[Gamegpu.ru]Skyrim: Special Edition GPU benches

[dark zero]

That graph says to me that all of those processors run that game just fine (apart from maybe the FX-4100 and 6100). Not really seeing the problem.

Check well the Core Usage... It doesn't scale well past 4 threads

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Just got done doing some testing/tweaking. With a moderately modded build atm (base skyrim 2k HD mod ported to SE, 4k mountains, SMIM etc), 6700k @4.5, and a 970 now OC'd +200 core, it scales *very* well on all 8 threads (nothing below 15, nothing above 40, usually increase/decrease together through my tests), and I'm hovering around 45-60 through the normal intro, low points through the foggy bits. Pretty flat 60fps through normal gameplay out in the world (sometimes dipping into the mid 50's), and vram usage hovers dangerously close to the evil 3.5G limit in small towns (haven't been to a big town yet). This is @1440p. I might play a bit more later with pulling down AA or something to see what that gives me.

 

[NTMBK]

Check well the Core Usage... It doesn't scale well past 4 threads

It's already running at 60fps, it doesn't need to scale further.

 

[Head1985]

pcgameshardware benchmarks http://www.pcgameshardware.de/TES-5...Spiel-57338/Specials/Benchmarks-Test-1211808/
1440p

 

[Red Hawk]

So, just to tally up all the technical changes in Skyrim Special Edition:

• By far the most significant, the engine has been overhauled to a 64 bit executable and a DirectX 11 renderer. This has been shown to definitely help in CPU and memory bound situations, especially when using mods or spawning lots of objects and NPCs with the in-game command console. Original Skyrim's engine would choke in such situations, with the framerate dipping to the teens and the game tending to crash regardless of how fast your rig was. The engine itself just couldn't handle it. It's not perfect and it still has its limitations, but SSE is definitely much more optimized and stable than the original game. And it will take some time for modders to fully exploit it, but I'm sure the DirectX 11 renderer will allow for even better effects over what modders could do with original Skyrim's DirectX 9 renderer.
• Volumetric lighting, allowing for "godray" light shafts. Purty.
• Native support for screenspace ambient occlusion. Granted, this was something that could be forced with mods or on Nvidia cards through the control panel, but it's nice to see native support.
• Screenspace reflections.
• Improved shadows, which now look softer and higher resolution as opposed to original Skyrim's shadows which looked crawly and aliased even on max settings.
• Added and denser foliage.
• Extended max draw distances.
• Improved water and snow shaders to make them look a bit more realistic.
• Improved water physics, with water in rivers now appearing to change direction to follow the path of the river and flow around objects, whereas in original Skyrim water just flowed in a single direction regardless of the surroundings.
• Precipitation occlusion. Outdoor shelter now blocks rain or snow from passing through, whereas it would just go right through in original Skyrim.
• Support for temporal antialiasing, which is nice. Regrettably though support for MSAA has been dropped, which is a shame since in the original game MSAA wasn't all that performance-heavy. It's possible that the changes to lighting meant that MSAA wouldn't have been as effective or performant, though.

Honestly, that's a good list of improvements. The couple things missing is that Bethesda didn't bother improving textures or meshes, but of course there's mods for that. People who downplay the significance of the Special Edition by saying "Mods look better already" are missing the point. For one, native support for things like ambient occlusion or precipitation occlusion is always going to be better than hacking it in. Second, the new engine is going to allow mods to look even better than they did in original Skyrim because they'll be able to make use of DirectX 11 features, all while running better than it ever could on original Skyrim because of the 64 bit executable's CPU and memory improvements. And gameplay potential is improved too, with mods now able to throw around much more objects and NPCs without worrying about performance and stability. I know I'm kind of preaching to the choir by saying all this here on Anandtech, but there's a fair amount of people online who think modded original Skyrim is the end-all-be-all of how Skyrim can look and run...

The one thing holding back Skyrim Special Edition is the lack of Skyrim Script Extender and mods that rely on it, especially SkyUI. I understand people who hate the default interface so much they don't want to bother with the game until they can use SkyUI again. Hopefully Skyrim Special Edition Script Extender (SKSESE?) arrives sooner rather than later...

 

[Headfoot]

And no mod can ever add better multi-core scaling. That has to be native, and it's sounding like we got that. I'm gonna have to play Skyrim through again, aren't I?

 

[tential]

And no mod can ever add better multi-core scaling. That has to be native, and it's sounding like we got that. I'm gonna have to play Skyrim through again, aren't I?

I'm literally so happy I never finished the game and never took the time to mod. I just didn't think I was doing the world justice and looks like this game has been vastly improved.

I think it's time to get a 4k monitor and play some skyrim.

Can't believe they even released this its quite cool.

 

[Elfear]

I'm literally so happy I never finished the game and never took the time to mod. I just didn't think I was doing the world justice and looks like this game has been vastly improved.

I think it's time to get a 4k monitor and play some skyrim.

Can't believe they even released this its quite cool.

Modded Skyrim is probably the best showcase for 4k IMO. Some parts of Tamriel are absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Leyawiin]

I get worse FPS outside and better FPS in cities now. In the autumn forests surrounding Riften I used to get 60 FPS on Ultra with 8x AA on a 1920x1200 monitor, an i5 4690k and a single GTX 960 4GB. Now its around 35-40 FPS. With two in SLI its around 50-55 FPS. In the opening cinematic riding in the cart to Helgen it does exactly the same thing. 60 FPS with one card in old Skyrim, 35-40 FPS with one in SSE and 50-60 FPS with SLI.

 

[Red Hawk]

I get worse FPS outside and better FPS in cities now. In the autumn forests surrounding Riften I used to get 60 FPS on Ultra with 8x AA on a 1920x1200 monitor, an i5 4590k and a single GTX 960 4GB. Now its around 35-40 FPS. With two in SLI its around 50-55 FPS. In the opening cinematic riding in the cart to Helgen it does exactly the same thing. 60 FPS with one card in old Skyrim, 35-40 FPS with one in SSE and 50-60 FPS with SLI.

Well yeah, that's to be expected. While CPU and memory bound situations should improve, the game is doing quite a bit more on GPU side, so performance will drop in GPU bound situations.