agp 7800gs underperforming? low benchmarks / oblivion fps - help!

Hey guys,

I just got Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and after playing it, I'm getting some crap fps. I am trying to figure it out if this is just because the game requires a killer system, or if I have my computer misconfigured in some way. I feel like I should be getting better performance with my current hardware, so I ran some 3dmark benchmarks and I'm wondering if you guys can let me know if you think this is about right for my system.

Here is my hardware:

Asus P4C800 Deluxe mobo
P4 3.0c
2gb pc3200 ram
2x SATA 37GB raptors in raid 0 (system drive)
AGP 256mb 7800GS Evga superclocked (460/1350)
ATI HDTV Wonder
SBAudigy
Primary IDE: WD 250GB, WD 200GB
Secondary IDE: NEC 16x DL DVDRW, Generic DVDROM
VIA Raid IDE: Seagate 300GB, WD 250GB
2x External USB HDs (160gb, 250gb)


In Oblivion, I'm running at 1024x768, all shadow stuff disabled, int and ext shadows at the lowest position (but not off), HDR off, Bloom Off, most of my view distances at half except the total view distance

I get about 10-20fps outdoors, usually low teens, and when theres enemies, it crawls even more. In cities I get maybe 20-30.

In 3dmark 06, I got around 1700 (1759 or something)
In 3dmark 05, I got 4632
In 3dmark 03, I got 12500

This is with all other programs closed, my second monitor disabled (i have a dual mon desktop). Mostly, when I run games, I do not need to do this. I can run F.E.A.R on 1024x768 with everything maxed except soft shadows and it plays pretty smoothly, in the F.E.A.R in game benchmark, I get about 40% below 25fps, 28% between 25 and 40fps, and 32% above 40fps

I tried messing around with the optimazitions in the oblivion.ini file based on some sites I found online, but the fps still seems a bit low.

Are these scores in line with my hardware? It feels like the only limiting feature of my computer is my CPU, and even a p4 3.0 isnt THAT bad is it?

Any comments/suggestions/random thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

Kevin

Oblivion is known to be tough on cards...especially outdoors. In 3D M 05, my rig scores about 5200...though I've never played Oblivion, so I couldn't tell ya for sure. Do you have AA/AF enabled?

1, the 7800GS isn't that great...
2. The P4c is getting pretty long in the tooth...

I'm guessing at a combination of both.s

i have 2.4 AMD athlon, and 7800 GS and i get much better perf. i suggesst messing around with drivers

That's a pretty low 3dmark05 score I think. On my X850XT, I'm getting over 6000 in 3dmark05 and in Oblivion, I'm running at 1600x1200 with no AA and 8xAF. It is very playable at that res. I have a P4 3.3ghz w/ 1GB RAM.

what temp is your card running at? Once they fall below 38C they get a cold bug that really bogs them down. Your card is lagging. Not your P4C. It has plenty in it to run with a good card and today's games. Check out the card temps. I have read of many of these E-VGA cards that are having horrible problems. I have set up many systems with BFG 7800GS OC cards with no problems except the cold bug. check those temps.

WZ

I have to agree that you have a problem... I have pretty much the same exact setup as you except I have a 9800pro. I get about 18fps outside with the same settings as you.

yikes, I just re-read those numbers (while not half asleep, my bad >_<) You should be doing a LOT better than that...

I have a similar system with a BFG 7800GS....my '03 score is similar at 12,466 (you have 12,500).....my '06 score is 3002 (you have 1700)....I find that odd...I don't have Oblivion yet so I can't compare that

Damn, that is what I was afraid of. I had a feeling something was lagging, but I couldn't figure out what.

Any ideas on how I might go about figuring out what is causing the problem? I just got this video card a month or so ago, and I reformated when I installed it, so it seems unlikely that its some sort of software or spyware issue. Could be drivers - I'm using the latest Nvidia drivers right now.

Btw, my idle GPU temp according to the Nvidia settings is 51C - my computer has a lot of stuff in it, so it runs quite hot. I have a pci fan right under it to remove some of the hot air, but that area of the comp gets really hot between the vid card and hdtv card. Could this be the problem? Wouldn't I see things like artifacting or something if it was a heat issue? This just seems like overall performance slowdown - I don't see artifacts and stuff like that, the fps just crawls.

Any suggestions are welcome. I'm going to do some more tweaking, see if I can figure out what is causing the problems.

Thanks!

I'm not sure if that's the cold bug...But I just bought a 7800GS too...but not run that bad...
My spec:
P4 2.8c
512 x 2 RAM
7800GS
315W PSU...

My setting of oblivion:
distant land/building/xxx (i forgot which it is) all on
Int/ext shadow half setting
Self shadow off
HDR on

I ran both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 rez. 1024 is a bit lag when outside I can feel. But 800 x 600 is absolutely playable. And HDR looks big difference. I'm going to change my PSU this weekend so that my 7800GS will have enough power to run....BTW, I'm using the 84.xx driver? I thought thats the latest one? Oblivion really makes vid cards struggle. When I play FARCRY,QUAKE4 and other games both at high setting and 1024 rez runs very smooth....

jekyll917, what kind of 3dmark scores do you get with that system? also, in the game, hit the tilda key to open console, then type tdt. Let me know what kind of fps you get outdoors.

I'm reading up on some of the complaints about the eVGA cards now...maybe I'll get something from that.

One thing I noticed is that my card is on IRQ16, which was the same as 2 of my usb ports, one of which my mouse was plugged into. I disabled those two usb ports so the only device on IRQ 16 is the vid card, but it didn't seem to make much difference.

BTW I forgot to mention I have an Antec 550W psu, so it is unlikely that this is a power issue (though I DO have a lot of devices)

Thanks again for the input

Kevin

oblivionx said:

Damn, that is what I was afraid of. I had a feeling something was lagging, but I couldn't figure out what.

Any ideas on how I might go about figuring out what is causing the problem? I just got this video card a month or so ago, and I reformated when I installed it, so it seems unlikely that its some sort of software or spyware issue. Could be drivers - I'm using the latest Nvidia drivers right now.

Btw, my idle GPU temp according to the Nvidia settings is 51C - my computer has a lot of stuff in it, so it runs quite hot. I have a pci fan right under it to remove some of the hot air, but that area of the comp gets really hot between the vid card and hdtv card. Could this be the problem? Wouldn't I see things like artifacting or something if it was a heat issue? This just seems like overall performance slowdown - I don't see artifacts and stuff like that, the fps just crawls.

Any suggestions are welcome. I'm going to do some more tweaking, see if I can figure out what is causing the problems.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

it'll clock throttle if it gets too fast. Try this: open the side of the case, and set a fan blowing into the system, right on the card, and run 3dmark06.

I think I fixed it guys!

After scouring forums, someone made an offhand comment that updating the mobo bios might help. Checked my mobo bios, sure enough, there was a new version out. Updated that, and I'm pretty sure it fixed all the issues.

I'll do more extensive testing tomorrow since its 4am, but already, without tweaking anything, I got a 3dmark 05 score of 5900ish and im getting 20-30fps outdoors in oblivion in areas I was previously getting 8-18. Also, I ran the F.E.A.R. benchmark, and with the same settings as the last benchmark, I have a dramatic improvement. It is now:

3% below 25
42% between 25 and 40
55% above 40

So, I think that was probably it. I'll post another one tomorrow with the full details and updated benchmarks - I've got to go through and reoptimize my oblivion.ini file

Thanks all!

Yep something is seriously wrong! Make sure you have the card set to the right speed in bios, some boards lets you specify 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x and the appeture.

I have a 6800 Ultra and it scored over 6k in 05, and my 7800 is about 5fps faster then that so I expect a 6500 score or something in that range!

Check the settings
Clean your drivers out and reinstall that would be my first step.
Then monitor temps
Then see if you can't try it on another machine

Sunin

P.S. good catch on updating the bios. (thinks to self I don't think I updated my bios on my 2nd rig since I got it. Hmm maybe I can tweak out 5fps more, drool)

P.S.S. My benches were with alot of services shut down, nothing else card wise installed, and a bare fresh install (adding windows office xp = 10-15% slow down) So the more junk you got in there expect a bit of a performance hit.