With my new install, it is clear that my CPU, not my graphics card, is the primary bottleneck.
My system's stats are as follows.

I know, and have applied, the following approaches to minimize the load on my CPU. What other suggestions do you have?

• Reducing spawn points (I'm using MMM - Reduced Reduced)
  
• Lowering the "Actor Fade", "Object Fade", etc.
  
• Applying the 4GB patch to Oblivion.exe, and tweaking the INI file to be able to cache additional cells and other resources in RAM
  
• Turned on multi-threading everywhere in the INI file (though I've read only 2 settings actually have an effect)
  
• PyFFIing everything (though I suspect this hits the graphics card more than the CPU)
  
• Using Oblivion Stutter Remover and Streamline
  
• Shutting off anti-virus and other background processes while running Oblivion
  
• Keeping the hard drive defragmented

I've wondered whether for example, disabling the hard drive cache in the INI file (since I have plenty of RAM) would help any.


And, as a follow-up question: Would Qarl's Texture Pack III be impacted by the CPU bottleneck, or would it primarily hit my graphics card? How about RAEVWD? I have quite a bit of overhead on my graphics card so might as well be using it.

Trial and error is probably going to be the best way to find the balance for your system and list of mods. Definitely disable hard drive caching, and start with just the forts, ruins, and wilderness buildings from RAEVWD.

Redimized or reduced Qarl's shouldn't be too big of a hit. What's your current average fps, mod list, mem usage from debugtext?

I use GameBooster v1.6 (not 2.0+) to reduce background processes while the game is running.

Get the quiet feet mod, or better yet, get a cheap gaming soundcard to offload all the sound processing.

I remember a thread not long ago concluding that torches are responsible for a huge fps hit, so you could try removing them from npc inventories.

With all the texture take a look at vram usage in game. If you go over the 1GB of your card, easy to do with QTP3, RAEVD, and ULs (especially around Chorrol), your game will stutter alot.

Also, a 2.26Ghz CPU will give you a bit a grief when there are actors around and alot of objects, regardless of what utilities you use.

My best suggestion is to build your game starting with vanilla (which should run very well), then add mods that add NPCs and content (FCOM, Better Cities, etc). Once you have the content working then add textures and visual enhancement last, bit by bit and monitor the vram. Evantually you shoud get to a point where your rig is at the limit.

Having already viewed your mod listing in a previous thread I would have to say after seeing your PC specs your being highly ambitious. You will have to seriously reconsider your mod priorities.
I 'm trying not to sound harsh, but you'll have to face the fact that your rig simply isn't up to standard to run the modded game you so much desire, regardless of tweaks or performance enhancing mods.
Even if it's moderately modded I can think of no other game that's as CPU intensive as Oblivion, even on a high end system.
Let me know if I can advise further.

Have you tried http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6150 or else using Wrye Bash to remove flickering from all flickering light sources?