Hi all,

I have recently bought a new rig, and a big thing for me is to play my 180+ modded Oblivion as fast and as crash-free as possible (don't we all though ).

This is my new hardware setup:

Core i7 920 Overclocked from 2.67GHz to 3.40GHz (Coolermaster V10 cooler)
6 Mb RAM (generic)
Chaintech GeForce GTX295 w/1.7Gb onboard RAM
Windows 7 Home Edition (UAC disabled)

What I would like to know is anything I should take care about regarding my setup before I port my Oblivion installation from old machine to new? I am planning on first installing the GOTY version (which is already patched to the latest patch, right?), then copying all Oblivion folders (\Program Files\Oblivion + \My Games\Oblivion) across on to the GOTY, overwriting all.

I am using Better Music System, and as I understand the DLL that this depends on may have issues under Win7 but it seems this is related to UAC and since I have disabled that it shouldn't be an issue, right?

I would also like to install Oblivion under Program Files and this too, should be possible without interference since UAC is disabled. Note I disabled UAC conventionally in Windows since it asked me if I wanted it disabled; nothing fancy, so hopefully it isn't lurking somewhere in the corner ready to rear its ugly head soon as I put Oblivion on. :brokencomputer:

Are there any other particular mods that may have problems under Win7? Does Wrye Bash work fine under it? I can post my loadorder once I am at home if necessary.

Also, will overclocking my CPU affect game stability? I know that OCing the GPU does, so not planning that. However a high CPU clockspeed is good for Oblivion hence 3.40GHz. :celebration:

These and any other related issues I would love to hear from the mod community on before I actually set it up. :intergalactic:

Thanks!

Hello,
I did what you are saying - I installed Oblivion 'new' and then copied my \Data directory over from my WinXP rig, worked like a charm.
OBMM likes Win7 okay but Wrye Bash was another story (when installing to \Program Files).
Since you have disabled UAC it won't be a problem for you.
I found that since Oblivion uses four cores (maximum) I get better performance with the hyperthreading disabled.
It's the only way to ensure it uses four 'real' cores, and each core gets its full 256KB L2.
Your overclock is high, and really not needed.
There is so much power at the stock 2.8GHz! That's what mine runs at - the full (turbo-boost) 21x multiplier is always happening on my rig, and it never falls back to 20x.
What have you done with the C1E states in BIOS, and the SpeedStep, are you running it?
I have enabled all the latest C1E states so the voltage changes dynamically, bur disabled SpeedStep so I'm always getting full speed in GHz.
With C1E disabled I found my CPU was drawing ~150 watts all the time (even at idle).
Actually my rig roasted an Enermax Liberty 620w PSU when I first built it so I figured I'd better go with the Intel voltage plan...
Just enabling the C1E states drops my temps ~5c on average
LoL, with your CPU and GPU you don't really need to O/C either of them (but it will help keep your home nice & toasty warm in the winter).
I just love having 1680x1050 full-everything with v-sync enabled, and my framerate never drops below 60 fps.
Anyway, enjoy!
Regards

Nice, how much did that rig cost you? Where did you get it?

I built it. It was on the 3-2-1 plan...
$300 CPU
$200 Mobo
$100 memory
I moved these into my main big-rig server tower, and continued to run my 2006 620W PSU and ATI X1900XT 512MB.
Then I grabbed the vidcard for $160 bucks (promo price), brand new MSI, big Zalman-esque cooler on it, nice.
(Canadian $$ by the way.)
Bloody rig then roasted the 4-year-old PSU! Most spectacular.
My new PSU now has 3 x 22amp 12v rails, with 45amps to feed them.
So I'm good again, runs nice. Very fast.
I've got my 3GB memory and I'm on the 32-bit plan, no worries.
Got the 64-bit Win7 disk right here if I ever change my mind...
But it does seem fairly important to disable hyperthreading on these eight-core rigs, since performance can suffer.
L8R

That's great news



How do you disable hyperthreading? Presumably in the BIOS, what's the setting? Wouldn't disabling hyperthreading impact negatively on other apps that may use it? How much use is it anyway?



I have always read that Oblivion uses 1 core with a minimum of multithreading. This is why I overclocked so much, to get clockspeed as high as possible. My previous rig was 2.33GHz and so that's not much less than the stock i7 speed of 2.67GHz. 3.40GHz appears to me will make a vast improvement...



What are these multipliers you are referring to?



I had to switch off SpeedStep before the OS would allow me to overclock at all. What is C1E?



LOL I have a Cooler Master V10 on the CPU and its still summer over here so I am thinking a nice cool temp throughout playing. I have only tested with a couple of intense games but CPU temps seem to get up to about 56degC and hang around there.



Well I noticed that testing with Mass Effect 2 my framerate didn't dip below 60 at all, with all max settings. What is V-Sync and why should I bother? Seems the last time I tried it, it just reduced my framerate horribly.

Thanks for the help all, any further ideas on my setup for Oblivion modded...?

Here is a link to CPU-Z, a small simple program to let you look at your specifications (in real-time):
http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz/cpuz_153.zip
The CPU speed is derived from the base clock (fixed) times a multiplier that varies.
It's a two-part thing. The CPU is slowed down when not busy. This allows the voltages to be reduced greatly (via C1E states).
Then instead of drawing as much as ~150W your CPU can draw as little as ~20W.
CPU-Z will show you the different multipliers being used and how your system is setup, including memory speeds and timings.
Regards

Thanks I have CPU-Z but I've never really played around with it, I will give it a try. I am new to CPU over colcking (have tried GPU overcolocking using RivaTuner though) so I will take it slowly. Thanks for the help

New to overclocking?
You'll take it slowly?
You already said:

You don't know about CPU-Z, multipliers or C1E states - but you apparently have that thing running a 28% overclock (170MHz x 20) already...?
Good luck

Yes indeed, I cheated and bought it from the store overclocked already! Shucks! The secret's out :rolleyes: