everything Viewable When Distant (with small textures) as well as QT3 textures. Oblivion would not be the same without these two mods.
Based on answers to this question in a post at the Bethesda forum, I managed to add much needed ‘frames per seconds’ to my Oblivion experience :
– Turning off the Vsync option improved performance significantly. It is recommended to use that option only if you get tearing effects on your screen – since I don’t have that problem, I can safely get rid of that option.
– I increased the size of iPreLoadSizeLimi in the Oblivion.ini setting to reflect the use of both MMM and OOO (according to explanations from Jaga Talesin in the Oblivion Performance discussion thread)
– Using Qarl Texture pack reduced (regular version) and Almost Everything Visible When Distant (light version) reduced a lot the impact of the game on my video and system memory
– I eliminated the impact of unnecessary sound files by installing QuietFeetMax. I can easily play without having to hear the footsteps of creatures in the game.
The result – an increase of average fps from 5-10 to 10-15. A difference large enough to make the game finally playable with the mix of mods I would like to have.