Skyrim 6950 HELP PLEASE!

[JamesWhite95]

Hey guys, I'm in serious need of some help. I'm new to the PC gaming world and although most of my first experiences within it have been awesome, I've found some serious problems. I got a new PC very recently under the impression that it would eat Skyrim alive and having seen to performance that people had been getting out of low end rigs I was really excited to see what my new one could achieve. Currently we're running:

i5 [email protected] CPU with a Corsair A70 Cooler
8GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz RAM
VTX3D HD6950 2GB GPY
Asus P8Z68-LE Motherboard
120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD
1TB 7200RPM HDD
600W Corsair UltraQuiet PSU
Fractal Design Define R3 Case

Obviously this whole thing was not cheap by anyones standards and to be honest I expected it to be completely up to standard in every way. So far, in many ways its been awesome, with Just Cause 2 running like a dream and the whole OS booting in about 20 seconds, but there has been quite a big problem. Skyrim detects that I have a pretty decent GPU, which I haven't touched in Catalyst (Version 11.12) and whacks the settings up to max, but in game, the FPS goes bizarre. When looking at areas of high activity, I get a measley 30-20 FPS and when I look at the sky or stationary ground, it goes up to 60. Changing the AA and AF does nothing... no rise, AT ALL. There is also a bizzare blotchyness around the smoke on the menu, although, this may be my screen. Any ideas why this might be happening?

People Suggested this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/332396-15-6950-issues-skyrim-possible-solution-inside
But those settings are WAY to high and kill performance and make all the text in the game go weird. Any help would be massively appreciated, thanks,

James

 

[Substance]

I have a similar spec to you and on outdoor spaces I only get around 30 fps on ultra settings, try dropping down to high, I get a steady 60fps then and don't notice the difference graphically

 

[Witcher1979]

Something is very wrong. I have a VTX 6950 and I get 50+fps on ultra settings on latest drivers. You guys need to look into this

 

[Substance]

Something is very wrong. I have a VTX 6950 and I get 50+fps on ultra settings on latest drivers. You guys need to look into this

I'm using an MSI 2gb 6950 twin frozr II and the rest of my specs are very similar apart from my cpu being clocked at 3.6ghz instead of 4.5

*edit* Just tried the game on ultra now and I am getting smooth 60fps gameplay, sometimes dropping to 50fps outdoors, I haven't played it for a couple of weeks and the patches must have improved my FPS as I was only getting 30-40 before,

So OP, do you have all the latest updates via steam?

 

[Jack Bauer]

Something is very wrong. I have a VTX 6950 and I get 50+fps on ultra settings on latest drivers. You guys need to look into this

Similar here too and I get a reasonably consistent 60. I couldn’t say for sure if the fps drops at any point as I’m not really paying attention to it anymore, but if it does it’s not noticeable. Should note I am still using 11.8 as I have not run into any problems with them in any game.

Running ultra with most high res textures etc...

 

[Jack Bauer]

Have you check your card temps in game to see if it’s throttling? My card was when I overclocked and flashed, mainly in BF3 and crysis 2. A quick fan profile edit sorted it.

 

[Old Man]

All these major pc's with problems and yet my gtx260 2.8 on ultra is doing very well with zero problems..




Sorry had to say it

 

[James J]

Is your card actually working at 16x in the pci e slot or something lower? Did you build the PC yourself or had a company do it for you?

 

[Witcher1979]

All these major pc's with problems and yet my gtx260 2.8 on ultra is doing very well with zero problems..




Sorry had to say it

What all 2 of them?

But yeah the patches fixed the FPS on his game big time.

 

[JamesWhite95]

Have you check your card temps in game to see if it’s throttling? My card was when I overclocked and flashed, mainly in BF3 and crysis 2. A quick fan profile edit sorted it.

When I've been playing, then quickly jumping out into Catalyst, I've never seen it above 50 degrees... :/ Haven't touched the clock speed or anything of that nature.

 

[JamesWhite95]

Is your card actually working at 16x in the pci e slot or something lower? Did you build the PC yourself or had a company do it for you?

I'm sorry I don't know. :/ Its been built by a very highly regarded company so I'd expect so, but how do I check? Also it runs Just Cause 2, which I thought was a graphical monster, maxed out at 60fps...

 

[Witcher1979]

I'm sorry I don't know. :/ Its been built by a very highly regarded company so I'd expect so, but how do I check? Also it runs Just Cause 2, which I thought was a graphical monster, maxed out at 60fps...

I am pretty sure JC2 is not that demanding even though it looks great. Good test on PC is metro or Witcher 2 for benchmarks.

 

[blasphemyweb]

Something is very wrong. I have a VTX 6950 and I get 50+fps on ultra settings on latest drivers. You guys need to look into this

Same here with regard to FPS.

 

[Nikumba]

I'm sorry I don't know. :/ Its been built by a very highly regarded company so I'd expect so, but how do I check? Also it runs Just Cause 2, which I thought was a graphical monster, maxed out at 60fps...

JC2 is pretty old now really, plus if you are saying its maxing out at 60fps that will be hitting the v-sync limit.

One thing you can try it rename skyrim.exe to fallout3.exe someone did this and got better performance, something to do with the way the ATI drivers handle performance.

Kimbie

 

[JamesWhite95]

Same here with regard to FPS.

Then what on earth is going on with mine. In Catalyst, the card wasn't getting even slightly hot and only ran at about 69%. The CPU didn't get past 45%. How is this possible!? D: I'm also having issues with windows freezing up a lot... could it be the RAM?

 

[JamesWhite95]

Here's my MSI Afterburner stats, how odd...

 

[Witcher1979]

I have not played in about a week on Skyrim, but I think MSI reads my card as being 90% used. Not sure what to say but you can see your card is only half used, which explains your low FPS

 

[Witcher1979]

The flatlines here are just when I have alt tab out to get a picture of MSI. but it was 95% used with FPS at 58 on ultra outside with the 6950 so you know the card can handle it.

Is your CPU OC stable? Have you done stress tests on it? I think stress testing the OC would be my first point of call now you know it should run better with your specs.

 

[JamesWhite95]

The flatlines here are just when I have alt tab out to get a picture of MSI. but it was 95% used with FPS at 58 on ultra outside with the 6950 so you know the card can handle it.

Woah, this is starting to drive me crazy. Some people on another forum with similar specs were claiming that they were having the same issue and it was just poorly optimized and we'd have to wait for drivers and updates... but how come some of you guys are getting monster performance? I'm pretty sure the CPU is solid, it was prepared and fully stress tested by an outstandingly well reviewed and respected company and so far has been superb. Also, Skyrim only uses 2 cores, which explains why my CPU never exceeds 50% while playing. I now have no idea what to do... :/

 

[JTrickle]

Here's my MSI Afterburner stats, how odd...

What is odd? It is a cpu limited game.

Edit: You change some of the graphics setting from High to Ultra affects CPU usage in elder scrolls games. In other games changing graphics settings sometimes has no affect on cpu usage.

Edit2: Have you checked to see if 2 cores are maxed out at the same time your graphics are at 66%? [or 4 cores are averaging 50-55, the way windows sometimes shows it]