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[drhankmccoyphd]

I just played about an hour and I'm loving the game. My only complaint is the little bit of stutter when I turn around too fast. Should I turn off VSYNC? Should I leave my High/Ultra settings with a 5770, Phenom x6, 4GB RAM @ 1680 x 1050? I'm also only using 16 AF, and FXAA.

 

[leng jai]

Everything max with 8xAA and the game was running like ass in the tunnel. As soon as I got out and into Skyrim it is locked at 60fps..

This is on a 2500k/4GB RAM/570 @ 880Mhz

 

[Durante]

Here's a summary of the most important tweaks so far:
All .ini files are stored in My Games/Skyrim.

In Skyrim.ini:
fdefaultfov=X in [General] to set the FOV.
iPresentInterval=0 in [Display] to reduce (eliminate?) input lag

In SkyrimPrefs.ini:
bTreesReceiveShadows=1 and
bDrawLandShadows=1 in [Display] to improve environment lighting and depth with a small performance hit
bMouseAcceleration=0 in [Controls] to disable mouse accleration
iPresentInterval=0 in [Display] possible again, but the Skyrim.ini setting seems to override it

Nvidia inspector settings for NV owners:
CSAA and multisampling transparency AA work well for this game, with the 0x20000000 compatibility setting:

If you use settings like these you should turn off FXAA, it will only reduce IQ.

Maybe this could be added to the OP.

 

[Alexios]

It looks a fair bit better I think:

Oblivion vanilla
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/dev_akm/oblivion/oto/oto_vanillaLOD.jpg

Even with picking some of the worst area possible with just bland terrain and no real architecture in sight or whatever else it's still more like this:

And you could of course tweak settings further than in the options without resorting to actual mods and still happily run the game on a Pentium 4.

Anyway, like I said, they got much better art direction in Skyrim. Still, I don't think things like polycounts and texture resolution got that major a bump, just better design and things like shadows which you can disable so performance should be high.

 

[TheExodu5]

Wow, i have to reduce the resoluce to 900p to get a nice framerate outdoors (4xAA & 4xAF, high settings). Bear in mind my rig can do Battlefield 3 at 1080p, all on high at about 40fps, with 4xAA. I mean, this thing clearly has Xbox 360 graphics. How have they managed that?

I've got a Q8300 processor, with 2 x 5770's and 4gb of RAM.

Crossfire isn't currently supported.

 

[Wallach]

Everything max with 8xAA and the game was running like ass in the tunnel. As soon as I got out and into Skyrim it is locked at 60fps..

This is on a 2500k/4GB RAM/570 @ 880Mhz

Next time you run into a spot like that where the framerate dips, try switching into third-person POV and see if the framerate stays the same.

 

[Peterthumpa]

What the hell? I'm getting between 40 -50 FPS, sometimes dropping to 30, on a friggin' i5 2500k and a GTX 580. I can't even...

 

[Firebrand]

Anyone played on dual core yet? Have a GTX285, think it'll work out well? Can you still turn off distant landscapes etc to keep performance up and is it a huge hit on eye candy that you'll want to avoid before anything else still? It sounds like it doesn't run great for most even though to me it doesn't look THAT much better than Oblivion...

E8500 3.1 GHz
3,25 GB RAM (32-bit OS)
GTX260
Vista 32-bit
1920x1080

Runs just fine! I just went with recommended settings (High), turned AA and AF down to x2 each just in case and yeah, runs decently enough. Now, if you want to have locked 60 outdoors my specs might not be enough (haven't really tried changing any graphics sliders), but as I was worried the game would just be a stuttery mess like so many other console ports on dual core, I'm very happy. 60 FPS indoors a lot of the time, 30ish outside (vsynced so I can't tell exactly).

Your graphics card is much better than mine, but as far as I can tell from an hour or so of playing, this game isn't demanding on the CPU at all. Maybe that changes later, we'll see.

 

[TheExodu5]

What the hell? I'm getting between 40 -50 FPS, sometimes dropping to 30, on a friggin' i5 2500k and a GTX 580. I can't even...

40-60 mostly on my GTX 570.

 

[Alexios]

E8500 3.1 GHz
3,25 GB RAM (32-bit OS)
GTX260
Vista 32-bit
1920x1080

Runs just fine! I just went with recommended settings (High), turned AA and AF down to x2 each just in case and yeah, runs decently enough. Now, if you want to have locked 60 outdoors my specs might not be enough (haven't really tried changing any graphics sliders), but as I was worried the game would just be a stuttery mess like so many other console ports on dual core, I'm very happy. 60 FPS indoors a lot of the time, 30ish outside (vsynced so I can't tell exactly).

Your graphics card is much better than mine, but as far as I can tell from an hour or so of playing, this game isn't demanding on the CPU at all. Maybe that changes later, we'll see.

Sweet, I have that CPU too with 64bit OS. Can't wait. Have you been in outdoor and populated areas too, like a city or whatever?

 

[Peterthumpa]

40-60 mostly on my GTX 570.

Makes no sense, I'm just at

Spoiler

that place where you have 3 stones and you can choose between warrior, mage, etc

and looking at them my the FPS is locked 60, (and there's a fuckin' big horizon just ahead, but looking at my back at the trees, the framerate drops to 40.

What in the holy fuck. BF3, Rage, Crysis 2... all running smooth as a baby's butt here, and now this. Unbelievable.

 

[Teknoman]

AF does not have a significant hit on performance in this game. Use 8x or 16x, it should make no difference.

Cool, is there a significant visual difference between 8x and 16x in Skyrim?

 

[Zeliard]

Christ you guys weren't kidding about the mouse lag. Hideous. Turning off vsync doesn't seem to help a great deal. This is the worst mouse lag I've experienced since Dead Space.

 

[Minsc]

Maybe this could be added to the OP.

Sure, I linked to it for you, so you can update that post as needed for the time being. I'm sure a few guides on hardware/gaming sites will come out over the next few days as well. LiquidMetal14, you're more than welcome to comb through the thread and update the OP as well, if you'd like.

Cool, is there a significant visual difference between 8x and 16x in Skyrim?

Higher AF settings will make textures further away look less blurry in all games, it's pretty significant between say, 1x & 8x, but less so between 8 & 16x. I just run everything forced to 16xAF in the drivers and basically never have issues.

 

[Zeliard]

Turned off mouse accel and it's a bit better, though there's still a delay. Even indoors with my FPS above 60 there's still input lag. Gonna just have to bear with it for now I guess.

 

[Jubbly]

Again, I ask, do we know if Bethesda's Day One patch will help performance?

No, it won't, it's simply a quest fix and crash fix patch (I've been using it for a week with the press build and it still crashes at times, often when fast travelling, so stab F5 every so often).

 

[thecheese]

i3 M 370 @ 2.4 GHz (4 CPUs), 4gb ram, windows 7-64-bit

Am I going to have problems?

 

[charsace]

This game looks mediocre graphically.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Sure, I linked to it for you, so you can update that post as needed for the time being. I'm sure a few guides on hardware/gaming sites will come out over the next few days as well. LiquidMetal14, you're more than welcome to comb through the thread and update the OP as well, if you'd like.



Higher AF settings will make textures further away look less blurry in all games, it's pretty significant between say, 1x & 8x, but less so between 8 & 16x. I just run everything forced to 16xAF in the drivers and basically never have issues.

Thanks, I made the thread earlier to get the discussion going. I seen the couple of posts asking for an update. Sorry it couldn't be more spectacular like the ACR OT

I will do some alterations tomorrow. If more folks want to post their ini guides for their specific HW, that would be nice.

 

[teh_pwn]

Wow, i have to reduce the resoluce to 900p to get a nice framerate outdoors (4xAA & 4xAF, high settings). Bear in mind my rig can do Battlefield 3 at 1080p, all on high at about 40fps, with 4xAA. I mean, this thing clearly has Xbox 360 graphics. How have they managed that?

I've got a Q8300 processor, with 2 x 5770's and 4gb of RAM.

This has been typical with PC releases as of late. There will probably be a patch and a video driver update that will vastly improve performance. You may have to use Radeon Pro to get CF support.

 

[water_wendi]

What in the holy fuck. BF3, Rage, Crysis 2... all running smooth as a baby's butt here, and now this. Unbelievable.

If you want games to run smooth out of the box on current hardware its probably best to stick to corridor shooters and not open world rpgs. Its been this way since forever.

 

[Durante]

Christ you guys weren't kidding about the mouse lag. Hideous. Turning off vsync doesn't seem to help a great deal. This is the worst mouse lag I've experienced since Dead Space.

With the iPresentInterval=0 setting and the "frames rendered ahead" in the driver set to 1 I have no input lag at all, like a Valve game at its best. Performance is also great as I said earlier.

The only large issue I have is the variable y axis mouse speed. But I can deal with that, and it's infinitely better than sluggish controls.

 

[Peterthumpa]

If you want games to run smooth out of the box on current hardware its probably best to stick to corridor shooters and not open world rpgs. Its been this way since forever.

Okay then, Crysis 1 also runs way better. Besides, have you played RAGE? I mean, the Wasteland is far from a corridor shooter.

There's no doubt that something is really wrong here. The game doesn't seems to be doing nothing too heavy and still under performs.

 

[thecheese]

Oops, forgot to mention graphics.

Ok all in all I have:

i3 M 370 @ 2.4 GHz (4 CPUs), 4gb ram, windows 7-64-bit
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550v

:/

 

[Hawk269]

An update: You can use Transparency AA Multisampling with almost no performance hit... and it does a great job on the foliage. Using that + 8x AA and it runs 60+ FPS outside. Supersampling 1x will destroy FPS though.

So if your rig is powerful, I'd recommend turning off FXAA and using MSAA Transparency AA instead.

Are you doing this via the driver or some in-game option? I dont have the game yet, still have about a 6 hour wait.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Any idea why this game is the only game that sounds distorted and has a near constant crackling sound?

 

[Phandy]

Has anyone got the field of view change working?
I've adjusted the Skyrim.ini and it doesn't seem to work.

 

[DTKT]

Any idea why this game is the only game that sounds distorted and has a near constant crackling sound?

http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/m7zja/tweaks_to_make_skyrim_that_much_better/

How do I fix some sound issues, such as hearing static during NPC dialogue?
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Sound
In the Playback tab, right click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties
In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu

No clue about why though.

 

[Zeliard]

With the iPresentInterval=0 setting and the "frames rendered ahead" in the driver set to 1 I have no input lag at all, like a Valve game at its best. Performance is also great as I said earlier.

The only large issue I have is the variable y axis mouse speed. But I can deal with that, and it's infinitely better than sluggish controls.

Gonna try modifying rendered frames and messing with it some more. It's playable enough.

Any idea why this game is the only game that sounds distorted and has a near constant crackling sound?

Hmm haven't had that issue. Maybe try changing sound frequency to 44100 or 48000 if you haven't already.

 

[water_wendi]

Anyone getting any sound crackling like myself? It's the only game that does it so I'm hoping there's some magical fix or I'm going to cry.

This sounds like the sound bug from Fallout 3.

Okay then, Crysis 1 also runs way better. Besides, have you played RAGE? I mean, the Wasteland is far from a corridor shooter.

Crysis 1 ran smooth for you in 2007?

 

[Phandy]

Has anyone got the field of view change working?
I've adjusted the Skyrim.ini and it doesn't seem to work.

Figured it out.
Apparently you have use console, but console settings save over reloads.

Bring up console like normal.
Then just type "fov 85", or whatever you want. Job Done.

 

[Peterthumpa]

Crysis 1 ran smooth for you in 2007?

No, but looked better than 2011's Skyrim. What I'm trying to say is that the game isn't doing anything extraordinary to justify such low performance.

Also, as others have said, it's not GPU bound - I get almost the same FPS looking down a hill @ 720p or 1080p.

[EDIT] - Ok guys, new info. Just overclocked my i5 2500k to 4.5 GHz and now I'm getting 60 FPS constant where I was getting 45, 40. So the game IS CPU bound too.

 

[grendelrt]

Figured it out.
Apparently you have use console, but console settings save over reloads.

Bring up console like normal.
Then just type "fov 85", or whatever you want. Job Done.

Console commands disable acheivements apparently though.

 

[water_wendi]

No, but looked better than 2011's Skyrim. What I'm trying to say is that the game isn't doing anything extraordinary to show such low performance.

But it is doing something extraordinary. Its just isnt in the graphics. Like i said, if you want higher performance out of the box, stick to corridor shooters (or shooters in general). Theres nothing really going on there but the graphics so they tend to look pretty and smooth.

 

[Nemo]

Anyone got this ish running on an X1950 pro? I'd be interested in knowing if it runs equal or better/worse to the Xbox 360.

 

[Durante]

It does seem to be pretty CPU heavy (or maybe disk/mem?), I only have a GTX460 (OC) and the game runs very well for me with maxed details and great AA.

 

[Gvaz]

Want to alt tab in this game?

Use borderless window!

http://www.uploads.gaming-resources.com/files/1960_jr5qk/SBW2-4-2.zip

Just drop this sucker in your skyrim folder and run this instead of how you would normally. Works perfectly.

 

[bananaman1234]

The fov ini tweak doesn't seem to have any effect. Keeps getting reset to default every time I restart the game.

 

[Phandy]

Console commands disable acheivements apparently though.

Its a good job I have about 0.000% interest in steam achievements, especially for this.

Isoku - Read about 4 posts above you. You gotta use a console command in game. "fov 85" or whatever.

 

[Peterthumpa]

But it is doing something extraordinary. Its just isnt in the graphics. Like i said, if you want higher performance out of the box, stick to corridor shooters (or shooters in general). Theres nothing really going on there but the graphics so they tend to look pretty and smooth.

Besides the graphics, it's doing basically what Oblivion did 5 years ago, do you agree? Vast, open world, tons of NPCs, interaction, etc... so...?

Anyway, read my edit, I think that this game is really CPU heavy.

 

[water_wendi]

Besides the graphics, it's doing basically what Oblivion did 5 years ago, do you agree? Vast, open world, tons of NPCs, interaction, etc... so...?

Anyway, read my edit, I think that this game is really CPU heavy.

i hope to hell its not doing what Oblivion basically did 5 years ago because Oblivion didnt do it very well.

 

[BiggaWhat]

Here are my specs:
2x8800GTX in SLI
QX6700 @ 3.47 Ghz
4GB RAM, Vista 32 bit

Game performs surprisingly well for me. So for anyone with slightly less beastly rigs, its potentially good news. I play at 1920x1200, FXAA on, all ultra presets except shadows set to medium and no AA. Get 60 FPS indoors usually and it varies between 30 and 50 fps outdoors, usually hanging around 40. Would prefer if I could just lock FPS to 30 that way it would be smooth. Anyone know how to lock the FPS using config or console command or anything?

 

[loganclaws]

Game has major issues with rebinding keys! The favorites key doesnt work when I rebind it to G. Another weird thing is that when you loot someone you can't press left to to get out of the menu, but when you access hte quick inventory you can get out by pressing left, so fucking inconsistent. After some more testing:

- Favorites button can't be remapped.
- If you bind a hand to lshift you can't equip anything.
- When viewing the map screen, you still have to use WASD instead of the movement keys.

 

[Peterthumpa]

i hope to hell its not doing what Oblivion basically did 5 years ago because Oblivion didnt do it very well.

Well, according to who played the game (and the reviews), it's more of the same (and not a bad thing by the way). Obviously, AI, physics and animation were vastly upgraded, but does it really means such a heavy hit in performance? Also, we're talking about 10+ drops in FPS just by looking at a denser forest or to a vast landscape. In this scenario, I don't think that all the "features" above are actually being triggered to justify such abnormal variation.

 

[Xdrive05]

Oh great - it's CPU bound. And I'm still rocking a Phenom II. FML.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Are you doing this via the driver or some in-game option? I dont have the game yet, still have about a 6 hour wait.

Drivers, Nvidia Inspector. Just setting Multi-Sampling Transparency AA to on.

And yeah, the game needs optimization for sure. The game DOES look good, even GREAT at some times, but has inexplicable instances of goofy performance on rigs that absolutely destroy it.

Then again, can't really complain, I'm running 8x MSAA with MS-TrAA at Ultra everything 1080p and average 60+ FPS. On the first dungeon (Bleakwood Barrows or whatever), I'm 60-80 FPS constant. Very strange performance.

Oh great - it's CPU bound. And I'm still rocking a Phenom II. FML.

This game is NOT CPU bound. Not CPU limited at all. It barely utilizes a quad-core CPU. Dual-core is fine for this game.

My suspicion is that this game is console-bound. I don't think that Bethesda optimized performance for PC hardware. Yes they added in DirectX 11, and yes the game can run very smoothly and looks great, but I really don't think they put a big effort into it, otherwise it could be so much better.

I think everyone needs to wait a month or so and watch the modding scene. Modders are going to have a blast with this game and I really think they'll not only make it look FAR better, but also increase performance.

 

[TheExodu5]

If the Y axis had constant speed, I wouldn't mind the performance jumps so much. It's just irritating. I really would like to play without vsync. :|

 

[Complistic]

they haven't released any drivers for this game right? So why is everyone expecting super great performance?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

If anyone wants me to add or tweak something you've helped with in the OP, send me a PM over.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

they haven't released any drivers for this game right? So why is everyone expecting super great performance?

They have... Nvidia just released SLI profile drivers for the game today. I am guessing they optimized for the game a few weeks or months ago. Perhaps they'll add in more optimizations now that it's out in the wild.