Hi all

I was just wondering if anyone is playing Oblivion with a 580GTX or two?
How is the performance? Would you say it has made a huge difference in frames and stuttering?

I am very close to purchasing a couple, but want to be sure it is a good choice.
EDIT: I'm looking specifically at this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004L2LB1K. Has 3gb of memory!

Thanks

The game is over 5 years old. The game would run fine on a 4850 (still overkill, but just pointing out that it runs fine on a $100 card). There really is no point in buying 2 GTX 580s right now except for bragging rights. Also, Oblivion is very CPU intensive, more so then GPU intensive. Then it is I/O bound. Most of the stuttering in game, when you have a pretty high end system is caused by loading the game from the HDD to the CPU/GPU.

I've had decent performance running on a single monitor with it but *NOT* using multiple monitors but this is likely because of my system configuration in other aspects. I'm running a ton of mods (probably over 230) with many of them "merged" to reduce the count down to 148, including Better Cities without the FPS patches, Crowded Cities, QTP, Natural Environments/Weather, Unique Landscapes, Tamriel Travelers, etc., and haven't dropped below 15 FPS (my biggest hits are probably in the IC Market District/Arcane University), with around 30 FPS average outdoors, running at a variant of "Ultra High" graphics settings (significantly tweaked in the ini):

• 1920x1200 resolution (single monitor, others unplugged)
  
• HDR + 4xAA
  
• Max LOD, Shadows on Grass, Shadow Filtering set at 10/ShadowMap at 2048 in ini

Note that I do use Streamline but I've tweaked the settings to never dynamically remove all the shadows, etc., just to alter the quality of the rendering. I also use OBGE but only for the "godrays".

A few notes regarding idiosyncrasies I've run into with the 580 GTX:

• If you want shadows on grass/shadow filtering, Just don't use DisplayLink drivers if you use multiple monitors (e.g., I'm running 4 monitors) or Oblivion's video detect will use the DisplayLink drivers over the nVidia one even if you've unplugged/removed the additional monitors.
  
• I had to set Ambient Occlusion to "Quality" in the nVidia control panel; otherwise the "glow" factor of HDR was just out of control
  
• Oblivion doesn't seem to allow HDR + AA on the GTX; I had to set the AA in the nVidia panel and not in the in-game video options
  
• I've allocated additional memory to Oblivion by modifying the exe using CFF Explorer but I've not really seen any measurable difference (just do it out of habit for some games)

I've also not run into any real stuttering issues; I'm on an i7 980x with a SSD and 24GB and don't use processor affinity for Oblivion, but still do get the random CTDs (I've tried setting processor affinity to either 1 or 2 procs with no noticeable improvement or impact on CTDs).

I'm using a 6950 2GB and even that is beyond overkill.
It's processor power this game eats like candy, anyway.

If you are planning on running the 2 580s in SLI mode, this was already discussed to be completely worthless as Oblivion has never really supported SLI. I know you said it worked for you, but I'm 95% certain you were just under the placebo effect, and upgrading your hardware is not likely, but definitely going to change that. Save yourself the $300.00 and just get one, that is more than enough for any game on the market today, and probably through the next generation of consoles, as well, because they'll probably only double the VRAM available (to 512Mb) to keep the production cost down.

Even if you were to go all out and get a brand-spanking new I7 CPU for this game and a 2Gb vRAM GTX 580, you are still going to need to keep this in mind. This game's engine is notoriously inefficient and the codebase for the game is shaky at best. Hardware upgrades can only get you so far with this game. If you already have 1Gb of vRAM, I really don't see why you would have any need of upgrading. 1Gb is enough to bring many people to maxed out load orders with high-res textures, so 2Gb is just a waste of resources at this point.

I never understood why people use SLI or Crossfire. Whatever you do, it will always be a waste of money:

1. You buy two cards in SLI that combined are better than any single card on the market. Costs a huge amount of money, but unfortunately there simply are no games on the market that need so much power. Never. If a single card gives you constant performance of 60+ FPS with all options maxed, why waste money for two cards?

2. You buy a single powerful card and a SLI board to upgrade to two cards later when more power is needed. Once you really need more power the latest single cards will outperform your SLI setup by far at the same price. So again a single card would be the way to go, money wasted on a shiny SLI board.

SLI is really only useful for people who have too much money and want to bragg with their setup. In my opinion. If you just want to play the latest games on max details with a performance that leaves nothing to be desired then buy the best price-performance ratio single card you can get every two years or so (which usually is around 200-300$). I do it that way and I never had a problem running the latest games on max details with a high framerate for the last few years.

I completely agree. Then there's the added cost of a beefier power supply, the extra heat production, and dealing with driver issues. Unless the second card is free or at a huge discounted price (like free ), I still don't see the advantage of going SLI/Crossfire other than to brag.

Exactly, im only running oblivion on a gt 445m on max settings with 8x AA and getting a average of 45fps outside, so 1 580 would be overkill for probably any game on the market today, let alone a 4 year old game. So save your money.

EDIT: Running on a laptop!

I have a GTX580, and to simply put it, Oblivion just can't keep a steady FPS if you like wandering around in outside areas. At this point, I'm willing to say that the game's so unoptimized that it if you want to play it with the best performance results you're better off with just the Oblivion esm, Streamline, and OBSE with OSR activated.

Oblivion is more of a memory eater than a graphical powerhouse and I will have to say that you are better off buying a less expensive card (GTX 460 or 570, or ATI 6970 or 6950) - A lot of new games will still look nice with these cards. (I more or less bought a 580 as part of a progressive computer upgrade...) Also, trying to get more RAM really doesn't help either, as the game with large address aware enabled can only use up to 3GB of memory. Although, if you buy one of the weaker cards, you can get a SSD with the money saved, install Oblivion in that drive, and you'll notice a major jump in loading times.

I have a GTX480 and it jumps and lags about when I first enter an area, not sure if that's the norm or what. Also, as the terrain generates in front of me as I walk (is that normal?) it can jump for a second or two.

A 580 GTX is something you'd run Skyrim with, oblivion its overkill, skyrim i wouldn't be surprised if its overkill there aswell!
It ran in full graphics on my old computer with 8800 GTS card without any FPS issues. (man i love the 8800 gts!)

It is possible to mod oblivion to the point where that graphics card may not be able to cope, however, you should be able to more than satisfy yourself without going so far graphically. You're better of getting a cheaper card and getting a SSD, like ziitch said.

Man, so many nay sayers on this subject...

SLi/Crossfire is WIN! PERIOD.
Reasons why two is better than one.

A - 3D Vision
B - Higher AA (32x and above without major FPS impact)
C - Doesn't choke with any OBGE shaders
D - Multi-monitor gaming
E - 3D Vision Surround gaming
F - Able to handle ENB Series
G - Simply better performance at higher resolutions (1900x1200 and above)
H - With 3gb of VRAM, able to crank up ishadow resolution to 4096 or 8192.

A single card would choke on all the above. Unless it were a dual GPU on a PCB.
I agree some people buy the high dollar stuff to brag. I buy it because I actually want my game to look as absolutely beautiful as possible.

I only have one monitor, so, most of that doesn't matter.

I can't help but agree. I ran dual 260s up until my recent purchase of a 580gtx & thou I get more features I do miss having a dual card set up to handle the "graphical overhead". Which ironically I've put in a order for a 2nd gtx last week. Also agreed on wanting my game to look as absolutely beautiful as possible. I've recently been getting back into Oblivion after several failed attempts @ playing it over the years. I say failed mostly b/c sure prior computers could run the game..but not as I wanted with the settings I wanted. I figure if I'm gonna play it..I"m gonna get all I can out of it. Currently I've got all the "big" mods out there and the games running great. However I"m hitting a limit on the card & a 2nd one should give me the horsepower I need.
A couple http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/MainframeTM/3a.jpg for example. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/MainframeTM/7a.jpg

1. I don't have it so I can't say whether SLI is needed to run it properly. It sounds cool, no idea whether it really is cool and whether it even works with Oblivion. My brother had 3D vision a looong time ago when it was new and I heard it uses the same technology now that was used back then (which was about ten years ago). It was not that great back then and caused a headache after a while.
2. Do you sit in front of your monitor with a microscope? Or is your monitor so large that you can only see 10% of it anyway at the same time? I can't make out a difference between 4x AA and 8x AA on my 19" monitor unless I look closely on a static screenshot. Even if your monitor is super large you will never need more than 16x AA.
3. My single ATI 4890 1GB doesn't choke with OBGE shaders either. I don't use them because unfortunately the ones that interest me have bugs/problems I don't want to play with.
4. Wonder why anyone would need that for gaming...it's a bit like driving with two cars at the same time.
5. Same as 1?
6. I tried ENB series and it didn't kill my performance, but it made the game look worse (imo - matter of taste I guess).
7. True, actually the only point except for 3D vision that I can understand.
8. If you're talking about twice the amount of vram because of SLI then that's not true. SLI doesn't double vram. If you're talking about a single 3gb card then I wonder why it helps explaining why SLI is better.

It's your money and of course there are some advantages with SLI. But for the majority of players who don't care about one nanopixel less on their screen or about a super duper ultra large shadow map resolution it is simply a waste of money. I can play Oblivion with a huge amount of mods at max settings with a very good framerate - and all that with my good old 4890.

I bought second 280 for about 100€ last year and what I got was the performance of a single 400-500€ videocard. Sometimes SLI:ing (is that a word? ) can be a bargain. Of course they are hot and powerhungry as all hell but atleast I got enough performance to play new games on good settings(pretty awesome job for GPUs allmost 3 years old) and I saved ALOT of money.

Hopping over the whole SLI section of the convo, I am also considering the purchase of one of the 3gb gtx 580's from EVGA when they are released next week (my 4870 X2 is beginning to get an annoying high-pitched squeal, so I am due for a new card in any event). I am only getting one card, but I am very interested in the 3gb aspect for purposes of potentially coping well with lots of hi rez texture & landscape mods that typically eat up VRAM and can hobble a game. What are thoughts on this, i.e. the 3gb VRAM aspect rather than the GPU itself or SLI as has already been discussed? Has anyone played heavily modded Oblivion with one of the various 3gb 580's already available?

No matter what you run for mods, the game simply cannot "harvest" your GPU's processing power. Hell, it doesn't even properly run on my GTX 260. What about the GTX 580, which I'm sure runs more than twice as many FPS? Look for games that are coming out at the end of this year: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, Et Cetera, to actually do *anything* with all of the processing power. Otherwise it's going to be wasted, really.

That's not a graphics card issue, that's simply the texture files being loaded up from your hard drive. Using an SSD or having two SATI drives linked into a RAID array will make a big difference there. Even getting a 10,000 RPM drive, instead of the standard 7200 RPM, will result in an improvement. Other than those options, you'll just have to live with it as getting a more powerful video is going to have absolutely no effect.

Ya... a 580 gtx will simply be a overkill, and to replay on the crossfiring and SLI, I have 6870s crossfire and I have to admit I have had more problems with them, then my old gtx 275...