Maxing Out Graphics

[Elof Valantor]

I just loaded up Skyrim onto my computer and I am getting lag spikes every 1-4 seconds, and my settings are almost at minimum.

 

Intel Core2 Duo E8500 64-bit @ 3.17ghz

4.00 GB RAM

Radeon HD 5700 (1GB)

 

Part of me wants to blame the game, and I think there might be some issue going on since I obviously meet the recommended specs, but lets face it, my computers over a year old now and it might be time for an upgrade. If I am going to upgrade I am going to do it right: I want to put the settings on max or near max and still get a good FPS. Have any of you done this, and what is your rig (and if you don't mind, how much would it normally cost/how much did you pay for it?)

 

You're specs are fine. If it's lagging every few seconds I would guess it's your HDD that's doing it. A big open world game like Skyrim is constantly pulling data off the HDD. If your HDD is quite full or needs a defrag you'll get lag spikes when the HDD can't keep up. I noticed this a lot in Oblivion. My CPU/RAM/GPU were more than a match for maximum settings with texture mods but I got lag all the time. It was my HDD. It couldn't push the textures to the GPU fast enough.

[wormywyrm]

I finished a defrag yesterday and I am about to test the game now... So hopefully that had helped. The lag is something of a stutter as I run it is especially noticeable and when I zoom away from my character it is less noticeable so I try to do that when running in wide open places because it helps prevent the headache that is threatening me.

 

Is there a way to enable an FPS monitor on the screen or is that only possible with third party software?

[CrazyCanukk]

I have a pretty beefy rig (specs below) and for some odd reason i struggle at times to keep even 30 fps outdoors. Ive tried every tweak i can think of but nothing seems to help.i should be able to play maxed out settings and im currently knocked down to medium just to get a consistent playable frame rate. especially for a dx9 game.

 

Specs:

 

I7 970 6 core processor at stock 3.2

GTX 580

6 gigs triple channel ram

w7 64 bit

running latest beta driver from nvidia

[envelope91]

Core i7 3.2GHz

HD 5850 OC

6 GB RAM

 

Ultra+

[NAPALM13092]

I run it on high with some settings turned a little higher at 45-60 fps consistently. I can run it on ultra but then I get the occasional lag spike and my frames per second are less than stellar at times. However high settings along with some graphical tweaks in the ini looks fantastic and all ultra is really doing maxing out those distance sliders, AA, and AF which you really don't notice unless you are looking for it.

 

They should rename the default settings.

Low (You need a new PC.)

Medium (Still waiting on that x-mas bonus?)

High (Money shot!)

Ultra (Epeen dickwaving mode.)

Ultra + ini tweaks, texture mods, filters, etc. (Are you a wizard?)

 

Side note why are the shadows so horrid, it is my only complaint. Even with shadows maxed out they look they are made of legos on characters, don't transition smoothly, and skip along the ground as they follow the sun outdoors.

[frapfap]

im running on full ultra settings and holding around , (according to my fraps program) 45-50fps (sometimes 70-80 depending on where i am) and i have a very basic / cheap build (built the computer for rift)

 

 

im running:

quad core amd athlon 640 3.0ghz

4gig of 1333mhz ddr3 ram

2x HIS IceQ radeon 1G drr3 4670's (factory ovberclocked / 320 stream processors-800mhz core clock each) ---runing in crossfire---

a 630W psu

a 7200rpm 130gig western digital harddrive..

and some other random s***.. with the 200$ case i spent about 900$ on the entire build ><

Edited November 25, 2011 by frapfap

[frapfap]

also as a hint, if yur running amd/ati graphics, just ctrl+alt+delete and hit cancel when the open task manager thing comes up. it will litterally double yur fps for whatever reason.

 

u gotta do it everytime u fast travel or enter a new building / section of a cave. pretty much every time after u have a loading screen. i dont know why it doubles the fps, but the 3 seconds it takes to do it is definetly worth it

[Farlo]

I finished a defrag yesterday and I am about to test the game now... So hopefully that had helped. The lag is something of a stutter as I run it is especially noticeable and when I zoom away from my character it is less noticeable so I try to do that when running in wide open places because it helps prevent the headache that is threatening me.

 

Is there a way to enable an FPS monitor on the screen or is that only possible with third party software?

 

I'm not sure if Skyrim has it or if it's different, but I know Oblivion had a console command to show that kind of info, try Googling around for it. If not, the free Fraps is fairly lightweight if you're just using the FPS counter.

 

I have a pretty beefy rig (specs below) and for some odd reason i struggle at times to keep even 30 fps outdoors. Ive tried every tweak i can think of but nothing seems to help.i should be able to play maxed out settings and im currently knocked down to medium just to get a consistent playable frame rate. especially for a dx9 game.

 

Specs:

 

I7 970 6 core processor at stock 3.2

GTX 580

6 gigs triple channel ram

w7 64 bit

running latest beta driver from nvidia

 

You should check out CPUID, they have a few apps that might help you pinpoint why you're lagging so badly. Check your GPU, CPU and RAM usage along with the temperatures around your system, maybe one of them isn't working properly or throttling back from heat. If it's not a hardware issue, try a defrag, reinstalling the game, or maybe even a clean sweep of your graphics drivers back to the latest stable version.

[foilist61]

There's really nothing you can do about this. I do have some recommendations that helped my own PC out a bit. The thing is that GTX cards, especially the 555 and 580 can't handle particle processing like they should. it's not that they don't have enough power, it is just the drivers themselves. I recommend upgrading when you can. However, in the mean time, open up your NVidia panel and go to the global setting to ensure that AA is turned off completely; even if you turn it off in game, the video card itself with do some anti-aliasing. This should improve your frame right a bit, but you will still experience lag spikes in caves. To fix that I can recommend turning those distance sliders down just a little bit; especially if it no long lags if you're looking at the sky or if you get particularly bad spikes when facing certain directions in game. This is simply because the card is having difficulty keeping up with particle drawing. The reason it's so bad in caves? All the dust and ambiance that is present in caves that you don't get on the main map(excluding snowy areas). Edited May 12, 2012 by foilist61

[ShadowSky]

Playing on my old rig with Ultra setting and running about 85 mods through NNM with some .ini tweaks like uExterior Cell Buffer=64 and uGridsToLoad=7

 

Asus Rampage II Extreme X58

Intel i7 920 D0 @4.2GHz

Corsair Dominator GT 12GB

XFX Radeon HD 6990 4GB DDR5

Pioneer BDC-2202B Blu-Ray

Western Digital VelciRaptor 300GB

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB (x4)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality

PC Power & Cooling, SILENCER 1K

Microcool Banchetto 101, Bench Case

 

Plays very smooth and best of all look awesome. FPS 35-UP

 

Someday I'll upgrade like you guys.

 

Sorry forgot to put the resolution I play at...5760x1200. ;)

Edited May 15, 2012 by ShadowSky