7900GTX SLI and Oblivion problem

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pibrahim

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Messages
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Anyone running SLI 7900 (GTs or GTXs) and Oblivion?

I've got SLI enabled and "Show GPU load balancing" enabled too. This option should produce the white vertical bars on the left hand side, indicating the sharing of the work - this appears whether you choose alternate frame or split frame rendering. If you go for the latter, you also get the long green bar across the middle of the screen too.

My problem is that in neither mode do I get the white bars on the left - yet every other game, using the exact same settings, displays them. And my SLI performance on Oblivion isn't great - with 2 XFX Extreme GTXs, an Opty 165 @ 2.4, etc., my FPS is dipping below 20 several times; admittedly, this is at 1920x1200, with every single option on max and forcing 16x AF in the Control Panel, but still, it looks like the SLI mode isn't working properly in Oblivion.

Anyone else got the same issue? Perhaps it'll be resolved with tomorrow's new drivers...
 
Oblivion doesn't auto-detect the 7900GTX so I had to manually tweak some stuff, could it be it is not recognizing SLI for those cards either? Naviage to My Documents\My Games\Oblivion and have a look at those config files, I know there is an SLI entry in at least one of them.

I'm going to put off any more tweaking until the new nVidia drivers drop tomorrow, might be working harder than I need to.
 
Yeah, I thought that was odd too. It says '7900 GTX' in the setup screen, but just prior to that, views it as 'unrecognized hardware'. As you say, probably best to wait until tomorrow...
 
Maybe you should try manually disabling SLI mode and seeing if there is a performance difference compared to having it enabled? That would probably be the easiest way to see if something is wrong.
 
I tried that, was around 20fps v 24fps - nothing major really... and no real possibility of CPU limitation at such a high resolution with all the eye candy, etc. Will be very annoyed if the new drivers don't solve the issue, will have no idea what to tinker with...
 
You have to create a profile for oblivion if you want SLI. At least I had to do so for my driver set, which didn't have one already.

Matter of fact, without a custom profile it bluescreened on me 3 times, which is the first game to do this to me on this particular rig---built a year ago.
 
At the moment, I'm using global driver settings - I'm not sure why SLI would work fine for every other app but Oblivion..? Still, I'll give it a shot!
 
pibrahim said:
At the moment, I'm using global driver settings - I'm not sure why SLI would work fine for every other app but Oblivion..? Still, I'll give it a shot!
Click to expand...

...because just about every other app you have has a profile.
 
Just wait for the new drivers to release.

Is it releasing tomorrow or Friday?
 
eastvillager said:
...because just about every other app you have has a profile.
Click to expand...

Yes, but don't you need to choose that profile before loading the app? Or does the Control Panel 'monitor' for loading of the app? I never quite worked that out...

Either way, the point is that if I set SLI on in the global driver settings, not having a profile for Oblivion should be of little value - without a profile, surely the global driver settings will be loaded?
 
pibrahim said:
Yes, but don't you need to choose that profile before loading the app? Or does the Control Panel 'monitor' for loading of the app? I never quite worked that out...
Click to expand...
Yes it does. In case of making a new SLI profile you have to point where the .EXE is at. Making a new SLI profile is very easy with a program called nHancer.
 
Argh. I may know where I've been going wrong - 84.21 already includes a profile for Oblivion (I was looking under 'O', but its called 'Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion') which I never noticed - hence the changes I made to global drivers, etc., wouldn't have been having any effect.... d'oh.
 
Nope, it still runs like a dog on my system. New record low of 4FPS (averaging around 20). Giving up until the new drivers now...
 
I found that when I go into the 7800gt settings where you can select profile, I would select Oblivion profile...at the settings window below, go to the GPU SLI settings, instead of having it select autoselect, I manually select alternate splicing (something like that), click apply. Improved my fps from 20s to 30s outside. Ofcourse once I go where the trees and grass, lakes etc...with everything essesntially maxed out at 1920x1200, it drops down to the low 20s...
 
I think I am using the 84.20 version. I got this version about 1 month ago so whatever was the newest one a month ago, this would be it...
 
Wow this game runs like ass. I built a new profile & deleted the 84.21 profile to favor my own - no performance increase. I really dont see how the visuals break any kind of new ground yet the game pummels hardware. On top of that I'm getting random unrecvoerable hardlocks. What a joy.
 
Have to agree - I've seen people with 7800GTX SLI setups seeming to run the game okay, but my 7900GTX SLI setup certainly doesn't. Neither does Jakup's (or however you spell his name, the eVGA guy) over at nVNews, he went as low as 9FPS.

When installing Oblivion, it says 'unrecognized video hardware' for the 7900 series (despite then displaying the name in the setup box). Perhaps that's something to do with it. Either way, I hope the 84.25 drivers fix the issue (can't try 'em out just yet) because my FPS are absolutely horrible. The game is a near slideshow at times.
 
pibrahim, I'm curious: are you getting a lot of hard drive thrashing/fps slowdowns?
 
Can you elaborate on the hard drive thrashing?

I'd say I get FPS slowdowns, but that would imply that I ever get good FPS which is rarely the case. They're normally around 20FPS, but will often drop down into the low teens and sometimes single digits.

This is with an Opty 165 @ 2.4 and SLI 7900GTXs, running either 84.20/21 (tried both), at 1920x1200 with all in-game settings maxed and 16xAF forced through the CP. I tried disabling AF and frankly, didn't notice much difference whatsoever. Even lowering the resolution didn't help much. Not sure what's going on, and my rig works great for Quake IV, Fear and, of course, 3DMark06 (~8,400).
 
Here's my issue:
I get decent enough frames...until I turn around or first enter a room. I have 2 Raptors in a raid 0 so I can easily hear them work and OMG they go apeshit when I'm walking around outside. Its not so bad indoors, but outdoors its just insane. Why in the hell would Oblivion be using the paging file when I've got a toal of 1 gig video RAM and 2 gigs of G Skill @ DDR500? FEAR doesnt swap, HL2 doesnt swap, BF2 doesnt swap, Q4 doesnt swap and IMO they all look better than Oblivion. Don't even get me started about the slideshow I got when I fought that tiger-headed highwayman right after I got out of the opening dungeon.

I have to wonder if this game is really is this bad or because it didnt recognize the 7900GTX it defaulted to some horrible config optomized for a P3 1ghz. I checked the ini files and I didnt find anything that looked like it didn't recognize my memory; it even showed the GTXs 512. The official forums are zero help as the mods are deleting the threads about the shit performace in the "Software and Hardware Issues" area. On top of it they appear to have shipped the game with zero to no support for Creative soundcards and we all know that no-one uses Creative products. Bring on the hardlocks!

I'm trying to resist the urge to post this dog to eBay because I see some promise, but ugh.

I score 9330 in 3dMark 06, BTW.
 
Wow, awesome 3DMark score. I actually ordered the exact same RAM as you this morning from Newegg, the price was too good ($158) to resist, I'll offload my Corsair memory somewhere.

Frankly, I'm tempted to get the 360 version. At the moment, I'm thinking 'so what about the PC version's graphical customization' - it's no good being able to increase the draw distance, etc., if I can't use such tweaks at a sensible framerate. Plus, I kinda think that the 360 version looks a tad better - maybe the HDR is more prominent, I don't know what it is, but everything seems a bit more vibrant somehow.

On top of this, the new 84.25 driver makes no reference whatsoever to Oblivion in the release notes. Sigh.
 
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