Skyrim on Ultra with this Card?

Qu9ke · Mar 8, 2014

Hello. Something unexpected has happened to me. I wasn't really going into Skyrim with the expectation that I'd be able to run it on Ultra settings, but the game has "optimized" it to be so after scanning my hardware. GeForce Experience also believes my machine is capable. Did it work? Well, sort of... The game runs I'd say averaging 40-50 fps unless in a less resource intensive environment, but peculiar things happen on ultra and even high settings. Npcs will randomly stop walking where they need to go for a few seconds, then decide to keep going. Some in-game scripted events such as the Hadvar family reunion in the house at Riverwood take forever if it even happens. An example of that would be when Hadvar's uncle, Alvor, calls for his wife. She will walk up to the top of the stairs, then freeze and not say a word thus halting any progression. Dialogue tends to be off sync with the lips of the npc's, dialogue often being ahead. It is like the npc's lag in game, but the game itself doesn't feel laggy at all. Is there something I am missing? My gpu also doesn't get all that hot, as I monitor my cpu and gpu temps while playing. I'm 99.99% sure my gpu isn't bottlenecked. It goes under 99% load which is from what I have read a good sign the cpu and other components are allowing it to go to its full potential.

I should probably point out that vsync is on, since I'm aware turning that off can really screw things over.

Cpu: FX 6300 six-core
Gpu: Twin Frozr III 660 2gd5/oc
Ram: g. skill ares 8 gb dual channel ddr3 1600

Danbuscus25 · Mar 8, 2014

well, you can easily fix all your problems by running at lower settings.

Qu9ke · Mar 8, 2014

Danbuscus25 :

Well... that wasn't quite the answer that I was wanting that I was apparently inevitably going to get. I am just curious why it would recommend Ultra if the card can't take it 100% is all. It seems rather odd for things to scan my machine and say it can run games on a higher quality (which it technically can) when it really has some trouble. I have already set it to run on medium settings with higher quality fade settings here and there.

ak47jar3d · Mar 8, 2014

It should be able to play at even in ultra in 1080p. The behaviors you describe are beyond wierd. I recommend you reinstall the game if possible. And make sure you are in Nvidia latest drivers.

Danbuscus25 · Mar 8, 2014

i play a game that does that too, dungeons and dragons online. it scans everything but the gpu it seems XD with integrated graphics, it would recomend very high, and the exact same now that i have a graphics card. skyrim might tell you you can run on ultra, but its not always true.

DarkSable · Mar 8, 2014

^DDO does that for me as well.

Also, couple things to not about auto-calibrators:

1) They don't take into account things like 120Hz screens.

2) They tend to try to optimize for 45fps, or so I've noticed on the games I don't flat out max.

3) They are WILDLY inaccurate and aren't even capable of dealing with things like overclocked parts, parts with different cooling / factory overclocks, or anything remotely resembling real-world performance.

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and take the time to adjust things manually. Don't listen to software.

That should, in fact, be a general rule. It applies to software overclockers, software optamizers, software registry cleaners...

Danbuscus25 · Mar 8, 2014

+1 darksable

Qu9ke · Mar 8, 2014

DarkSable :

Would oc'ing my ram but leaving my gpu the same help? I read somewhere that overclocking the ram can really boost performance on high resolutions. Also my screen is 60 hz, but yeah.

DarkSable · Mar 8, 2014

When you say ram, are you talking about your system ram, or your graphics ram?

Yes, overclocking both / either can help, but what you're thinking of is probably applying to amd's APUs, which seriously gain huge amounts of performance from having a high RAM speed.

Qu9ke · Mar 8, 2014

DarkSable :

This is where I got that info from http://www.overclock.net/t/1011884/what-gpu-clock-memory-clock-do
I assume system ram? The guy (in the second post) says oc'ing gpu clock is good for lower res, while oc'ing memory clock is good for higher res. I am very unfamiliar with overclocking, so I am wanting to do more research before I start if I do.

Avocade · Mar 8, 2014

Most of the problems you're experiencing, have nothing to do with your GPU. A lot of that stems from lost data as it unpacks data or a game queue is passed by without being triggered. This is a normal thing in skyrim. If it is completely negating entire scenarios, I'd suggest re-installing or contacting support from Bethesda.

Your GPU is a great GPU but lots of filters take their toll on cards. Anisotropic Filtering, Ambient Occlusion, and so on. These really eat your GPU's power. I'd suggest turning them down. The 660 is a great card but in honesty Skyrim is very taxing with it's open world Environment and you won't get great FPS in outdoor environments. You'd need the 660 Ti for higher settings and maybe even up to the 670/760's.

Avocade · Mar 8, 2014

Over-Clocking your ram ill not stop the issues you are having. Over-Clocking ram is also one of the more dangerous Over-Clocks as it will really heat up the Memory modules each. I'd suggest not even messing with it as it will not resolve any of your issues.

DarkSable · Mar 8, 2014

Qu9ke :

That information is about overclocking the graphics memory.

And he's kind of right, but not really - overclocking the GPU core clock is ALWAYS going to make a difference. It's just that the memory clock can help at higher resolutions IF there isn't enough bandwidth. After you get enough, the benefits taper off quickly.

DarkSable · Mar 8, 2014

Avocade :

Yeah, skyrim has a lot of scripting glitches - and that's a fair point about AA and AO. I would turn AO off and for a 660, have AA at no more than X2 MSAA. Even with the equivalent of a 680, I only run with 4x MSAA.

Avocade :

I disagree. I overclock my ram on a regular basis, and as long as you do it properly and don't feed it a lot of voltage (and have halfway-decent ram), there's no danger of it overheating.

You're correct that it mostly won't help solve the OP's issues, however.

Qu9ke · Mar 8, 2014

DarkSable :

Well. Anisotropic filtering has always been off. The only three settings that I have really cranked up is actor fade set to max because I MUST see people before they see me. Another setting being shadow quality set to ultra. The default shadow quality is just too dang blocky. Even ultra is rather annoying. Texture quality is also set to high. Basically, it's medium settings with some custom tweaks here and there. I also have FXAA which I heard isn't that big a deal with land reflecting off water as that is default with medium settings I think.I turned down AA to 2 samples and turned off AO in NVIDIA Inspector. I'll see what all this does for me.

Qu9ke · Mar 9, 2014

Could someone clear something up for me? Why is it that Nvidia Inspector and the Nvidia Control Panel's settings don't seem to interact with eachother? Example: When I disable/enable ambient occlusion in Inspector, it doesn't change it in Control Panel. Also, which one takes priority? I can set Ambient Occlusion to disabled on Inspector, but have it enabled in Control Panel. Which one actually does anything?

bystander · Mar 9, 2014

Qu9ke :

Nvidia Inspector allows for settings not allowed in the Nvidia Control Panel. When you change a setting in Nvidia Inspector, it overrides what ever value you have in the Nvidia Control Panel. When you change a setting in the Nvidia Control Panel, it will change the settings in the Nvidia Inspector to match. Basically, setup the basics in the Nvidia Control Panel, then go to the Nvidia Inspector to find tune special settings.

Skyrim on Ultra with this Card?

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