Need better fps for Skyrim... ideas?

[theude4bides]

Hey all-

Noob disclamer: I am a noob.

That said, here is the deal. In order to play skyrim, I recently upgraded from a five year old dual core 3.0ghz 2gig ram, ati x1650 to the following (yeah... I know!):

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-USB3 REV3.1 AMD 8 Series AM3+ Motherboard
8GB DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1 GB
600W ps

And now... I am getting greedy... I want better fps for Skyrim. It plays fine on 1080p 50" plasma on High Settings, for the most part, but things slow down a bit when my bounty is high (>50K ha ha!) and I have an entire town chasing me! So the goal is really two-fold: 1.) smoother game play in situations where there is a lot going on graphically and 2.) be able to play the game on Ultra High Settings at 1080p.

So with that goal in mind... do I?
1.) simply use the 4 gig mod? would that help? I'll try either way... just new to modding (converted xbox player... go figure!)
2.) upgrade graphics card to 6950 or something better than the 6850?
3.) Add another 6850 to enable cross-fire?
4.) Other?

Throw your ideas out there, I'd love to hear 'em!

Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

Crossfire 6850 will be a good boost overall, not sure how good that CPU will handle the game at Ultra High though. As you can see here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-overclocking,3077-5.html, the Phenom II x6 is two steps bellow several i5 and i7 models from Intel. You may be stuck with lower fps on higher settings at 1080p resolutions due to the CPU. The CPU may hold you back more than the video card, a second or faster video card may not get you much increase even.

 

[theude4bides]

I was afraid the cpu might limit things a bit. Is there a way to find out for sure without actually testing out better gpu configurations?

Should I attempt over-clocking? My rig isn’t liquid cooled…yet anyway, and I am a noob to pc gaming and overclocking, modding, etc.

 

[Headspin_69]

Hey all-

Noob disclamer: I am a noob.

That said, here is the deal. In order to play skyrim, I recently upgraded from a five year old dual core 3.0ghz 2gig ram, ati x1650 to the following (yeah... I know!):

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-USB3 REV3.1 AMD 8 Series AM3+ Motherboard
8GB DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1 GB
600W ps

And now... I am getting greedy... I want better fps for Skyrim. It plays fine on 1080p 50" plasma on High Settings, for the most part, but things slow down a bit when my bounty is high (>50K ha ha!) and I have an entire town chasing me! So the goal is really two-fold: 1.) smoother game play in situations where there is a lot going on graphically and 2.) be able to play the game on Ultra High Settings at 1080p.

So with that goal in mind... do I?
1.) simply use the 4 gig mod? would that help? I'll try either way... just new to modding (converted xbox player... go figure!)
2.) upgrade graphics card to 6950 or something better than the 6850?
3.) Add another 6850 to enable cross-fire?
4.) Other?

Throw your ideas out there, I'd love to hear 'em!

Thanks!

I have same problem my CPU is a Phenom II x4 B55 @ 3.8ghz and unfortunately for us that are on AMD CPUs the only way to get better performance in Skyrim is to go to an INTEL CPU.

 

[clarkjd]

I was afraid the cpu might limit things a bit. Is there a way to find out for sure without actually testing out better gpu configurations?

Should I attempt over-clocking? My rig isn’t liquid cooled…yet anyway, and I am a noob to pc gaming and overclocking, modding, etc.

Lower the resolution. If your FPS increases then your graphics card is the bottleneck. If your FPS stays the same, then your CPU is the culprit.

 

[Headspin_69]

Lower the resolution. If your FPS increases then your graphics card is the bottleneck. If your FPS stays the same, then your CPU is the culprit.

Its the game engine that's the problem Skyrim is very very CPU limited.

 

[theude4bides]

I have same problem my CPU is a Phenom II x4 B55 @ 3.8ghz and unfortunately for us that are on AMD CPUs the only way to get better performance in Skyrim is to go to an INTEL CPU.

I feel like there HAS to be something we can do!

 

[Earnie]

your cpu is fine.dont let the fanboys tell u otherwise.I'm running crossfire unlocked 2G 6950's at 6970 speeds on a 980 o/c to 4.2 with no issues on bf3 at ultra settings.even runs fine at stock,but why not o/c is my motto.

either crossfire or get a better card with more memory,2G cards.6950/6970

what fps are you getting now?

 

[Headspin_69]

So you feel my pain!

I don't mind it Skyrim is still completely playable for me and I only really need a constant 60fps in FPS games like MW2 online etc but in RPGs as long as I am over 30fps and in the mid 40s to 60fps ideally I am happy and Skyrim does play smooth 99% of the time. Sad thing is the fact that Skyrim was poorly coded to necessitate an insanely powerful CPU to run at it's best and even then 42fps at the very min on an INTEL CPU is as good as it will ever get here is the link that proves my extreme claims LOL. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

 

[Headspin_69]

your cpu is fine.dont let the fanboys tell u otherwise.I'm running crossfire unlocked 2G 6950's at 6970 speeds on a 980 o/c to 4.2 with no issues on bf3 at ultra settings.even runs fine at stock,but why not o/c is my motto.

either crossfire or get a better card with more memory,2G cards.6950/6970

what fps are you getting now?

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 074-9.html

 

[Headspin_69]

I feel like there HAS to be something we can do!

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 074-9.html

 

[cbrunnem]

your cpu is fine.dont let the fanboys tell u otherwise.I'm running crossfire unlocked 2G 6950's at 6970 speeds on a 980 o/c to 4.2 with no issues on bf3 at ultra settings.even runs fine at stock,but why not o/c is my motto.

either crossfire or get a better card with more memory,2G cards.6950/6970

what fps are you getting now?

your missing the point. the point is that you are leaving a lot of fps on the table because your cpu is nto strong enough to get the maximum fps two 6950's can achieve. if you threw in an intel cpu into your rig you would get better fps no doubt.

OP i think an overclock would get your better results. overclock as high as possible and make sure you get a better then stock cpu cooler.

Also why is everyone so quick to say a game is poorly coded if it doesnt play well on the computer. just cause it takes a strong cpu doesnt mean its poorly coded i just think people use it as a crutch or excuse. has anyone on this site actually seen the code to know if its bad? maybe the game just needs a lot of power. Is 3ds max or Maya coded bad if it takes hours to render 1 frame? no maybe that frame was just really detailed. my point is stop calling a game poorly coded if you have nothing to back up that statement.

 

[Earnie]

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 074-9.html

Sorry!The page you requested couldn't be found

 

[hang-the-9]

your cpu is fine.dont let the fanboys tell u otherwise.I'm running crossfire unlocked 2G 6950's at 6970 speeds on a 980 o/c to 4.2 with no issues on bf3 at ultra settings.even runs fine at stock,but why not o/c is my motto.

either crossfire or get a better card with more memory,2G cards.6950/6970

what fps are you getting now?

That CPU is fine for games, no doubt. But is it fine enough to get a constant 50-60 fps in a CPU heavy game at max settings at high resolutions with no overclock, probably not.

 

[Headspin_69]

your missing the point. the point is that you are leaving a lot of fps on the table because your cpu is nto strong enough to get the maximum fps two 6950's can achieve. if you threw in an intel cpu into your rig you would get better fps no doubt.

OP i think an overclock would get your better results. overclock as high as possible and make sure you get a better then stock cpu cooler.

Also why is everyone so quick to say a game is poorly coded if it doesnt play well on the computer. just cause it takes a strong cpu doesnt mean its poorly coded i just think people use it as a crutch or excuse. has anyone on this site actually seen the code to know if its bad? maybe the game just needs a lot of power. Is 3ds max or Maya coded bad if it takes hours to render 1 frame? no maybe that frame was just really detailed. my point is stop calling a game poorly coded if you have nothing to back up that statement.

The point is the strongest INTEL CPU overclocked to 4ghz still nets a 43fps min on Skyrim that = poor coding.

 

[Headspin_69]

Sorry!The page you requested couldn't be found

Toms Hardware stated in a review that an i5 2500k @ 3ghz nets a min frame rate of 33fps in Skyrim.

 

[Earnie]

your missing the point. the point is that you are leaving a lot of fps on the table because your cpu is nto strong enough to get the maximum fps two 6950's can achieve. if you threw in an intel cpu into your rig you would get better fps no doubt.

OP i think an overclock would get your better results. overclock as high as possible and make sure you get a better then stock cpu cooler.

Also why is everyone so quick to say a game is poorly coded if it doesnt play well on the computer. just cause it takes a strong cpu doesnt mean its poorly coded i just think people use it as a crutch or excuse. has anyone on this site actually seen the code to know if its bad? maybe the game just needs a lot of power. Is 3ds max or Maya coded bad if it takes hours to render 1 frame? no maybe that frame was just really detailed. my point is stop calling a game poorly coded if you have nothing to back up that statement.

depending on the game/even application.

also from toms.:
Skyrim doesn’t appear to be optimized for more than two threads. Although this isn't a surprise, considering the original version of the game engine was developed prior to 2006, it’s a little disappointing that threading isn't more prevalent, since the title is so clearly affected by CPU performance.

 

[Headspin_69]

depending on the game/even application.

The point is according to Tom's Hardware in Skyrim if you are running anything less powerful than an i5 2500 @ 3 ghz you are seeing at the lowest under 29fps or less performance in some areas in Skyrim.

 

[slhpss]

don't think this got addressed yet... but skip the 4gb mod... Bethesda's last patch enabled 4gb of memory for the game anyways so the mod is unnecessary

 

[Headspin_69]

don't think this got addressed yet... but skip the 4gb mod... Bethesda's last patch enabled 4gb of memory for the game anyways so the mod is unnecessary

That mod as been dead for about a month.

 

[jjtober1]

Yep, I have a 2500k @4.8ghz and a pair of 6870, but in some towns, and especially by Dragonsreach there is quite a lot of slowdown. I don't think anyone is getting much above 30 fps at these choke points. I'm sure you will get higher fps with a fast Intel chip, or by adding another 6850, but I suspect it will be pretty minimal.

 

[Headspin_69]

Yep, I have a 2500k @4.8ghz and a pair of 6870, but in some towns, and especially by Dragonsreach there is quite a lot of slowdown. I don't think anyone is getting much above 30 fps at these choke points. I'm sure you will get higher fps with a fast Intel chip, or by adding another 6850, but I suspect it will be pretty minimal.

You can add all the GPU performance you want to run Skyrim but the fact is unless you are running a Intel 2500 or better you will be seeing under infrequent drops 30fps.Skyrim is a CPU dependent game bottom line.

 

[cbrunnem]

The point is the strongest INTEL CPU overclocked to 4ghz still nets a 43fps min on Skyrim that = poor coding.

really? so when a better gpu the 580 can only muster 47 frames minimum in bf3 does that mean the battlefield is poorly coded as well? remember is was made for the PCfirst not a console. you have no evidence to support your claim.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-benchmark-tahiti-gcn,3104-7.html

OP overclock to cpu. it will be a fun experience and you should see improved fps. lets us know what happens.

 

[hang-the-9]

Why are we comparing different games here? Is BF3 using the same engine as Skyrm?
It would be like someone saying his VW is slow, and someone saying, "well my Nissan is fast, don't know what your issue is."

 

[larkspur]

They pretty much sum it up on the 1st chart of "CPU Benchmarks" page of this review: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

The game is processor-bound and is unfortunately limited to two threads. The OP can best see performance differences in Skyrim by overclocking his CPU. Even with the stock cooler you can try a conservative OC and see if it helps you before going all-out. Look, I'm not saying a better graphics card wouldn't help, but OCing is probably the easiest (and most inexpensive) place to start. Especially if you are generally satisfied with your 6850's performance in other games.