We used the latest addition to the impressive Elder Scrolls series of titles, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with the 1.2 patch applied. It uses the Gamebyro engine and features DirectX 9.0 shaders, the Havok physics engine and Bethesda use SpeedTree for rendering the trees.
The world is made up of trees, stunning landscapes, lush grass and features High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting and soft shadowing. If you want to learn more about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, we recommend giving our graphics and gameplay review a read.
The graphics options are hugely comprehensive, with four screens of options available for you to tweak to your heart's content. There is also the configuration file too, but we've kept things as simple as possible by leaving that in its out of the box state. For our testing, we used a two minute section walking through a wooded area, down into a valley. This test scenario features lots of vegetation and trees, and is one of the most intense sections we've found in the game -- especially when anti-aliasing is enabled at the same time as HDR.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
1600x1200 0xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
73.9
50.0
72.5
48.0
68.2
46.0
60.1
40.0
60.1
41.0
58.0
40.0
57.9
40.0
52.8
35.0
44.5
27.0
43.1
29.0
40.5
15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
68.6
46.0
55.6
36.0
49.6
35.0
47.7
33.0
47.4
34.0
45.3
32.0
45.3
31.0
41.1
29.0
32.9
24.0
32.5
9.0
26.8
19.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
1920x1200 0xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
66.5
44.0
65.2
41.0
61.1
42.0
53.7
36.0
53.4
36.0
50.6
35.0
50.5
35.0
46.0
30.0
37.8
22.0
36.7
25.0
35.1
10.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
1920x1200 4xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
59.6
40.0
47.9
30.0
41.8
29.0
41.5
29.0
41.1
29.0
39.8
28.0
38.1
25.0
35.1
25.0
27.6
19.0
24.5
8.0
22.2
13.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2560x1600 0xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
55.7
36.0
46.3
28.0
44.5
26.0
38.6
26.0
38.3
24.0
35.6
23.0
35.4
23.0
32.3
23.0
25.3
14.0
24.5
9.0
24.2
15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2560x1600 2xAA 16xAF, Maximum Quality
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB SLI
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked 768MB
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB CrossFire
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX KO Superclocked ACS³ 768MB
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB CrossFire
49.4
33.0
39.1
24.0
33.8
21.0
33.4
22.0
32.1
21.0
31.6
22.0
31.0
21.0
28.5
19.0
21.9
14.0
16.7
11.0
16.6
3.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Yep, performance is where we'd expect it here too - it performs the same as EVGA's Superclocked 8800 Ultra and is a little slower than the Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire and GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB configurations...