Skyrim FPS Drops

[fuzz34]

Is there any way I could smooth out my FPS When playing skyrim but still have the ability to play the game with fluid graphics? Currently I play on Ultra settings with AA off and Ansiotropic Filtering set to x2 but I also have the HD Pack. I have been also wanting to know if this setup I have on my desktop is fit to play with these settings. Let me know what you think and any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

(By the Way, I play on 1680 x 1050 resolution with the up-to-date drivers in ATI)

 

Specs:

 

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

Dell Inspiron 530

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.80 GHz

6 GB RAM

Xfx AMD Radeon HD 6750 1GB

450 Watt Power Supply (Does this matter?)

 

(Sorry if this is the wrong section, if it is.)

[Rennn]

Your PSU does matter, and it's pretty low for a graphics card like that. I don't think it's too low though. It's probably not your problem.

 

I recommend setting AF to at least 4x. It really won't hurt your framerate much at all. I have a weaker graphics card than you, and putting it on 16x only drops me about 1fps.

 

As for smoothing your framerate, you can try capping it at a specific number. That way your framerate will never go above a certain amount, and as a result it will decrease stutter in your game. My card keeps trying to jump up to 60 fps and then back down to 40, and it looks horrible. By capping my fps at 30, it actually looks smoother. I have an Nvidia card so it's much simpler for me to cap my framerate, but you can try this:

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=34

[Brandy1123]

Your system is under powered. That video card can run on the power supply listed in the systems purest and simplest form. Depending on other things you have in your system, to include memory type, hard drives, other drives, usb ports used and devices plugged into the ports (they also have limits) , you can put your PC into a brown out power shortage. Lots of board damage can happen then, to include arcing at the terminals, trace burns, and all out system failure/damage. If you start over clocking, thats another issues completely. BASICALLY : Frequency = Heat. Heat = power.

 

I'm not saying that low rated p/s is your problem, but for looking at what you posted, I wouldn't discount it so redilly.

[Rennn]

Very true, especially if it's a cheap model or from a low-grade manufacturer. The PSU should really probably be one of the highest quality parts of your pc, because if it dies you can lose everything else really fast. If you video card dies you can buy a new one. If your PSU dies you might come home to a cloud of acrid smoke and a $1000 paperweight.

 

But we're not sure the PSU is the problem. Does your PC ever shut down without warning under stress?

Edited March 7, 2012 by Rennn

[BlackCompany]

To be honest, since the latest patch, my FPS has gone down the can too:

 

-AMD Phenom Quad-Core Black edition @ 3.2Ghz

 

-NVidia GTX 460, 2GB GPU RAM

 

-8 Gigs of system RAM

 

-Sound Blaster sound card

 

 

There is absolutely no reason why on high, with AA @ 2x and AF @ 2x I should have FPS issues. I can only think of two things which might cause the sudden drop:

 

-Latest patch and some unknown bug

 

-Sounds of Skyrim mod, with all the new sounds in dungeons/wilderness. Not blasting the mod...but it adds a lot and sometimes, that might slow things down. However, I intend to try the game again soon without the mod, just to see the difference.

 

Now, I also have more detailed dragons installed...but my FPS drops all the time, not just with Dragons on screen. Its all the time, most especially when I turn, which reminds me of the early days of Rage and texture streaming issues from the HDD. But not using the High Res pack (or any other high res replacer) and still getting this sort of slow down all the sudden seems...ludicrous.

[Grasmann]

lol ... rage .... just lol :D

 

 

The difference between 2xAF and 16xAF should be nonexistend.

I read several tests and their results are corresponding with the experiences I made with all other games.

The value of the AF just doesn't matter at all.

 

In skyrim after all the biggest performance killer is and will ever be the shadows.

I bet if you guys max everything out and just keep the shadows at medium or even low it will run very smooth.

 

@fuzz34

The PSU on the other hand should be replaced, unless it is a real good one of high quality.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Grasmann

[Rennn]

lol ... rage .... just lol :D

 

 

The difference between 2xAF and 16xAF should be nonexistend.

I read several tests and their results are corresponding with the experiences I made with all other games.

The value of the AF just doesn't matter at all.

 

In skyrim after all the biggest performance killer is and will ever be the shadows.

I bet if you guys max everything out and just keep the shadows at medium or even low it will run very smooth.

 

@fuzz34

The PSU on the other hand should be replaced, unless it is a real good one of high quality.

 

Yep. Ultra shadows will make your PC cry, for some reason. They're inefficient. I think they aggravate a memory leak, taking so much vram at a high distance and still looking almost as bad as medium shadows.

 

As for AF, it won't really affect performance on a modern card, at all. Turning it up at least to 8x though will really help the graphics at a distance. I suggest you put it at 8x, possibly 16x, though you might lose 1 fps if you're unlucky.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Rennn

[Grasmann]

I suggest you put it at 8x, possibly 16x, though you might lose 1 fps if you're unlucky.

 

Made me lol for some reason. :D

[Nightfrost]

Hello guys!

 

I have a similar problem. Yesterday I tried out Skyrim for the first time and wanted to test out the optimal graphic settings before really beginning to play. I only used the old 1.1 version of Skyrim with latest graphic drivers installed. So I set everything to ultra except 4x AA (because I don't notice a difference in-game) with 4x SSAA and Quality Ambient Occlusion through the nVidia Control Panel. I hadn't done any ini-tweaks or mods installed so far. I just started a new game and ran straight to Whiterun (because I had heard that it's a good place to test out performance). So my average FPS (with FRAPS) was 50 and never dropping under 30. Changing single graphic settings, I quickly noticed that changing AA, SSAA, AF or Ambient Occlusion barely affected my FPS at all (either way). The game ran fluidly so far.

Unfortunately, when I got out of Whiterun at sunset, and when the rays of the sun broke through the branches of a nearby tree my fps dropped to 20-22!!! I made a quicksave and changed the shadow settings from ultra to high and gained 40 fps!!! running around the area of whiterun with up to 80 fps. I wanna know if it's possible that this setting can cripple my gpu so much? (I know that shadows are a big fps killer, but 40 fps???) Besides I think my rig should be able to deal with ultra shadows. I saw youtube-videos of ppl who had the exact rig as mine and could run everything on ultra + many graphic mods.

 

So here's my rig:

Windows 7 64bit

ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro

i7-2600k @3,4ghz

16 gb ram

Geforce GTX 580 1,5 gb VRAM

Corsair GS600

 

Also, I played with the native 1920x1080 resolution on a single monitor, real time virus scan was disabled, there weren't any other programs running in backgound (except FRAPS), energy option was set for high performance and my gpu wasn't overheating. My overall time in-game was estimated 30-45 minutes. I had to leave Vsync enabled to avoid too many fps fluctuations.

 

Hope someone can help for I'm not much of a PC expert. Thanks already!

[zaselim]

I'm also getting low fps, like really low, game lags too much.

 

my pc

core 2 quad 2.4ghz 6600

gtx 560 1gb gddr5

4gb dd42 800mhx

win7-64