The release of the Oblivion Remastered Patch 1.2 earlier this week has brought some much-needed improvements in performance, but the game still struggles to achieve smooth gameplay even with some of the most powerful hardware available. 
Despite the updates, the game remains far from optimized, particularly when running at high native resolutions without Frame Generation.
A YouTube video comparison by MxBenchmarkPC shows that while the 1.2 patch has made noticeable improvements over the launch version, the overall performance is still lacking. Even on one of the most powerful GPUs available, the RTX 5080, the game struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution with ultra settings and NVIDIA DLSS in quality mode. The frame rate dips to just over 30 FPS at native 4K resolution without Frame Generation, and only hits the 40s FPS range with DLSS. At 1440p, the game barely hits the 70 FPS mark, even under ideal conditions.
It’s clear that the GPU is a major bottleneck, but even when CPU performance is taken into account, the situation doesn’t improve much. In fact, to hit anything above 60 FPS, Frame Generation is required, which is baffling given the hardware specs. This issue is even more frustrating given that Oblivion Remastered runs on Unreal Engine 5, a game engine that has been criticized for similar performance issues in other titles.
Oblivion Remastered was long rumored to be in the works before its official launch this April. While the visual overhaul may not sit well with all players, and the performance continues to disappoint, the new version of the classic RPG is still worth experiencing for fans of the series. Despite its technical issues, there’s something to be said for revisiting Tamriel with updated graphics and gameplay improvements.