What should I upgrade? Please help!

[LordFisher]

Ok, so whenever looking the the direction of a town such as Riverwood and Flakareth, even if behind an object or a long distance away, my framerate drops to almost unplayable. This isn't anything to do with mods: my main graphically intensive mods are realistic shaders and enhanced shaders, and I actually get better performance using them than vanilla.

 

I am using Skyrim 4gb and Simple borderless window.

 

Bitdefender (anti-virus etc.) is set to gaming mode.

 

Latest AMD drivers installed. Previous versions cleaned with driver sweeper.

 

My rig isn't too shaby:

 

MSI 6950 2gb OC

Phenom x6 3ghz

4gb ram

windows 7 64 bit

500 w psu

res: 1440 x 900

 

I was thinking of upgrading my ram, and perhaps overclocking my CPU. Would this help? Is there any other upgrades I could do with?

Edited December 7, 2011 by LordFisher

[Aluminumfoil]

Another 2-4 gb of RAM might help (and is nice to have, anyway). Overclocking could put a pretty heavy strain on that 500w PSU. I wouldn't recommend overclocking without first upgrading your PSU and maybe whatever you do for cooling/heatsinking. With how cpu heavy Skyrim is, overclocking will probably give you the best performance boost, though.

[DeadSpace]

ram, psu...check clocks/temps and background processes. somethings screwy you should be getting better performance than what you report...if you running aero, set compat mode on the skyrim exe to disable it and desktop composition for running windowed. fullscreen it doesn't matter...not sure it matters windowed but might narrow down the prob. i have poor specs compared to yours and run it maxed no issues (no AA, never use it on any game)...so something is interfering on your system.

[Handofbane]

How is the heat on your system? You might consider checking it's not a case of your video card or CPU running too warm then slowing down the framerate to compensate.

[LordFisher]

Another 2-4 gb of RAM might help (and is nice to have, anyway). Overclocking could put a pretty heavy strain on that 500w PSU. I wouldn't recommend overclocking without first upgrading your PSU and maybe whatever you do for cooling/heatsinking. With how cpu heavy Skyrim is, overclocking will probably give you the best performance boost, though.

 

I should have probably mentioned that I'll likely be upgrading to a 750w in preparation. Cooling is not issue for me, I have worked out a very effective air flow.

 

ram, psu...check clocks/temps and background processes. somethings screwy you should be getting better performance than what you report...if you running aero, set compat mode on the skyrim exe to disable it and desktop composition for running windowed. fullscreen it doesn't matter...not sure it matters windowed but might narrow down the prob. i have poor specs compared to yours and run it maxed no issues (no AA, never use it on any game)...so something is interfering on your system.

 

Temps are never worrying. Max GPU temp is 60 c, and thats only after hours and hours of gaming. Normal GPU temp is 34 c. Not sure my CPU temps, but I know that I have a huge fan cooling it. I guess background processes could have something to do with it. I'll check that out.

 

 

How is the heat on your system? You might consider checking it's not a case of your video card or CPU running too warm then slowing down the framerate to compensate.

 

Heat isn't an issue for me at all.

[DeadSpace]

background processes and clock speeds then. there's also a thread in tech support of system lock ups that mostly concern ati cards, you may have a smidgen of that as well, not enough to cause the full lock up but enough to effect performance. ya, smiden not exactly tech speak...but then again skyrim at times seems held together with voodoo, duct tape and wishful thinking on some system configs. gratz on your future 750, would definitely add another 4 GB if you have the funds, may not help much with skyrim, but any future games it would.

 

hmm, any OSD for clock speeds, gpu/cpu usage, sys ram, vram and pf usage while you're playing could give you clues to what may be happening.

[OnlyOneWing]

Try going into graphics driver's control panel and give PhysX rendering to your CPU. AMD GPUs don't handle PhysX very well.

 

I have a Phenom x4 Black OC'd to 3.2ghz and an Nvidia GTX460 768 extremely OC'd and 4gb ram. 4GB of ram should be enough... because typically if Skyrim uses only 4 gigs of ram it will first allocate the 2GB off of your video card and then the other 2 will come from your system memory.

 

A new PSU will not make a difference. If it was a power issue then your computer would just randomly shut off when power consumption was too high. Or it would not start at all.

 

You have a pretty powerful computer, so odds are that it's not a hardware issue. Unless you have extremely slow ram.

Also, if your CPU temps are good you should go into your bios and turn off thermal throttling. It slows down your CPU when it's not in full load to save power & keep temps low but causes performance issues some times.

 

A chain is only as good as it's weakest link. Overclocking your CPU couldn't hurt, just make sure you have adequate cooling and use moderation. If you are worried about power then just leave the voltage settings at factory when you over clock. Then use burn-in software to test stability... Remember though, if your multiplier is locked and you increase bus speed it will over clock your ram and pci-ex ports also, so keep an eye out for that.... but yeah, you should be safe so long as you don't play with voltage too much.

 

It may also be an AMD graphics driver issue. AMD has great hardware, but their video drivers have always suffered with keeping up.

Just try reinstalling the latesr drivers and remove all of your mods to test them.

 

At one point I installed a shader mod and it was making me have some issues with flickering and slowdowns. So just try removing them before you go crazy playing with your hardware.

Edited December 6, 2011 by OnlyOneWing

[xaliqen]

This isn't a problem with your setup, something else is causing the issue. Upgrading your hardware probably won't help at all. You should focus on other things that might interfere (any unnecessary programs or services running while playing the game or graphics driver issues).

[LordFisher]

background processes and clock speeds then. there's also a thread in tech support of system lock ups that mostly concern ati cards, you may have a smidgen of that as well, not enough to cause the full lock up but enough to effect performance. ya, smiden not exactly tech speak...but then again skyrim at times seems held together with voodoo, duct tape and wishful thinking on some system configs. gratz on your future 750, would definitely add another 4 GB if you have the funds, may not help much with skyrim, but any future games it would. hmm, any OSD for clock speeds, gpu/cpu usage, sys ram, vram and pf usage while you're playing could give you clues to what may be happening.

 

I use gamebooster. Any background processes left are pretty much essential. I will be upgrading ram, psu and overclocking my cpu. I'm at a loss though. My GPU usage is barely half, a problem I have with many other games, and with some, even uses less in more taxing areas where it should be using more. I don't know what to do. I get horrible fps in Markarth, and when entering Whiterun and looking at Whiterun from Dragon's reach, and also when looking at towns with no walls, such as Riverwood, Falkareth and Rorikstead. I believe it could have something to do with the AI. When staring at an area of a town with no people, I get great fps. When I do look at people it becomes abysmal. Do you know of a fix for the low GPU usage or any of the other issues?

 

 

Try going into graphics driver's control panel and give PhysX rendering to your CPU. AMD GPUs don't handle PhysX very well.I have a Phenom x4 Black OC'd to 3.2ghz and an Nvidia GTX460 768 extremely OC'd and 4gb ram. 4GB of ram should be enough... because typically if Skyrim uses only 4 gigs of ram it will first allocate the 2GB off of your video card and then the other 2 will come from your system memory.A new PSU will not make a difference. If it was a power issue then your computer would just randomly shut off when power consumption was too high. Or it would not start at all.You have a pretty powerful computer, so odds are that it's not a hardware issue. Unless you have extremely slow ram.Also, if your CPU temps are good you should go into your bios and turn off thermal throttling. It slows down your CPU when it's not in full load to save power & keep temps low but causes performance issues some times.A chain is only as good as it's weakest link. Overclocking your CPU couldn't hurt, just make sure you have adequate cooling and use moderation. If you are worried about power then just leave the voltage settings at factory when you over clock. Then use burn-in software to test stability... Remember though, if your multiplier is locked and you increase bus speed it will over clock your ram and pci-ex ports also, so keep an eye out for that.... but yeah, you should be safe so long as you don't play with voltage too much. It may also be an AMD graphics driver issue. AMD has great hardware, but their video drivers have always suffered with keeping up.Just try reinstalling the latesr drivers and remove all of your mods to test them.At one point I installed a shader mod and it was making me have some issues with flickering and slowdowns. So just try removing them before you go crazy playing with your hardware.

 

I can't find where to give the PhysX rendering to my CPU anyway in AMD catalyst control centre. I also can't find where to turn off thermal throttling. Could you give me a step by step guide to find each?

 

 

This isn't a problem with your setup, something else is causing the issue. Upgrading your hardware probably won't help at all. You should focus on other things that might interfere (any unnecessary programs or services running while playing the game or graphics driver issues).

 

No problems with unnecessary programs and services. How can I find out about any driver issues?

 

 

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I'm losing hope. I have no idea why it is running so poor, and I've tried almost everything. Could re-installing the game help?

[OnlyOneWing]

CPU Thermal throttling:

Step 1: Enter the Bios

First of all, you should know what kind of motherboard you have, or at least how to enter the bios of said motherboard.

-How to typically enter your computer's BIOS(Basic Input Output Settings)-

Typically to access your PC's BIOS you have to pres the DEL key on your keyboard as soon as the computer starts up(when it is still booting into windows from dos. Depending on your brand of computer you may have different types of boot up screens. Try tapping the delete key repeatedly as soon as you power on your PC unless you read a prompt that tells you to do something else.

 

Once in your BIOS be very careful as to what settings you change. If you are not an experienced user you can easily throw things out of whack, if you change your CPU speed to an unsupported speed for instance your computer will not start/blank screen, then you would need to open your PC and use the CMOS jumper to reset it.(If you have no clue what that is, then you can also just take the little round battery out of the mainboard while it's unplugged, then press the power button while unplugged to drain any power out.... then put the battery back in and your BIOS would be completely reset to factory settings)... No need to crap yourself though, it's hard to break anything this way unless you tinker with voltage(don't do that). Even changing the date/time settings can have some unusual effects(usually with licensing)

 

Step 2:Disable CPU Thermal Throttling

Anyway, once in your BIOS find the CPU Configuration Menu and look for CPU Thermal Throttling and then disable it.

 

Step 3: "SAVE" and exit bios.

Make sure you select the option to "Save and exit" and not just "Exit"... if you don't "Save settings and exit" then any changes you make while in your BIOS will not be recognized and it will be like you never entered it or changed anything.

 

The computer will restart and Thermal Throttling will be disabled from then on.

 

ATI PhysX

I forgot that ATI Catalyst drivers don't support PhysX. I switched over to Nvidia a long time ago, so from what I understand your CPU should automatically take on the burden. The only way you can get PhysX to run on your ATI card is with modded drivers, you'd have to google it...Which brings us back to overclocking your CPU. :)

 

Overclocking:

Since you don't have a Phenom Black it complicates overclocking. I don't think you can change multiplier settings at all. You are only able to change your FSB(front side bus) speed. Which will also automatically increase your ram's clock speed... So I would be careful, you would have to have some really high quality ram to get high overclock speeds. Personally, I wouldn't take my CPU speed up more than an additional 100mhz or 150mhz...since your multiplier is locked at x16.5 every MHZ that you raise your FSB will equal a 16.5 mhz increase in your CPU speed...so only raise it by a no more than about 8mhz. Failure rate/error rates are higher when you play with FSB as opposed to overclocking using a multiplier(Which is only unlocked in the Black version of the Phenom family).

You can also access your CPU's clock speeds in the same area of your BIOS where you will find

Edited December 7, 2011 by OnlyOneWing