Vanilla Skyrim 40-ish fps

[AnEvilVeg]

Hello everyone,

 

I'll get straight to the point. If I stand by the Skyforge looking at the gate of Whiterun my game runs at 38-40 fps. I have everything maxed except for shadows which are set to "High". This is a clean install of the game using no hi-res DLC.

 

With the above configuration if I lower Object & Actor Fade to "1" and "2" respectively I get 51-53 fps and the other settings only have a very minor impact on frame rate.

 

Now, my question is -- is it this way for everyone with mid-high end hardware? Does people who use Intel processors have an easier time running this game? I know they are better at single thread performance compared to AMD processors and I highly doubt this is GPU bound because my PC can run games which are 50x more demanding with no issues.

 

I've modded my Skyrim a lot running heavy ENB and 2-4k textures and that only lowers my frame rate by ~10 ish but combined with this vanilla issue it becomes unplayable.

 

Any response is appreciated!

 

/AnEvilVegetable

 

~ System Specs ~

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 @ 4.00 GHz (Corsair H100i GTX)
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 970 STRIX 4GB @ 1463 MHz
Mobo: Asus M5A97 R2.0
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 @ 1600 MHz
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 120 GB
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB (Skyrim is on this drive)
PSU: Corsair RM 1000W
Chassis: Fractal Design R4

[SMB92]

There are a number of factors with fps in this game, but it sounds to me you are lagging from draw calls.

 

If you can, go to the spot that is 30-40fps, hit the console to pause, open the ingame ENB menu with Shift+enter, expand the "profiler" category and note down what numbers you see next to draw calls and total render count. Draw calls would be in the thousands and the latter probably in the millions.

 

Also if you want, post your INI files and ENBlocal (in a spoiler tag plz)

[AnEvilVeg]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I think you misunderstood, haha. I am not running any mods right now. That's right -- 0 mods and I get 40-44 fps when standing by the Skyforge looking towards the gate. It's a completely new installation of Skyrim with no Hi-Res DLC. I have also deleted the old Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini so they're brand new :p

[SMB92]

Ah. Is it possible for you to just install the base ENB files anyway and do the above mentioned? You only need use the basic ENB from the ENB site, no preset.

[AnEvilVeg]

All right! Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering are turned off both in the Skyrim options and the ENB in-game menu. The effect also is ticked off.

 

Draw calls: 2300-2800

Draw triangles: 1 572 653

Edited October 29, 2015 by AnEvilVeg

[SMB92]

I should think that you should be getting 60 fps at that level, ive seen an 8350 do more than this. Mine does about 5000/5mil before dropping. With many HD packs.

 

Are you finding that in task manager one or 2 of your cpu cores is always 100% during play? You can find that out by keeping it open while you play then when you exit you can see the updated log. Just keep it on the cpu page.

 

This certainly doesnt seem right at all.

[AnEvilVeg]

If you wanna be technical don't hold it back, haha. I've been working with PC building and software programming for two years :wink:

 

There certainly is some bogus here.

 

Activity on Core 0 is close to 100% all the time but the other ones are around 10-20% I was monitoring this while the game was running because I'm running a dual monitor setup.

Edited October 29, 2015 by AnEvilVeg

[FiftyTifty]

That's a similar framerate to my Phenom II x4 965 BE @ 3.4ghz. Clock for clock, Piledriver == Phenom II, but Piledriver clocks higher and uses less power.

 

Have ya tried disabling every second core (1, 3, 5, 7), t'see what happens? Far as I know, Skyrim uses four main threads, and the FX processors get a ~15-20% penalty when making use of both cores in a module, rather than using one core from two different modules (for example).

 

Keep in mind that Bethesda's engines are just poor. Case in point; there's nary a computer around that can run Oblivion at a constant 60fps. Their customized Gamebryo has gotten a bit better over each generation of games, but it's still pretty bollocks.

[SMB92]

Vanilla should handle 60fps if the inis are not modified to ridiculous lengths. You mention only one core peaking out, i always find a second core getting up there too. I would try Fiftys advice on disabling secondary cores for this game, HT on Intel seems to exacerbate stuttering but so far i cant say it makes the fps suffer. Cant speak for AMD though, I've only ever tested an Athlon.

[AnEvilVeg]

I tried setting the affinity for the process to what you specified but there is no difference in frame rate.

 

The game does handle 60 fps often but when I enter bigger cities like Whiterun and Markarth and have a large chunk of map data in front of me the frame rate dips. If I enter the middle of it there are no issues. It's just annoying to have it drop so bad in certain areas.

 

I know Bethesda's engines have their reputations, haha but it can't be that bad? I mean come on, it's a game from late 2011 lol.