GPU used... what should i trust?

[urumizawa]

yo!

As the title suggests I am suspecting that skyrim is using the wrong GPU (it took me more than a year to realize that though)

I checked with AMD system monitor and it shows that my AMD GPU isn't being used at all

on the other hand ENB shows that it is using AMD GPU

 

I think an intel can't handle all the texture mods + ENB though i lowered grass density and shadows and i took the lowest ENB

but an m265x can handle that much without going down to 40 fps.... can it?

Edited March 3, 2015 by urumizawa

[urumizawa]

i guess you guys will be able to visualize the issue better with a video
http://youtu.be/UsHsJ-X2WMA

[kniggit92]

Try using this: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6491/?

 

Also, your GPU and CPU aren't that great so don't expect much.

Edited March 3, 2015 by kniggit92

[urumizawa]

the AMD GPU is at least +50% better than the one skyrim is currently using

[urumizawa]

now I really think there is something wrong :o weather the game is not configured correctly or SPM / ENB are dumb
i know its a laptop but there were a guy in another forum having almost the same specs running it at 45-50fps with a decent ENB while i drop down to 40 fps with the worst ENB i could find...
not to mention that AMD system monitor is not recording any AMD GPU activity
http://i61.tinypic.com/26448xi.jpg

Edited March 3, 2015 by urumizawa

[kniggit92]

Please link me to this guy with almost the same specs. Also, please tick the FPS, GPU C, memory and vram boxes as well.

 

Your GPU is hitting 100% usage at certain points so that's where your bottleneck is happening, your GPU simply can't handle what you're throwing at it. Have you considered overclocking it?

Edited March 3, 2015 by kniggit92

[urumizawa]

i came accross the post when i was looking for a solution to switch the GPU used so i ll need to look for him

i am aware that the GPU is hitting its limits actually but what i am not understanding is wich one is correct? according to system monitor AMD is not being used and SPM is showing that the AMD is the one being used

as a side note sD3DDevice in skyrimprefs.ini was set to the intel GPU until this morning

and here is the screen though i had to zoom a little bit so you could see since SPM displayed 510°c for the temperature at 1st wich changed the scale
http://i60.tinypic.com/5yfa0x.jpg

thanks by the way and no i never concidered overclocking it as it appears to cause more harm in the long run than good

[urumizawa]

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/10/1425396632-2015-03-03-00005.jpg


now i am pretty sure i am not mistaken!!
look at the VRAM and the GPU usage

no matter how you look at it its still not right :ohmy:
an M265X has 2Gb of VRAM and SPM is clearly showing that at 660Mb the RAM is already at 100%
the graph above shows the same thing though its taking the AMD max VRAM as reference but the VRAM never got above 650-670Mb
that just confirmed my doubt although i don't know how to fix it

[kniggit92]

No it's not showing that. The dark green line all the way at the top is your total vram available the other lines just tell you how much is currently being used, using more vram doesn't improve performance directly.

The less it has to fill the better the performance, the real interesting graph right now is the bottom one. Your GPU is running at 100% which means your mods and enb combined are simply too taxing for it. Again, your GPU isn't that great.

 

The clockspeed of your GPU is especially low, it only has about 575 mhz, modern day gpus easily get 1500 mhz. When buying cpu's and GPU's make sure to look at the clockspeeds first and memory only second, those are what matter the most.

 

Conclusion:

You have simply reached the limit, 40 fps is fine for gameplay if it doesn't drop in the low 20s you should be absolutely fine.

If you want to have better fps or more graphical mods, upgrade your system, but since you seem to lack hardware knowledge I would advice you to get expert advice (ask on newegg or tomshardware.com) on what to buy, don't be fooled by high VRAM etc, look at clock speeds and use gpuboss.com and cpuboss.com to compare your hardware to modern hardware.

 

An alternative is overclocking: If you don't overdo it overclocking is harmless, as long as you don't increase the voltage too much you should be fine. There is a ton of guides available on overclocking. Note that most overclocking usually won't yield results above 10% performance increase depending on how overclockable your gear is.

Edited March 3, 2015 by kniggit92

[urumizawa]

Mmmm i get most of it except the VRAM part

from what i understood from your words VRAM is useless if the clock rate is low since it can't handle everything then why making a 2gb gpu if it starts suffering from 1/3 of its maximal capacity?