Hi,

I've been working on trying to run oblivion at a steady 30+ frames at all times with a fair number of mods for a while now. However, a problem I keep running into I think is I'm just running too many mods at once to make this possible, but I thought I would ask in hopes someone with an excellent system and possibly a lot of experience with running several taxing mods can give me some advice.

In interiors, I think the main two mods that are really killing my frames are real lights and fcom. I walked into an Aylied ruin just a few minutes ago and turned to look down a large hall decorated with lights and filled with several bandits, and my frames plummeted to 15-20. Fed up with having to deal with this yet again, i exited the game and lowered my resolution from 1920 x 1200 to 1440 x 900, and rechecked my frames at that area. Sure enough, my gains were negligible, coming up only towards the higher end of twenty.

In exteriors, I ran into this problem when I ran both RAEVWD and FCOM. But after a while I just removed RAEVWD entirely and I had no problems.

Besides just this family of mods, I was running A LOT of others, that I think were more script-heavy. Eg. Ren's guard overhaul and various realistic health/food systems. Running the script profiler tended to confirm my suspicions, and eventually I turned off a lot of those mods.

So my question is, is it actually possible to optimize the game in order to run several overhauls at once AND get decent frames? Or can I only run a few mods at a time?

Or is it possible my computer is just not beefy enough? I personally doubt this. I could post my specs if anyone wants to compare, but my new system is fairly top of the line by my own assessment. I can run games like Far Cry 2 at my native res (1920 x 1200) with almost all the settings maxed and don't get nearly as much trouble as I do in Oblivion.

I really would like to get the most enjoyment i can out of Oblivion again, I had a lot of fun in the vanilla game but at this point the more mods I can run to fix things the better. I know Oblivion is a little behind in optimization, but I am curious if anyone has gotten the game to run well along with several visual and gameplay overhauls, because at this point it seems like I'll just have to let some of my favorites go.

Cheers, and thanks!

Using Oblivion Stutter Remover and Streamline 3.1 have been proven to help maintain a steady playable FPS.
Using a reduced Spawns plugin is another way of increasing FPS. A new computer can have issues running a vanilla game at higher graphics settings.
Use a tweak guide to kill background processes. The BOSSlog lists the site to visit to learn about cleaning mods yourself. There are lists in the Oblivion Mods section of known clean and dirty mods, and mods that should not be cleaned.
The FCOM release thread has "test" Bsa resources that are already cleaned and use PyFFi'ed meshes- they have made an improvement in my game.
I have noticed an improvement in my own game by updating my mods to use cleaned and PyFFI'ed resources.
I will only use mods from authors who do clean thier mods before they release them because the change in the stability of my own game has become very noticable, and many of the modders who are still active are releasing cleaned versions of thier mods.

Post a dxdiag.

Oblivion is an old game now, and when it was released, SLI/Crossfire, and multi-core CPU's were relatively new on the market, so, Oblivion doesn't take as much advantage of them as some of the newer games.

I run a fairly powerful system, QTP3R, FCOM, RAEVWD, and a host of others, and outside, my framerate is in the 20's..... Inside, it is generally pegged at 60. (max refresh rate for an LCD monitor.) I run at 1680X1050, all distances maxed, etc. Of course, my machine is HIGHLY optimized for performance.

Alrighty,

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/15/2011, 17:06:23
Machine name: DEUsixMACHINA
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 970 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.5GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8192MB RAM
Page File: 2211MB used, 14169MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x6899)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6899&SUBSYS_E140174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 754 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1010 MB
Shared Memory: 3839 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: ASUS VW266H
Monitor Id: ACI26A4
Native Mode: 1920 x 1200(p) (59.950Hz)
Output Type: DVI
Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1070 (English)
Driver Version: 8.831.2.0
DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/8/2011 23:55:52, 795136 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-2BD9-11CF-D570-4AC1BEC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x6899
SubSys ID: 0xE140174B
Revision ID: 0x0000
Driver Strong Name: oem29.inf:ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1:ati2mtag_Evergreen:8.831.2.0:pci\ven_1002&dev_6899
Rank Of Driver: 00E62001
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C
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D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Not Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
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Drive: C:
Free Space: 699.6 GB
Total Space: 953.8 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST31000528AS ATA Device

Drive: F:
Free Space: 188.6 GB
Total Space: 238.5 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: Seagate Portable USB Device

Drive: D:
Model: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223L ATA Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (English), , 0 bytes

Drive: G:
Model: DTSoftBusCd00
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7600.16385 (English), , 0 bytes

Like I said, I think my system is pretty capable of handling some rough play. It's not absurdly powerful, but it should be no slouch. I think the worst bottleneck I have is in my harddisk, although I know Oblivion uses a lot of that.

It just seems like you can't run all these overhauls, high end graphical enhancement mods, AND additional tweaks all at once mainly because of the fact that Oblivion can't make full use out of my quad-core. Thus, it isnt able to keep up with so many scripts, ai processes, etc.

What sound card ya got?

Page File: 2211MB used, 14169MB available

that's an issue too..... a boatload of background processes will kill performance in oblivion. Try a http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796. See what that does for your performance.

Also might try backdating your drivers, newest is not always bestest.

Sound's just the onboard device for the mobo.

Here:

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1106&DEV_0397&SUBSYS_18490397&REV_1000
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7500 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 9/17/2009 06:04:18, 1250816 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: VIA Technologies, Inc.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX™ 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2™ Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura™ ZoomFX™: No

Description: SPDIF Interface (TX0) (VIA High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1106&DEV_0397&SUBSYS_18490397&REV_1000
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7500 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 9/17/2009 06:04:18, 1250816 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: VIA Technologies, Inc.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX™ 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2™ Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura™ ZoomFX™: No

I'll try and kill some background processes, and clean my mods. I admittedly haven't put much thought into that.

Hardwarewise, I think the only thing I can do is set up some extra Harddisks, and try to run Oblivion from one completely on it's own.

I'll add more memory and a second gpu eventually, so I'd have more RAM/VRAM but really how big of a gain could I possibly get? If it's just a question of a few more frames over the unplayable margin, then I'm not even gonna bother, I'll just turn off some of the mods.

Ps.

What drivers are confirmed to work well with Oblivion? Has anyone made some custom ones by chance? I wouldn't know. I'll go hunting if I have to, but figured I'd ask.

These both increased my fps by 15 per.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10510


http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-270.51-beta-driver.html

I was getting these frames with operation optimization installed already.

Also, I've got an ATI card o_o

Thanks though.

I don't about ATI but with Nvidia the much older drivers work much better with Oblivion.

Try going back to the 10.6 drivers. (if they support the 5800 series, don't recall......)

Also, try turning off music in your oblivion.ini. (Its in My games\Oblivion, labeled as configuration settings.) Find the setting:

bmusicenabled=1

change the one to a zero. You won't have music, but, you WILL have a performance boost.

In your Oblivion .ini, edit "uGridDistantCount" to 20 or even 15, if running RAEVWD. Should be gains there.

Operation Optimization is obsolete now with PyFFI available. Just get that and optimize your meshes yourself. Even when it was relevant, it dealt with so few meshes that it really wasn't all that helpful in improving performance to begin with. As for getting the most out of your game, the Oblivion engine is old and not very well optimized. Even people with uber rigs don't see any more improvement after a certain point. So you may be flogging a dead horse trying to squeeze anything more out it. It may very well be that's as good as things will get.