Strange HD 7850 performance in Skyrim

[dirtnap101]

My rig:

i5-2500k @4.2GHz
Crucial M4 SATA III SSD
16GB G Skill 1600 RAM
Sapphire Radeon 7850 @ 1050 core/1450 memory with 12.3 drivers

Playing Skyrim with the HD texture pack from Bethesda, no graphical mods.

Can anyone tell me why I would need to turn down to the Medium setting on the graphics in order to get completely smooth framerate walking around a snowy city (specifically I've tested walking up to the College in Winterhold)?

On Ultra setting I see it is not completely smooth in many places in the skyrim world, on High settings it is almost totally smooth in most places but snowy cities. To get total smoothness walking around in snowy cities I need to set it to Medium.

I would have assumed that I could run Skyrim 100% full out at Ultra with these specs.

Much thanks in advance...

 

[Elfear]

What resolution are you playing at?

 

[blastingcap]

Make sure you are not in UVD mode due to playing a flash video or movie with hardware acceleration enabled or anything.

 

[dirtnap101]

Thanks for the replies. Answers and a question:

- 1920x1080 resolution, single monitor

- How do I make sure UVD mode is off?

 

[dirtnap101]

further to the UVD topic, I set GPU-Z to save the sensor log while I ran Skyrim, and the clocks stay steady at 1050/1450 on my 7850 the entire time, so I assume it is not an issue with UVD or anything else clocking the video card down to less than 100%.

Additional Info: I installed FRAPS and checked the logs while running 1920x1080 everything maxed in Ultra settings - min framerate is 22, maximum is 28, average is 24. WTF? Hardware Heaven's review of my Sapphire 7850 showed min framerate of 55, max over 100. Yet is it running at 1050 core and 1450 VRAM. I don't get it.

 

[nurturedhate]

what version of the game are you running?

 

[dirtnap101]

Skyrim's latest patch, v1.5.26.0.5

 

[boxleitnerb]

What is "smooth"? What fps are you getting?
Also check GPU usage with MSI Afterburner and report back, please.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

You will get good fps. I know what you mean by smooth or not smooth when getting greater than 60 fps. I have lots of experience with all this. Pm me if you want to know more. Sadly people here don't know anything more than fps nor will they believe you. Because they haven't tried each CPU with each gpu and tried each setting

Anyway, pm me and I might be able to tell you more.

 

[dirtnap101]

@boxleitnerb - I edited a post above with fps info - averaging 24 fps when I believe I should be getting well over 50 fps. GPU usage info also above, GPU-Z shows the GPU running at full overclocked speed.

@aaksheytalwar - PM'd

 

[boxleitnerb]

Okay, that is really low. Do you have any mods installed?
How is the GPU usage (not the clocks)? GPU-Z logs that as well. It should be basically 100% all the time.

Is your card running at full PCIe speed?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...50-2GB-Pitcairn-Review/Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyr-0

Without any mods I guess you should be able to manage tolerable performance without MSAA etc, however don't expect it to be perfectly smooth.

For that you would need to drop the rez to at least 19x10.

 

[boxleitnerb]

MSAA is on when "ultra" is selected afaik.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

You can disable MSAA after selecting ultra, you can disable it manually afterwards.

 

[dirtnap101]

thanks again for the replies...

GPU-Z logs show GPU usage mostly in the mid to upper 90s and hitting 100 about 33% of the time.

@aaksheytalwar - my res is 1920x1080. Also, the link you provided shows a stock 7850 (running at 860 core) at Ultra +FXAA averaging in the 72.1 fps. I am running overclocked to 1050 core and seeing 24 fps average.

How can I check full PCIe speed?

Edit: Mods installed are things like Rich Merchants, Better dragon loot, better skill books - no graphical mods are installed other than the Bethesda HD textures.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

1. The benchmarks you see online are probably without the mods, mods will take a 20-40%+ performance toll.

2. Perhaps you are using some AA settings which are very intensive like SSAA etc in the CCC by mistake.

3. At 19x10 without MSAA, and just FXAA without mods, you should get nearly constant 60 FPS.

 

[Paul98]

Have you checked to see what other processes are running while you are running skyrim? Do you have any old drivers installed? and how do other games run?

 

[dirtnap101]

I ended up, per a suggestion from the Bethesda board, deleting both Skyrim ini files and let the game re-create them, and something must have corrupted or a mis-typed something when modified the files to disable vsync because now I get a rock-steady 60 fps everywhere.

Thanks to all who replied here, much appreciated! Thanks as well to aaksheytalwar for trying to help via PM.

 

[blackened23]

I ended up, per a suggestion from the Bethesda board, deleting both Skyrim ini files and let the game re-create them, and something must have corrupted or a mis-typed something when modified the files to disable vsync because now I get a rock-steady 60 fps everywhere.

Thanks to all who replied here, much appreciated! Thanks as well to aaksheytalwar for trying to help via PM.

What 2 files? Just curious.

 

[dirtnap101]

2 files are: skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini in the My Documents>MyGames>Skyrim folder

Skyrimprefs.ini, specifically, is where the setting to turn off vsync resides.

EDIT: I am WRONG and a complete idiot - you need to have this line: iPresentInterval=0 in both ini files in order to turn off vsync. I now see 80-100 FPS on Ultra settings in Whiterun!

 

[blackened23]

2 files are: skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini in the My Documents>MyGames>Skyrim folder

Skyrimprefs.ini, specifically, is where the setting to turn off vsync resides.

EDIT: I am WRONG and a complete idiot - you need to have this line: iPresentInterval=0 in both ini files in order to turn off vsync. I now see 80-100 FPS on Ultra settings in Whiterun!

I think its a bad idea to turn vsync off in skyrim...it totally screws the physics engine up and you'll get flickering. I've seen this on all hardware, unless bethesda fixed it recently

 

[dirtnap101]

I think its a bad idea to turn vsync off in skyrim...it totally screws the physics engine up and you'll get flickering. I've seen this on all hardware, unless bethesda fixed it recently

This may be true, but I was happy to figure out how to turn it on just to make sure my vid card was performing properly. I will definitely turn it off if I end up having tearing/flickering.