The highly anticipated Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has arrived on PC with a stunning visual overhaul that transforms the 2006 classic into a modern masterpiece—at least in screenshots.
The remaster, developed by Virtuos rather than Bethesda directly, leverages Unreal Engine 5 for its impressive graphical enhancements while retaining the original Gamebryo engine for game logic.
Players have been quick to praise the remastered visuals, with higher fidelity textures, improved lighting, and modern effects breathing new life into the aging RPG. The visual jump from the original is dramatic, delivering the nostalgic world of Cyrodiil with the kind of detail many fans have dreamed about for years.
However, technical analysis from Digital Foundry has confirmed what many players discovered immediately after launch—the remaster suffers from “dire performance problems” across a wide range of hardware setups. Even those with top-tier GPUs like the Nvidia 4090 report severe frame drops, persistent stuttering, and frustrating hitching during gameplay.
The problems are especially noticeable in the open world, where framerates often sink to 15-20 FPS no matter your settings. Many players say indoor areas run just fine at a smooth 60 FPS, but everything grinds to a halt the moment they step outside. Fast travelling, opening menus, and moving between areas cause some of the worst stutters, pulling you out of the experience just when the game should be at its most immersive.
“It’s more demanding to run than Starfield,” noted one player, pointing out the strange situation where a remaster of a 17-year-old game needs more horsepower than Bethesda’s brand-new space RPG. The hybrid engine setup, using UE5 for visuals while the original engine does all the gameplay work—seems to be a major reason for the performance headaches and bottlenecks, no matter how beefy your hardware is.
A patch designed to fix some of these issues has actually made things worse for some, with graphical options like DLSS and Frame Generation vanishing from the menus completely. Players are also noticing that the Steam and Game Pass versions have different version numbers, making it even trickier to figure out what’s going wrong.
It’s another example of Unreal Engine 5 giving developers trouble with open-world games. While the engine is packed with eye-popping features like Lumen global illumination and Nanite geometry, studios are still figuring out how to squeeze the best results out of it for huge game worlds like this.
Modders to the rescue again
As usual with Bethesda-related titles, the modding community has already jumped in with workarounds. Players are sharing engine.ini tweaks and mods that boost performance noticeably. It shows both the fans’ dedication and the frustration that these extra steps are needed for a remaster you paid full price for.
Virtuos says they know the problems and will keep working on updates to improve performance. But for now, even people with the best graphics cards have to lower their settings or rely on community fixes to get Oblivion Remastered running smoothly.
