[Albert Wesker]

Tried out the VSync disabling, i still dip into low FPS at the same spots, and when it isnt dropping, its tearing so bad i want VSync back on

So I have not had a chance to test this but was planning on doing so this evening when i install. Based on the multiple forums I have been monitoring it seems like turning off vsync is necessary. This thread basically states that if you turn off vsync and then run a frames-per-sec limiter program and keep frames at 59 you should avoid the tearing but gain the benefit of vsync off.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4157558

I am hopeful but as I noted, I cannot attest to whether this works or not.

[Gavin boyce]

i don't understand if it's a specific gtx580 issue or not... few friends of mine with that card are playing with no problems

[Christie Mitchell]

I'm playing with Ultra settings (shadows set to high) Maximum AA and AF with FXAA and the object / actor, etc fade set to max on 1920x 1080 and my FPS stays around 50 constantly. The game looks great! I'm rocking a gtx 570 and i7 960 oc'd to 3.7 ghz. The game relies more on CPU than GPU power.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074.html

Read up on this and tweak settings accordingly. I'm not really seeing any GPUs getting over 70fps, all you really need is 40-50. Try turning shadows to high instead of ultra, you won't notice the difference and lowering the setting could easily net you a constant 60 fps inside and out.

[Sheila Esmailka]

I'm playing with Ultra settings (shadows set to high) Maximum AA and AF with FXAA and the object / actor, etc fade set to max on 1920x 1080 and my FPS stays around 50 constantly. The game looks great! I'm rocking a gtx 570 and i7 960 oc'd to 3.7 ghz. The game relies more on CPU than GPU power.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074.html

Read up on this and tweak settings accordingly. I'm not really seeing any GPUs getting over 70fps, all you really need is 40-50. Try turning shadows to high instead of ultra, you won't notice the difference and lowering the setting could easily net you a constant 60 fps inside and out.

The reason I bought my two GTX 580's was to be able to play games on the highest setting, with atleast 60fps. This isn't an issue of having to tweak the settings to make it perform well, I shouldn't have to. Just one of my cards should be able to play this in ultra with 60fps.
Some people are content with 30-50 fps, but I'm not, I prefer over 60 if it can be acheived.

The problem is that the game doesn't fully utilize my cards, which is ridiculous and needs a fix.

[Rich O'Brien]

Its an engine design flaw. The engine prefers high IPC cpu's like the 2500k and 2600k at 4ghz-4.5ghz (The game still only uses 50% regardless). Rewriting the Render to utlize GPU differently is no easy task. AMD and Nvidia did not participate in the PC Port unlike BF3.

[Jordyn Youngman]

my skyrim runs good 60 fps 2600k cpu clocked 4.5 ghz, use all cores. 480gtx gpu clocked 850mhz v-sync on 8 gb memory 1866mhz no problem no lag , i love the game steady 60 fps all the time

i hate vsync off , = high fps the movement look ugly why go over 60 fps, yes i know better input lag but i rather have smooth fps in an rpg , this is not an fps CS game ho and i edited the ini file even higher then ultra , and i got a sickness i think im a vampire in the game , i want to be a werewolf damit !!!!

[Everardo Montano]

Its an engine design flaw. The engine prefers high IPC cpu's like the 2500k and 2600k at 4ghz-4.5ghz (The game still only uses 50% regardless). Rewriting the Render to utlize GPU differently is no easy task. AMD and Nvidia did not participate in the PC Port unlike BF3.

Wonderful If that is the case, perhaps they should have been clearer in the System specs... But again, i really doubt that my quad 2.8ghz can't handle this game.... i beat all the recommended settings like whoa, i shouldn't have a problem.

[Elina]

my skyrim runs good 60 fps 2600k cpu clocked 4.5 ghz, use all cores. 480gtx gpu clocked 850mhz v-sync on 8 gb memory 1866mhz no problem no lag , i love the game steady 60 fps all the time

i hate vsync off , = high fps the movement look ugly why go over 60 fps, yes i know better input lag but i rather have smooth fps in an rpg , this is not an fps CS game ho and i edited the ini file even higher then ultra , and i got a sickness i think im a vampire in the game , i want to be a werewolf damit !!!!

did you set something specific to make it use all the cores?

[kelly thomson]

I'm playing with Ultra settings (shadows set to high) Maximum AA and AF with FXAA and the object / actor, etc fade set to max on 1920x 1080 and my FPS stays around 50 constantly. The game looks great! I'm rocking a gtx 570 and i7 960 oc'd to 3.7 ghz. The game relies more on CPU than GPU power.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074.html

Read up on this and tweak settings accordingly. I'm not really seeing any GPUs getting over 70fps, all you really need is 40-50. Try turning shadows to high instead of ultra, you won't notice the difference and lowering the setting could easily net you a constant 60 fps inside and out.

IMy CPU usage is always below 50%, gpu usage ~40%, during fps drops cpu usage stays the same, while the gpu usage drops to ~10%

[Travis]

IMy CPU usage is always below 50%, gpu usage ~40%, during fps drops cpu usage stays the same, while the gpu usage drops to ~10%

Yes... I really hope this is fixed this weekend. I can deal with everything else as long as the game is running correctly with my hardware. The way i see it, when its maxing out at 23% GPU usage and sub 60FPS, its only using $100 of my $500 investment

[Natasha Biss]

The reason I bought my two GTX 580's was to be able to play games on the highest setting, with atleast 60fps. This isn't an issue of having to tweak the settings to make it perform well, I shouldn't have to. Just one of my cards should be able to play this in ultra with 60fps.
Some people are content with 30-50 fps, but I'm not, I prefer over 60 if it can be acheived.

The problem is that the game doesn't fully utilize my cards, which is ridiculous and needs a fix.

The problem is the fact that you bought 2 cards. One card is more than enough to handle this game. SLI is and always has been a waste of money, you're just mad that you found this out now.

[Jaylene Brower]

I have a 580 and I'm using these tweaks in the .ini and my game runs smooth as butter.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/11/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweaks-improve-graphics-disable-vsync-change-fov-and-more/

[Jesus Sanchez]

What I don't understand is this. If you can play with Ultra High omg everything is maxed settings at say, 50-60fps. Are you going to notice a difference at 100fps? I know it makes you feel justified in the unneeded purchase of two already awesome video cards, but I think the issue is more of an "epeen" problem than Bethesda's.

Then again, I'm trying to defend one of the last great RPG producers of all time.

Then again it's also like saying, my house uses these awesome lightbulbs and they work just fine and I can see everything perfectly fine, but I really wish they were two times brighter so I can use more energy. That way I get the most out of my money.

[Jake Easom]

I'm running 580's in tri-sli. That's with an i7 2600k and 16gb of ram. I have Skyrim installed on an ssd with nothing else on it. I'm still getting dips in fps in the low 40's with all settings maxed. It seems to be linked to loading of assets when approaching villages, etc. Hopefully a patch or two will smooth the texture loading and help-out. Same thing happens to a lesser extent in Witcher 2. As we know, Witcher 2 was pc exclusive so we can't really blame the consoles.

edit - concerning comments about spending too much money on pc stuff, its a hobby. no different than people that spend 1000's of dollars on musical instruments or antique cars.

[Bethany Watkin]

my skyrim runs good 60 fps 2600k cpu clocked 4.5 ghz, use all cores. 480gtx gpu clocked 850mhz v-sync on 8 gb memory 1866mhz no problem no lag , i love the game steady 60 fps all the time

i hate vsync off , = high fps the movement look ugly why go over 60 fps, yes i know better input lag but i rather have smooth fps in an rpg , this is not an fps CS game ho and i edited the ini file even higher then ultra , and i got a sickness i think im a vampire in the game , i want to be a werewolf damit !!!!

I'm a werewolf, not sure how I feel about it....But yea, I'm glad there are others who understand how to computer. There is no need to go above 60fps, ever......I'm loving the game so far and I personally think the textures are great. The Elder Scrolls has always had a unique style and I love Bethesda for it!

[Brian Newman]

I'm running 580's in tri-sli. That's with an i7 2600k and 16gb of ram. I have Skyrim installed on an ssd with nothing else on it. I'm still getting dips in fps in the low 40's with all settings maxed. It seems to be linked to loading of assets when approaching villages, etc. Hopefully a patch or two will smooth the texture loading and help-out. Same thing happens to a lesser extent in Witcher 2. As we know, Witcher 2 was pc exclusive so we can't really blame the consoles.

did you sell your soul to satan for that rig?

[Crystal Birch]

did you sell your soul to satan for that rig?

lol, nope; just built it a few pieces at a time.

[LADONA]

guys im not sure if this has been mentioned but check your core usuage on your cpu. i have a q6600 and this game pumps all four cores. now i have the q6600 somy theory is this. the amd and newer cpus use true multi cores where each core is its own entity. where as when the q6600 was released it was essentually two dual core cpus fused with the same cache. so make sure your cores are being utilized and if not try setting the affinity of the game to skip using core 0 and use the others. i have had no issues with the game and have run the game 6 hours without issues. also try setting the priority of the game to higher than normal.

from what i have seen from skyrim is that it is not like any other. ive never seen the cores get such a work out. so just make sure your CPUs are getting a work out as well

[Carlitos Avila]

Interiors will have more shadows to render, so it's no surprise that interior frame rates could dip below exterior frame rates. The game doesn't have any Ultra resolution textures, so it's going to look bad if you are less than 5 feet away from the screen (no matter the size). The community will undoubtedly provide higher resolution textures, but this should have been Bethesda's job. As it is, they've effectively said "too bad" to purchasers of the PC version.

Despite what Howard says, the engine isn't all-new. There are many signs that it is simply an upgraded version of Gamebryo. Most of the difference you see can be attributed to art direction, not the engine itself, which seems to share just about all of Gamebryo's faults.

[Katie Louise Ingram]

The only place where my FPS dips down to the 30s is in cities like Whiterun. No matter what settings I put it on, I can't get a steady 60fps like in dungeons or in the wilderness.

[Anna Krzyzanowska]

I have a GTX 580 with a Q9550 overclocked to 3.2 Ghz, and I have graphics settings set at Ultra. I'm not getting any of the problems listed here, but there seems to be another suspect component that's causing problems if you look closely - SSDs. Maybe if you move the game files off the SSD and onto the HDD, there might be a better performance overall, as strange as that sounds.

[Esther Fernandez]

My rig:

Intel i2500k (not oc)
8 Gig DDR3 Corsair
Asus GTX580 DirectCUII 1.5 Gig
850 Watt Corsair
Windows 7 64 Bit
OS on Intel SSD 320 40 GB
Steam on WD Caviar Black 1 TB
Dell Ultrasharp 2412M at 1920x1200

System was built 3 months ago, no non-essential has been installed.

This system plays Crysis on high framerates without any drops whatsoever.

Playing Skyrim I noticed during the intro that there was something strange with the FPS although I believed it would resolve as soon as I'd get in the real open world.
Just as you leave the cave you can walk down a path towards a village, when I sprint and jump / turn around as a lunatic I see my FPS drop from 55 to 10?
I quit the game and opened Asus AI Suite II together with MSI Afterburner and noticed that:

1) The game uses all my cores, the first one at 85 % and the rest between 80-65 % at the intended 3.4 Ghz
2) GPU is only used for max 40 %

I've tried the beta drivers to no avail. In the options launcher (+advanced) I turned everything off that I could and lowered the remaining options to the lowest possible (except my resolution).
When I continued the game I saw that during the loading screen I still only managed to get 20-30 FPS (WTH, that's just a quote and a picture???), I then resumed the game where I was (= the path at night) to see that it started with a FPS of 5-9. After 5 secs I got 30 FPS, again I walked the path back up to the stones and I got 45-50 FPS with freezes to 11 FPS every 20 secs when I tried a sprint.

This is really unplayable. What's causing this since some people with GTX580's say everything works for them? I can't be that my Steam being on a HDD vs OS on a SSD is the cause of all this mess.

I just want to GAME, I spent 1500 € on a pc, 350 € on screen, 50 € on a game and I just want some money's worth.

[Felix Walde]

You know what? I'm going to post my ini. If a machine like mine can run Ultra, with tree and land shadows enabled, and with the http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31, then there is something other than the GTX 580 that's causing problems.

Here's my specs:

1 EVGA GTX 580 (Core clock @ 772Mhz, Shader clock @ 1544 Mhz, and memory clock @ 1778Mhz )
1 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 Ghz overclocked at 3.20 Ghz
- Make sure your CPU isn't being throttled by heat management in the BIOS, but I suggest not turning it off unless you are absolutely sure that the heatsink/fan/cooling pipe can handle the load. If you have a high-end CPU and is using the cooling fan that comes with it, I'd leave it alone.
6 GB 1066Mhz DDR2 RAM underclocked at 1022 Mhz
- Some of you might want to check the memory clock setting in the BIOS. Many FSB linked clocking ratios are at 2:1 or 3:2 when set to automatic, so a FSB set to run at 1600 Mhz may have the memory clock running as low as 800Mhz, thus possibly underclocking your RAM. Mine's underclocked and working at a 3:2 ratio because it seems that the memory controller doesn't like 1066 Mhz very well.
1 SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium
- Yes, sound again matters in this game. Depending on what you use, you might have to set your sound card's output to something lower-quality.
1 1TB WD Caviar Green HDD
- Can't confirm this yet, but computers with SSDs do seem to have trouble with running this game.
1 850W Thermaltake PSU
- This is starting to age too, but it shouldn't matter.
The rest should not make much of a difference, unless you have a really old DVD drive installed in your computer.

As for the SkyrimPrefs.ini, here you go. This is for GTX 580 users only! If you want to attempt it though with a card that's not a 580, you need to change the sD3DDevice to your card's name(i.e. "NVIDIA GTX 470" or "ATI HD 6950")

Spoiler

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000
fGamma=1.2400
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1200
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000
iScreenShotIndex=9
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=0
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0280
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=4
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

[Cartoon]

@the pig whisperer

a friend of mine got this rig

i5 2500 (no k)
8gb ram ddr3
Asus GTX580 DirectCUII 1.5 Gig (same as yours)
1TB HD
cooler master 700w
windows 7 64bit

he's playing flawlessly on 1080p monitor with everything set to MAX, every slider is set to its maximum... having 50-60fps (vsync) always. (even when jumping around like an idiot)

maybe try a format?

[Yama Pi]

Specs. 2600K @ 4.2, 580 1.5GB, W7 64 on Intel 160 G2, Steam and games on WD 640,16GB Corsair 1600 Vengeance.
I'm not very far in the game, first town and did the Golden Claw quest. Everything on ultra and I am getting 60 FPS everywhere, inside and outside. Saw a lot of threads about low GPU usage but mine is 60 to 82%. If I disable HT my CPU usage is 23 to 38% across all four cores. HT on it averages about 23 with first core at about 50%, then stair sterps down the other three cores. HT threads are not used at all. The variance in similar systems is mind boggling. Had one close to desktop at a cell load. Going through a door. Disabled auto save after that, Oblivian did that to me also. Only played five hours so far, so I'm not sure about whether disabling auto save did anything or not. On 285.38 Beta drivers. Edit: went to Whiterun and looking over the town from the high point I get about 38 to 40.