Advice for Performance.

[ratch]

Ok so my System specs are pretty good. i don't have a beast of a machine but i do have a decent one.

I believe my CPU is what my current performance bottleneck is.

 

Specs:

Win 7 Pro 64-bit

AMD Athlon II x2 245XT (2.93GHz)

Gigabyte AM2+ board. i believe it is GA-MA770-US3, im not at home so i can't check ATM.

4GB RAM (DDR2)

GeForce 9400 XT (1GB) Beta 285.79 Drivers.

 

I Have Applied a good portion of the S.T.E.P. guide, including texture mods, INI tweaks, and LAA.

i can run Medium Quality with low shadows pretty smoothly only scratches of lag in busy areas, or lots of shadows.

I think my CPU being only a Dual Core is where my Bottlenecking is. my Video and RAM are sufficient.

i believe i should be able to run High Quality easily.

my Mo Bo can support Phenom II including the x6 CPU. i am looking at maybe a Phenom II x4, there is one on Newegg for 94.99

 

C&C please

[PowderdToastMan]

The gamebryo engine is only designed for two cores. More than two will see no increase in preformance at all.

 

Check it: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

 

unfortunately, the phenom II uses a AM3 socket and ddr3 and wont work on your current motherboard

 

if you can oc your current cpu, you might see an increase in preformance

 

*edit

 

if the am2+ does support a phenom II, i suggest a 980 black over the best hexa

 

see the comparison: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=362

[ratch]

my Current CPU is AM3, the Gigabyte Mo BO is AM2+ it is compatible with AM3 CPUs.

 

guess i could just upgrade my Video... 9400XT it not that old and its a 1GB video card.

[10hellfire01]

I love the site Kotaku. For the first time it seems they released a benchmark for the samething, as Tomshardware did.

 

http://kotaku.com/5861454/just-how-cpu+melting-is-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-played-at-max-settings

 

I know the game is said to utilize 2 cores only, but that I7-3960X or whatever it is, which is a 6 core, obviously new specs and such, at the same clocks, got a 10+ frame boost. So its hard to say. My 1055T, it won't utilize all 6 cores near 100%, but each core is at least >60% load. Most games designed to only use 2 cores, won't recognize a 5th and 6th core at all. Which is most games though. And as said, Skyrim is apparently very heavily CPU bound.

 

Ratch, yes hte CPU can be considered a bottleneck for a game which uses the CPU very heavily, say Skyrim or BF3, etc. But for your video card, it is not bottlenecking that. Merely only the game at best. Never even knew they mad 9400 XTs :s

[10hellfire01]

Ratch, I'd also suggest tyrying to see waht you can get out of Gigabyte support. Yes the board you have claims to support AM3, but it is an AM2+ socket board. They could've added an AM3 socket to it with their newest revision, which is possible you have an older revision. And I've heard of quite a few issues with older north/south bridges and the X6 CPUs, although I know so little about all the fuss on that so take it like a grain of salt.

 

EDIT: reading more on the specs http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3303#ov I think they did what I said and replaced the socket in a revision to AM3. Again, not sure which revision you have. Basically, AM2+ doesn't support AM3. ASUS even just revised a few of their Crosshair IV boards to support AM3+ sockets and I'm stuck with AM3 now lol

Edited November 22, 2011 by 10hellfire01

[ratch]

my Current CPU is AM3, the Gigabyte Mo BO is AM2+ it is compatible with AM3 CPUs.guess i could just upgrade my Video... 9400XT it not that old and its a 1GB video card.

 

Hellfire, See above. i have a Revision, and my Current CPU is a socket AM3.