New graphics card but i still lag, idk why!

[taco3866521]

Okay i have an old computer (JUST getting that out of the way). I've been having problems running skyrim to its full potential, right now i have HD textures mods for just about everything and shadows on medium with a constant 20-30fps. My annoyance is that i need grass off for my game to run smoothly -.-

 

I updated my graphics card from HD radeon 4550 to a HD radeon 6450 from MSI recently, that helped a lot but i don't know if its powerful enough or maybe its something else causing the lag? I've tried reducing textures but it doesn't do anything. My game runs the same on 2k Textures as it does on 0.5k Textures...

I just need some advice on what's holding me back so i can upgrade it, thanks for any help in advance :smile:

Here's my specs..

 

Windows 7

Processor: Intel® Core2Quad CPU Q9300 @2.50GHz (4CPUs), ~2.5GHz

Memory: 8192MB RAM

DirectX11

Power Supply: 300 Watts (I know the graphics card says i need 400 but idk it seems to work fine)

 

Graphics card: Radeon HD 6450

Chip Type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x6779)

DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Approx. Total Memory: 4095 MB

Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)

 

 

Btw, i heard Radeon cards suck horribly for Skyrim is this true? And i have four CPU's but i also heard skyrim only uses 2, so the other two are useless?

Edited December 18, 2015 by taco3866521

[obobski]

Graphics card is what's holding you back - the 6450 is a bottom-end value card (the 4550 was more of a mid-range card); it probably isn't that much faster than what it replaced, just newer. Rough on-paper comparison: http://www.hwcompare.com/10194/radeon-hd-4550-256mb-vs-radeon-hd-6450-oem/

 

Radeon does just fine in Skyrim though; wouldn't even entertain such a broad-sweeping generalization as "all Radeon will suck big time" or similar personally - my HD 4890 and HD 4870X2 had no issues with maxed or nearly maxed settings in Skyrim; it really isn't that demanding of a game, but you do need better than an entry-level/bottom-end card, especially if you're going to blast it with tons of high-res texture mods, ENB, etc.

 

On the Core 2, you have a single physical CPU (e.g. one chip in one socket) with four physical cores (this is, basically, the same thing as having four single-core CPUs in four sockets, except from Microsoft Licencing's perspective, where >2 sockets requires a much more expensive version of Windows); Skyrim generally only cares about single-threaded performance though (which isn't bad on a 45nm Core 2), so it isn't doing much with the other cores. That said, they do "help" in a more passive way, as other system tasks can be run there without impacting Skyrim (or impacting it as much), thanks to Windows' fairly intelligent handling of SMP (e.g. if you have something start-up in the background like anti-virus or a Steam/Origin/Battlenet/etc download or you're wanting to watch a DVD and play Skryim at once, having the multi-core CPU is a big benefit since Windows will intelligently multi-task across the available cores).

 

If you can return the 6450 to wherever you bought it, I'd do that, and get something more powerful - R7 250X or 260X or something like that would be a very nice upgrade. For example (again basic on-paper comparison): http://www.hwcompare.com/16861/radeon-hd-4550-256mb-vs-radeon-r7-250x/

Edited December 18, 2015 by obobski

[taco3866521]

Wow that was a serious facepalm moment. Somehow i thought new meant more powerful duh. Thanks for the information! I'll do some research on those 260X. This whole time I've been wondering why the card didn't help hahahaha! So my CPU is fine then, nice to know! It was only 35$ i guess i being a cheapo.

[GhostWorkz]

I would also upgrade that power supply. You will notice a difference between a PSU running at 400w vs. a PSU at 300w.

[obobski]

I would also upgrade that power supply. You will notice a difference between a PSU running at 400w vs. a PSU at 300w.

 

Such as?

 

If the PSU can provide sufficient power it can provide sufficient power. Full stop. If it cannot provide sufficient power you may run into issues of varying types (depends on the rest of the hardware - some devices will downclock when they can't draw enough current, some PSUs will shut the machine off if they're over-drawn, some (less ideal) systems will blow their top, etc). The machine will not use more power than it needs, so surplus capacity is largely wasted (with contemporary 80+ units this usually doesn't translate into waste heat or instability, but it still isn't best practice to run a PSU at very low loads (e.g. 5-20%)).