windows 7 64 bit compatibility and cpu cores

[LordFisher]

So, I get 60+ fps indoors anywhere. 45+ outdoors. However when looking at a town or in a town or city, it drops to under 15! I have tried everything, but to no avail.

 

However, after looking for performance fixes, I heard that Skyrim performance doubles on 32bit and also only uses 2 cores. Is there a fix for this making it use more cpu cores? Is there also a 64bit compatibility fix? Would I get more performance by limiting the the cores used?

 

My rig:

 

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Processor 3 GHz

RAM: 4GB

System type: Windows 7 64 bit

Case: Cooler Master Elite 430

PSU: OCZ StealthXstreamII 500

GPU: MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express

Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3

res: 1440x900

 

 

Performance enhancers:

Game booster

ini files shadow distance edited for performance

defragged everything

latest drivers, previous drivers wiped

No overheating problems - lots of fans - good air flow

skyrim 4gb + edited in ini to allow usage

skyrim borderless window - doesn't really make a difference in fps for me

 

Mods:

I have allot of mods, but it doesn't matter because my performance is exactly the same as vanilla.

 

Please help. I don't think I can play with such poor performance. Not even a game as good as Skyrim can make me overlook it.

Edited December 8, 2011 by LordFisher

[Mogwilson]

Skyrim is very CPU intensive & works best with higher clock speed , That is on hardware a few years old which is what the game caters for, It will work two cores hard while the rest just sit around picking their noses which (for an AMD setup like yours & mine) is not good news at all, It seems your CPU is at default speed so add the slow AMD architecture to the fact that your other 4 cores are not being used then you will struggle with skyrim, Unlike any Intel CPU.

 

You have a 6950, Skyrim will need your CPU to be quite a bit faster to benefit & it's my belief that your CPU is causing the problems as Skyrim depends on higher clock-speeds like games of yesteryear..

 

It should bloody well not do, It's quite astonishing that Bethesda does not bother coding a modern multicore setup which in this day & age is unforgivable for a game of this magnitude.

 

Short answer is, Overclock that 1075T, It's what is causing the issues(imo)

[mrspongeworthy]

Definitely not just a problem with "slower" AMD chips. I have a very fast quad-core intel chipped system and it still gets bottlenecked by the cpu not the gpu. This is because the idiots at Bethesda have programmed a cpu-intensive game and then crippled it by not utilizing most semi-modern multi-core cpu chips. I mean, I've been at 4 cores now for, what, nearly 6 freaking years! This kind of lazy programming just horks me off to no end. I'm bottlenecked at 20fps in many places in towns, not because of my video card, not because my system has a slow cpu or a slow bus, but because Skyrim only uses HALF my cpu power! And I'm only at 4-cores. Many, many systems have far more cores than that today. Flipping penny-pinching money-grubbing developer couldn't hire a really good programmer or two to make the game run properly. When did all sense of pride in a product disappear? Remember Dungeon Master? Where they managed to cram 14 levels of dungeon adventuring goodness and 4-character play onto a single-sided 3.5" floppy? IIRC they actually had to develop their own special disc format to cram all the data on there. That's the kind of thing game publishers should be doing. Not this "oh, it only uses 2 cores? Well, who cares, people will buy it anyway and we will make money, that's all the matters" kind of crud. Shame on Bethesda! Edited December 9, 2011 by Mr_SpongeWorthy

[Rennn]

I have a quad core Phenom II @ 3.2Ghz, and for some reason I'm not seeing those performance issues. I can put the game on ultra at easily playable framerates (30-40 in towns), and that's with my video card as the bottleneck, so I doubt it's only the cpu. I keep my settings at high because I prefer 60+ fps, and the game hardly looks any different on ultra, but the point is, I doubt the cpu is the ony problem here.

 

Is it possible that Besthesda allows most of the shadows to be calculated on the cpu? Certain older MMOs do that, but normally it's only an option. I can certainly see though how Bethesda might have enforced something like that to save the consoles' performance.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Rennn

[BarefootWarrior]

I'm running an AMD six core and am not seeing any issues either. So this is interesting. Running the game I am getting a consistent 55-60 FPS in the game on Ultra settings. I am having some driver issues with my graphics card but those are not game related. But I have to wonder, if the game was produced for console and then 'up graded' for PC, if this might be causing some issues?

 

I duuno, it is kinda like putting the cart before the horse? Maybe the game should have been made for PC first, then down sized for the consoles? I equate it with printing a low resolution picture to a poster size print, it will be soft, fuzzy and unclear because there isn't enough information to be a sharp print. But if you take a high resolution print with all the information, it is easier to 'down size' if for a sharp smaller picture or poster size. I'm just throwing this out there, I'm not a programmer, but I know my old Xbox is just that...old, and unlike a PC, I can't really upgrade it, so we are stuck with new games being produced for an old platform?

 

Asus Crossfire IV Formula motherboard

Phenom II T1055 six core AMD

Coolit ECO R-120 liquid cooling for CPU

Vengeance DDR3 1600 RAM / 16 Gig

Zotac GeForce GTX 560 TI / 1 GB 290.36 / Beta drivers

Corsair 850 power supply

Creative Labs Supreme FX XFI audio

Cooler Master Sniper Case / black edition

28 wide screen i_Inc monitor, not the best but works nicely.

Win 7 64 Ulitmate

[Symphonicx666]

Guys if you're frustrated, I have an 8-core machine that's sitting cold while Skyrim heats up half of my first processor! Sure it was never meant for a machine like that, but how frustrating can you imagine it is to sit there with 2x quad core xeons sitting in my machine basically unused for this game....

 

Lucky its not a gaming rig lol

[LordFisher]

Definitely not just a problem with "slower" AMD chips. I have a very fast quad-core intel chipped system and it still gets bottlenecked by the cpu not the gpu. This is because the idiots at Bethesda have programmed a cpu-intensive game and then crippled it by not utilizing most semi-modern multi-core cpu chips. I mean, I've been at 4 cores now for, what, nearly 6 freaking years! This kind of lazy programming just horks me off to no end. I'm bottlenecked at 20fps in many places in towns, not because of my video card, not because my system has a slow cpu or a slow bus, but because Skyrim only uses HALF my cpu power! And I'm only at 4-cores. Many, many systems have far more cores than that today. Flipping penny-pinching money-grubbing developer couldn't hire a really good programmer or two to make the game run properly. When did all sense of pride in a product disappear? Remember Dungeon Master? Where they managed to cram 14 levels of dungeon adventuring goodness and 4-character play onto a single-sided 3.5" floppy? IIRC they actually had to develop their own special disc format to cram all the data on there. That's the kind of thing game publishers should be doing. Not this "oh, it only uses 2 cores? Well, who cares, people will buy it anyway and we will make money, that's all the matters" kind of crud. Shame on Bethesda!

 

Amen. I've got four cores of potentially game changing fps not being used! Damn thy Bethesda for making such a brilliant game with such bad performance.