What are the best Oblivion Remastered settings for PC and Steam Deck? This long-awaited remaster has finally arrived, and it’s quite refreshing to see just how far PC gaming has come since the original was released in 2006. Plenty has changed, including what the game demands of your gaming PC, and this is where we can help you find the best settings for your setup.
The Oblivion Remastered system requirements aren’t favorable for anyone with an older gaming PC, but the situation is even worse for Steam Deck owners, as we’ll detail shortly. You won’t need the best graphics card to get good performance in Oblivion Remastered, but tweaking your settings to maximize your performance is key.
Best Oblivion Remastered settings for PC
- View Distance Quality: High
- Effects Quality: High
- Foliage Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Global Illumination Quality: High
- Texture Quality: High
- Reflection Quality: High
- Post-Processing Quality: High
- Hair Quality: High
- Cloth Quality: High
- Lumen Hardware RT: On
- Lumen Hardware RT Mode: Medium
- Upscaling Technique: Nvidia DLSS (if you have an Nvidia GPU)
- Mode: Quality
- Upscaling Sharpness: 0
- Frame Generation: On
- VSync: Off
- Motion Blur: Off
- Screen Space Reflections: On
With the above settings on our RTX 4070 test rig, we achieved an average frame rate of 99fps with a 1% low of 37.9fps. That’s compared to running the game on the ultra default settings, which returned an average frame rate of 74.4fps with a 1% low of 24.6fps.
The only reason we lean toward the high settings rather than ultra is the general stability. Given that Oblivion is a single-player game, we’re not too concerned about having triple-figure frame rates with super-high 1% lows. However, a solid 1% low of over 30fps is less choppy in action – you really notice it when the frame rate drops below this level.
It’s also worth highlighting that the minimum frame rate for the high settings was 19.4fps, while for ultra it was 4.9fps. If you’re hoping to use upscaling to improve your frame rate, be wary that with AMD FSR, there can be some quite severe ghosting, particularly when blocking during combat. This is also the case in Nvidia DLSS, but enabling the DLSS 4 override in the Nvidia app removes this.
The difference in image quality is difficult to parse when moving through the presets from medium to ultra, with lighting being the main difference across the levels, as well as some additional detail in character faces and hair that is much more realistic.
With the low preset, however, the image quality is noticeably worse, with jagged edges and a general blurry look to most environments. This is why playing the game on much older gaming PCs could be quite a poor experience, as the lower graphical fidelity, along with forced upscaling, creates a look that isn’t much better than the original game.
Best Oblivion Remastered settings for Steam Deck
- View Distance Quality: Low
- Effects Quality: Low
- Foliage Quality: Low
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Global Illumination Quality: Low
- Texture Quality: Low
- Reflection Quality: Low
- Post-Processing Quality: Low
- Hair Quality: Low
- Cloth Quality: Low
- Lumen Hardware RT: Off
- Lumen Hardware RT Mode: Off
- Lumen Software RT Quality: Off
- Upscaling Technique: AMD FSR
- Mode: Performance
- Upscaling Sharpness: 20
- Frame Generation: Off
- Vsync: Off
- Motion Blur: Off
- Screen Space Reflections: On
Oblivion Remastered is currently Verified for Steam Deck, but there is an argument to be made that it is underserving of the rating. The default settings aren’t the best configuration, with Intel XeSS being the selected upscaler and set to the Balanced profile.
Both XeSS and AMD FSR have their ups and downs, with XeSS producing a shimmering effect on some textures, while FSR is more prone to ghosting. Frame generation is a complete non-starter and shouldn’t be used due to the low frame rate, even when the graphics are on the lowest settings.
In general, Oblivion Remastered is more suited to being given a Playable rating, given that it works, but rarely produces a playable frame rate of over 30fps. It’s unlikely that future updates will improve performance on the Steam Deck to the point where it is worthy of a Verified rating.
How we tested Oblivion Remastered
At PCGamesN, we use dedicated gaming rigs to test the best settings for performance and gameplay in the latest releases. The test rig used to play Oblivion Remastered includes the following components: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration, and MSI B560 motherboard. We also test using Windows 11 64-bit.
We always run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to identify the best settings for this entry-level resolution, then again at 2,560 x 1,440 using the same setup to gauge the difference in performance. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.
Does Oblivion Remastered need an SSD?
Oblivion Remastered does not require an SSD, regardless of whether you’re aiming for the minimum or recommended system requirements. Still, upgrading to one of the best gaming SSD options would really help keep game loading times in check, especially if you’re still using a hard drive.
How to monitor performance in Oblivion Remastered
If you want to keep an eye on performance in Oblivion Remastered, we have an easy method that works whether you’re using an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.
For Nvidia cards, ensure you have the Nvidia App installed and the in-game overlay enabled, and then hit ALT + R in-game to bring up your performance monitor. With AMD cards, you can enable performance monitoring via the Radeon overlay using the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + O.
Alternatively, you can download free software such as CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, more simplified benchmarking tool that works with any graphics card.
With handheld gaming PCs, most will have a dedicated button to access a quick menu from which performance monitoring, sometimes called real-time monitoring, can be accessed.
To take greater control over your time in Tamriel, you can check out the Oblivion Remastered console commands and cheats. If you’re keen to see how far you are along in the story, you can check the Oblivion Remastered quest list for a complete rundown.
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