The Remastering Journey of Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered presents a captivating vision: to rejuvenate the original game engine for contemporary audiences, incorporating strategic gameplay enhancements while relying heavily on an Unreal Engine 5 wrapper for the bulk of its remastering. This approach is not unprecedented; we’ve witnessed its success in titles like Bluepoint’s Shadow of the Colossus, as well as its shortcomings in the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy Definitive Edition. Bethesda Game Studios’ collaboration aims to deliver a thoroughly modernized rendition of the beloved classic, yet it appears that some of the original game’s issues have been carried over, compounded by significant performance challenges that can be quite distracting. For those accustomed to the ‘jank’ historically associated with BGS games, this may be acceptable, but for others, it raises concerns.
Digital Foundry has already provided an insightful analysis through its latest episode of the PC retro time capsule series, showcasing the beginnings of Oblivion Remastered alongside the original 2006 version. In a detailed 52-minute episode, the capabilities of a 2025 RTX 5090 are juxtaposed against the launch version of Oblivion, which ran on a Pentium D paired with a Radeon X1800 XT. This comparison highlights the remarkable advancements in gaming graphics over the past 19 years.
Despite the impressive technological advancements, the remaster struggles with its limited polygon budgets and basic effects, which fail to convincingly recreate a realistic world. This challenge was apparent even on what was once considered high-end hardware. My experience with the original game starkly contrasts with John Linneman’s playthrough of the remastered version across various measurable criteria. The deployment of Unreal Engine 5’s effects—such as Nanite virtual geometry, Lumen global illumination, and virtual shadow maps—creates a more visually appealing environment. However, the lighting seems to stray too far from the original’s enchanting ambience, leading to a sense of disconnection. Performance remains highly inconsistent, with stuttering being a frequent occurrence, raising concerns as I observed John’s gameplay in the new version.
Upon engaging with the new version, my initial concerns were validated—significant issues demand attention. When Oblivion first launched in 2006, it pushed PC hardware boundaries with its expansive open world and shader model three graphics. However, the performance characteristics of the original have largely faded from memory. Revisiting it on period-appropriate hardware reveals that Oblivion had its own stuttering issues, particularly when transitioning between world grids. Regrettably, history seems to repeat itself with this remaster, marking it as one of the most poorly performing games I’ve encountered for Digital Foundry.
Even on the most powerful hardware, the stuttering is egregious, detracting from the overall experience to a degree that raises questions about the quality of the release. Beyond the hitching, the game proves to be remarkably resource-intensive, compelling players to lower settings just to achieve a semblance of acceptable frame rates. Stuttering is typically a CPU-related issue, often mitigated by adjusting visual quality and frame rates to alleviate CPU strain. I attempted to address this by capping the frame rate while utilizing ultra-high resolution, but even the formidable Ryzen 7 9800X3D struggled to overcome the stuttering challenges. This is particularly problematic given that exploration is a core aspect of gameplay, and I found no solution that allowed for smooth traversal, fundamentally impacting the overall experience.
The situation is exacerbated by the reality that most players do not possess high-end CPUs, resulting in even worse stuttering on mainstream components. For instance, a Ryzen 5 3600 experiences frame times that double or even triple those of the 9800X3D, leading to catastrophic performance. While many gamers may have upgraded to more capable processors since the Ryzen 5 3600’s release, even mid-range options yield a subpar experience.
In pursuit of a higher average frame rate, one might typically expect to find optimized settings to enhance performance. However, in this case, only one setting appeared to make a difference: disabling hardware RT-based Lumen global illumination. Opting for the software alternative, as seen on consoles, can yield an average performance improvement of about 35 percent. While this adjustment enhances CPU performance, it compromises visual quality in several areas, resulting in poorer water reflections and downgraded ambient shadowing and lighting. Thus, there is no straightforward solution.
Lowering other settings yields only marginal improvements at the cost of significant visual degradation. Reducing settings to their bare minimum results in a mere 10 percent increase in CPU-limited performance, with only slight alleviation of stuttering issues, while visuals suffer considerably. Although optimized settings typically promise a better experience, this game defies those expectations. The underlying CPU performance issues remain perplexing, and even at the lowest settings, the game fails to deliver an attractive experience, arguably falling short of the original 2006 version.
For Elder Scrolls enthusiasts who are willing to overlook the stuttering in pursuit of enhanced GPU performance, some recommendations can be made. First, it is advisable to retain hardware Lumen, as the lighting it produces on vegetation is significantly superior, whereas software Lumen may resemble a screen-space effect.
Next, consider lowering the hardware lighting mode quality to low. This adjustment allows reflections to be lit purely with the surface cache instead of hit lighting, resulting in a performance boost of approximately 16 percent when reflections are fully visible on-screen. For mid-range GPUs, this trade-off is worthwhile, although low-end graphics cards may benefit more from using software Lumen on high settings, despite its drawbacks.
The remaining settings align with the standards established by Unreal Engine 5’s default menu. Notably, the high setting performs significantly better than the maxed-out epic preset, with minimal quality loss across elements. In my testing, switching from epic to high improved performance by up to 38 percent, with little to no loss in quality when using hardware Lumen, making this the optimal choice.
Just before publication, a new patch was released for the PC version of the game, prompting a review of our data for any changes. This proved challenging, as the Game Pass version used for testing saw the disappearance of upscaling options. In the closest like-for-like testing possible, the same stuttering issues persisted. It is clear that until Bethesda and Virtuos address the fundamental CPU-related problems in this port, achieving acceptable performance for a modern PC game remains elusive.
