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Which Catalyst for Skyrim?

wolvers

wolvers

wolvers

Soldato
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Which Catalyst are you using for Skyrim? Caps or not?

Something very odd is going on with my 5850s. With them both it runs at ~30% usage on each so I thought, OK I might as well use the one gpu, but that only runs at about 60%! This is on the high preset, 1080p, with 4xaa and 16xaf which gives 30-65fps in outside areas. CPU is a [email protected] with 6gb ram. One other odd thing is that dropping the GPUs to stock speeds pushes the usage up a little to ~35%. Its like there's a bottleneck somewhere but I can't figure out what it is.

I've tried 12.1a preview and 12.1 official (that one gave some odd flickering) with, and without, 11.12 cap 1, 2 and 3. Its the same outcome with them all.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
Stick with the latest. However as Final8y mentioned, Skyrim is severly CPU bottlenecked so maybe try overclock that 920 a little bit more. If not, then just leave it, seems you're getting decent framerates on ultra just fine anyway.
 
I have issues with Skyrim, Crossfire 5850 and an i7-2600k at 4.5GHz. Sometimes it runs fine at 60fps, other times it grinds to a halt and the only fix is to alt tab out and then go back in again.
 
Thanks for the replies. I tried out a few settings last night and it does appear to be limited by something other than the GPU. Changing from High to Ultra settings doesn't seem to have any effect on fps, but it does increase the GPU usage considerably. What's more, CPU usage is no where near 100%, even on the threads that it does seem to have access to. How can it be bottlenecked by the CPU if it still has room for use?

What a shame, it's such an amazing game. I'm enjoying it immensely, although I can't help but wonder how much more of a smooth and better looking game it could be. Maybe something will improve with a future patch.

MilanoChris said:
I have issues with Skyrim, Crossfire 5850 and an i7-2600k at 4.5GHz. Sometimes it runs fine at 60fps, other times it grinds to a halt and the only fix is to alt tab out and then go back in again.
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Chris, would you mind posting a bit more info on the settings you are using, drivers and GPU usage?

I don't have any problems with it locking up though. I can't alt/tab out of this game either without having to restart the game.
 
If you weren't around for Oblivion times (previous Elder Scrolls), google some benchmarks for that game from it's starting period.
They aren't perfect at making working engines. Oblivion needed user made mods for a long time to actually run on that time best machines.
Bethesda games often have performance issues no matter what machine you have. It gets fixed as time goes along.
 
Try the 1.4 beta off STEAM, all of a sudden I'm running 5760x1080 and getting 50+fps now dropping to 40's now and then in towns... MUCH better and now actually playable... no crashes, nothing nasty and actually plays fine although still CPU bottlenecked and GPU's only 40-60% used, which is a shame, however I'm running ULTRA settings and it's running like a dream now... 1.3 sucked and fixed diddly for me, now 1.4 is awesome!

EDIT: Would add that there was one night last week, went in and it seemed to be only running on 1 card, afterburner showed only one card being used... quick, went back in and it was fine again... Still don't think the game is optimised for Xfire BUT at least now it runs fine.
 
I was just reading about the 1.4 beta, I think I will try it now you've said that. Cheers. :)

Just need to uninstall Skyboost first apparently.

How is Skyrim in Eyefinity? Brilliant, I would imagine. :D
 
wolvers said:
Chris, would you mind posting a bit more info on the settings you are using, drivers and GPU usage?

I don't have any problems with it locking up though. I can't alt/tab out of this game either without having to restart the game.
Click to expand...

Latest GPU drivers and CAP, can't remember GPU usage but no more than 60% on each card though I think one always was higher than the other. Settings are 1920*1200, everything on max.

Haven't played it in weeks as the constant FPS drop took the enjoyment out of it.
 
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1.4 beta installed now and it's definitely made a difference, although not in all areas. Some parts of Whiterun I'm now seeing nearly 100fps, and that's on Ultra (except shadows on High) with 4xAA (set to SSAA in the control panel), but it still drops to 40fps in the same spots. GPU usage is much improved but again not in all areas, although it's like 90/90% inside and over 200fps! :eek:

It's definitely in outside areas that the bottleneck is still there. It's still not properly smooth either outdoors, which is the biggest problem really and it gets much worse with shadows on Ultra so they are left on High. The only other negative that I can see so far is that shadows seem to be doing odd things sometimes with this beta update.

@MilanoChris, try the 1.4 beta and dropping shadows to High and see how you go. It's worth it for such a brilliant game. :)
 
wolvers said:
1.4 beta installed now and it's definitely made a difference, although not in all areas. Some parts of Whiterun I'm now seeing nearly 100fps, and that's on Ultra (except shadows on High) with 4xAA (set to SSAA in the control panel), but it still drops to 40fps in the same spots. GPU usage is much improved but again not in all areas, although it's like 90/90% inside and over 200fps! :eek:

It's definitely in outside areas that the bottleneck is still there. It's still not properly smooth either outdoors, which is the biggest problem really and it gets much worse with shadows on Ultra so they are left on High. The only other negative that I can see so far is that shadows seem to be doing odd things sometimes with this beta update.

@MilanoChris, try the 1.4 beta and dropping shadows to High and see how you go. It's worth it for such a brilliant game. :)
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Glad it's made a difference, made massive boost on mine, possibly as old CPU, who knows. However, I'll get you some screenies in eyefinity, it's EPIC at night!
 
Are you using one of the enhanced night sky mods? That's one of my favourite mods. :)

It's definitely in the towns/villages where the smoothness goes and FPS and GPU usage drops. Out in the open it's really smooth and I get almost full usage on both GPUs. I wonder what it is about the buildings that causes this bottleneck? :confused:
 
on 12.1a with 11.11 CAP3 here, hit around 100-120 inside 80-110 outside. Still plagued by the LAA bug though :(
 
pgi947 said:
on 12.1a with 11.11 CAP3 here, hit around 100-120 inside 80-110 outside. Still plagued by the LAA bug though :(
Click to expand...

What are the symptoms of the LAA bug? I thought that it was sorted in an earlier patch.

pugheaven said:
I've just downloaded the Skyboost files, so hopefully these two files will make a world of difference?
Click to expand...

Skyboost isn't compatible with 1.4 yet AFAIK.
 
Symptoms are the game just locking up, no slow Downs just instant freeze. The last I saw from Bethesda was a statement saying the laa issue would be sorted in a December patch, skyrim hasn't updated since late November, that being 1.4 I believe to which known laa fixes don't work, haven't touched the game since early December as I got fed up having to save every 30 seconds to avoid loosing progress.
 
Hmm I will have another look tonight to check, might be down to something else if it has. Had this problem with a few Bethesda titles over the years. Most notably fallout3. Speaking of fo3 the renaming trick for tesv didn't crash once.
 
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