Having played Skyrim previously on my computer system and having never experienced this problem before, i was surprised to find weird graphic glitches when i installed my game again today which i cannot seem to resolve (i fiddled about with the graphics settings and even just played on the default recommended settings that Skyrim sets yet the problem persists).

Here is a link to a screenshot that can better describe the problems i am experiencing:

i46(dot)tinypic(dot)com/120i2ki.jpg

My graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series and as i stated previously, never experienced problems with this before on my computer. The only thing that has changed since i last played is that ATI has updated the drivers multiple times so perhaps the latest updates have caused some sort of incompatibility?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kaya

What is the version of the driver you are using?

I am using the following version according to my catalyst control panel:


Driver Packaging Version 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI
Catalyst Version 12.3
Provider Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1243
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0903
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.11631
Catalyst Control Center Version 2012.0405.2205.37728

Since it's 12.3, do you have a date for when it was installed? If not, uninstall it completely and download the latest official from AMD's website and install those.

I believe i actually installed it yesterday.

EDIT: Just did another update scan via my catalyst control panel and found another update is available, 12.4 - i will install this and report back to you.

Steam can automatically update your Radeon drivers, not a feature I like. Reason, not all ATI driver releases are good for this game. I am running 12.1 which seems to be the last stable offering, 12.2 and 12.3 were problematic, not sure about 12.4/12.5 which I think is the current drivers.

Well i installed the new update, restarted the PC, then reinstalled Skyrim. It appears that 12.4 is even more problematic than its predecessor. When launching a new game, Skyrim freezes at the "Bethesda" screen just before the game actually starts. It doesn't even work now.

CCNA, I am going to take your advice to heart and uninstall my video driver, and see if i can do some digging for 12.1. Will get back to you both soon.

I actually just uninstalled ATI and decided to launch the game without the video driver....somehow it worked. But it did a little more than that, it solved the problem completely and worked well.There seems to be no performance issues either. I'm going to install the 12.1 driver just in case though to see if it is compatible, i shall post here soon.

In conclusion of this post, i can confirm that ATI Catalyst driver updates beyond version 12.1 are unstable and will cause graphical issues when playing Skyrim. Uninstall your video driver and install 12.1 if you wish to play this game or wait for any future updates that may address these issues. Update 12.4 actually prevents Skyrim from working completely.

You cannot confirm that at all, The only confirmed AMD driver to have serious issue with skyrim was the 12.2 WHQL drivers, The previous 12.1's/12.2 previews worked well & for me the 12.3's & 12.4's work well also.

Some drivers may give problems to some people, That's probably user error more than anything else but my point still stands, You cannot confirm anything other than your own experiences.

12.4 causes my PC to freeze in Skyrim after about 30 seconds requiring full reboot. Had to regress back to 12.3 to get completely stable gameplay.

I've seen similar issues with drivers newer than 12.1. Skyrim performance (as well as other games I have) have decreased, especially with drivers 12.4 and 12.5. Definitely 12.1 was the most stable for me, and I rarely have driver issues.

For me 12.1 was reasonable, 12.2 was a mess and 12.3 was good.
12.4 seems to be hit and miss depending on your card series. They work for me but for others it's a disaster.
And now there is the 12.5 beta. Not much info on that out yet (I think).

Check out this thread which has a lot of driver feedback: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1368865-amd-driver-catalyst-discussion-merged-similar-topics/

For me 12.3 is good fps wise. With 12.4 I get a huge loss of fps.

I'm having no problems with 12.4 on my AMD Radeon Sapphire II HD 6870.

Question: is it necessary for me to say "Sapphire II HD", or can I just say AMD 6870? haha

Sort of offtopic, but AMD or Radeon 6870 is fine.

BTW What is the II in Sapphire II HD? I've never seen that designation.

***

For those using Radeon graphics cards. I recommend sticking with Catalyst 12.1 for Radeon HD 5 series and older. I would use 12.4 for 6 and 7 series cards.

Thanks for the response! I'm not sure what the II stands for. In fact, I may be wrong in thinking that there is a "II" at all.

Another question: AMD/ATI are the same company, correct?

I haven't had to many troubles with any of the drivers. the 12.4 was cutting my sound off, something with the hdmi cable losing connection..dunno. but I uninstalled the driver then reinstalled the driver and everything is fine! I haven't had any frame loss from what i can tell. but im ssaa so its been stable...

They were, but ATi no longer exists as a company. The cards are all now all made by AMD.

As for the questiion of the Sapphire II designation, iirc that means it has a second generation cooler and card layout. Sapphire are other AMD partners make some changes to the standard layout of the card in many occasions. The standard layout is often called the "reference card". Most first generation cards are actually reference cards but with partner branding on them. For example I have a HD 3870 that I bought the week it was released. My card is a Sapphire but it is stamped on the card that it was "Built by ATi" and has the first generation cooler design which makes it rather bulky. All Sapphire did with my card was put stickers on it and sell it.
So that card most likely has a custom sapphire BIOS and cooler layout along with some card layout changes.

AMD acquired ATI, so technically ATI doesn't exist anymore.


AFAIK, AMD disallows changes to the reference design on newly released cards. I know Sapphire makes many changes to the reference design, but I have never heard of the II designation. I only ones I know of are Vapor-x, Flex, Atomic, and Toxic. Obviously they make 2 fan and possibly 3 fan designs are usually there is no designation like that, just a model number change.

"Built-by-ATI" is sort of like a Engineering Sample. I believe Sapphire had/has ties with ATI (now AMD), so B-B-A and Sapphire stuff were both made in the same lab. In fact I believe they are still the number one manufacturer of AMD graphics cards.

Sapphire is the leading partner to AMD graphics cards. As far as I am aware AMD doesnt specifically disallow minor changes to the card, just its fabrication. By that I mean Sapphire and other partners may change the port types on the card; For example the reference card may have two DVI connectors, but Sapphire may opt to remove one for an HDMI port instead. Small changes like that are normal, and are usually done as part of the second phase of production. However they may not change major parts of the card initially, such as memory type/ size or the cooler assembly. Later models may do so once the initial production phases are done. Again to reference my own card, my BBA version has GDDR4 but later models were produced with GDDR3 instead.

Enginering samples and reference cards are two different things, but its easy to mistake them. Engineering samples are early pre-production models, normally made to test the fabrication process and its potential fail rate along with the cards early performance levels. Reference cards are those that are created from the finalised design at the initial production phase. This is the "first batch" of cards that are fabricated for sale. My own card would be the "reference card" for that generation.

Im sure Ive seen the Sapphire II designation before though, I think its just one that they have not used that much.

If I am wrong please feel free to correct me.

I've tested the latest driver versions specifically for the card ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 on 3 systems now and the issue is exactly the same right across the board. But like you said, maybe i'm doing something wrong.

There's a lot of variables at play and you cant state simply that anything beyond 12.1 is broken and for people to hold off. Im using a HD7970 for example, it would be a bad idea to go back to drivers that preexist my card. For me here personally, 12.3 works fine, however 12.4 gives me freezes and CTDs. But thats just my experiece. A general trend *seems* to be that 12.4 is problematic for alot of people but 12.3 is working well for many.

Well in my case I never had any issues until I installed the 12.4 version. Now many of my games are barely playable, with Skyrim being the worst case. Well 12.3 worked fine..
My problem is that my graphic card (according to dxdiag an ATI mobility Radeon 4500/5100 - Acer tells me it's actually an ATIMobility Radeon 4570 Hyper memory) is a notebook specific one, so I have to find older driver versions compatible with my notebook... The ATI website unfortunately got only the 12.4 version. Anyone got an idea as to how I can get the 12.3 or other older versions for my notebook?

Please read the release notes to make sure your chipset is compatible (ie. Mobility Radeon HD 4500 series)

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx (Vista/7 64-bit)
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx (Vista/7 32-bit)

Also note that these reference drivers may not automatically check for compatibility with your product.