Fall '06 NVIDIA GPU Refresh - Part I: GeForce 7900 GS

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Performance

While it is disappointing that Oblivion doesn't have a built in benchmark, our FRAPS tests have proven to be fairly repeatable and very intensive on every part of a system. While these numbers will reflect real world playability of the game, please remember that our test system uses the fastest processor we could get our hands on. If a purchasing decision is to be made using Oblivion performance alone, please check out our two articles on the CPU and GPU performance of Oblivion. We have used the most graphically intensive benchmark in our suite, but the rest of the platform will make a difference. We can still easily demonstrate which graphics card is best for Oblivion even if our numbers don't translate to what our readers will see on their systems.

Running through the forest towards an Oblivion gate while fireballs fly by our head is a very graphically taxing benchmark. In order to run this benchmark, we have a saved game that we load and run through with FRAPS. To start the benchmark, we hit "q" which just runs forward, and start and stop FRAPS at predetermined points in the run. While not 100% identical each run, our benchmark scores are usually fairly close. We run the benchmark a couple times just to be sure there wasn't a one time hiccup.

As for settings, we tested a few different configurations and decided on this group of options:

Our goal was to get acceptable performance levels under the current generation of cards at 1600x1200. This was fairly easy with the range of cards we tested here. These settings are amazing and very enjoyable. While more is better in this game, no current computer will give you everything at high res. Only the best multi-GPU solution and a great CPU are going to give you settings like the ones we have at high resolutions, but who cares about grass distance, right?

While very graphically intensive, and first person, this isn't a twitch shooter. Our experience leads us to conclude that 20fps gives a good experience. It's playable a little lower, but watch out for some jerkiness that may pop up. Getting down to 16fps and below is a little too low to be acceptable. The main point to bring home is that you really want as much eye candy as possible. While Oblivion is an immersive and awesome game from a gameplay standpoint, the graphics certainly help draw the gamer in.

ATI's X1900 GT outperforms NVIDIA's latest midrange offering under Oblivion with our midrange detail settings. In general, ATI's architecture performs better under Oblivion than NVIDIA's, though much of the choppiness has gone away with newer drivers and the game's 1.1 patch. While framerates of under 20 can remain playable for Oblivion on the PC, the extra headroom of the X1900 GT might just allow for the all important increase in Actor and Object distances. If Oblivion performance is highly important, then the 7900 GS (in either stock or overclocked form) falls short of the competition.

The 7900 GS does perform better than the X1800 GTO, which is at least something. An X1800 XL or XT would certainly outperform the 7900 GS though.

**The X800 GTO does not support SM3.0, and thus was run without HDR enabled.