Oblivion

We use Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as the ultimate torture test. The only settings we don't maximize are HDR and soft shadows. We disable HDR due to the fact that Nvidia cannot render HDR with antialiasing (ATI cannot either without the "Chuck patch") and we disable soft shadows because they don't appear correctly. Shadows from the back of a character's head can cast a shadow that can be seen on their face, which can make the women appear to have beards.

In our outdoor scene there are long lines of sight, day is changing into night, and there is foliage swaying in the breeze. This has a severe impact on performance, and is where raw horsepower can muscle its way through this test.

Slide Show

While the outdoor scenes for the ATI loaded pixel shader system can push out some amazing frame rates, the iBuypower Dream 2006 posts some nice figures maxed out. Outdoors is still playable with all of the features enabled at 4x antialiasing. If that is dropped down to 2X, or if you choose HDR instead of AA with bloom, you can achieve playable frame rates at 1600x1200.