Ok so I was just checking my FPS in Skyrim with my newly built PC including the GTX 560ti. I have a low resolution monitor 1024x768 and will soon be upgrading to 1080p. To compensate for the low resolution I cranked up ALL the video settings in the game and in the GPU control panel. I have everything in the GPU control panel maxed out. This includes 8x Supersampling, 32CSAA, etc. I feel this shouldn't be an issue as this is a pretty low resolution, the GTX 560ti is a pretty beefy card, and I have a stock settings i5 2500k. In most areas of the game I get about 40-50 fps including caves, but in some outdoor areas I get about 25-30ish fps, like in the forest west of Windhelm. I have multiple questions here:

Is this around normal for the stock settings GTX 560ti Gigabyte version? Even at this low resolution?
Is this a good example of the fps I will get at 1080p?

I can play BF3 maxed out like this and never go below 45 fps, most of the time staying at a solid 60 fps. I just wanted to make sure this was around what I should be getting. Thanks for the help!

Keep in mind at some point no matter what the resolution those settings are making more things appear that need to be at least considered in the rendering process even if they aren't on screen. So yes, this is normal and yes you should definitely expect to have to turn those settings down further (start with that ridiculous AA setting ) when you go and almost triple your resolution with a 1080P monitor.

Yeah I will defiantly turn down the rediculous AA setting. I like my AA to be su...su...su super! Once I get 1080p of course.

Yea i'd recommend turning down, I don't really see any improvement over 4-8x AA, the rest are just framerate bloating, are you currently playing on the latest stable update or using the steam 1.4 beta? 1.4 has drastically increased the framerate for the game in mostly all aspects, going from staring at the starting town (helgen) 25-35 fps, I'm now at 50-75, 75 being my monitor's refresh rate

EDIT: forgot to mention I'm on a 560ti too ;D

I have the same chip and card as you and I used these settings with the new beta 290.53 drivers and it looks awesome at 1080. Higher settings ended up looking/performing like crap for me.
http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/OPS/Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-GeForce-GTX-560-Ti-OPS

Edit: I am running the 1.4 beta but skyboost worked great for these settings as well

I will defiantly download the 1.4 beta update. I have been running the 1.3 stable version with a couple mods. I'll just back it up and update.

Not all games run at 60fps with the same settings, that is a nonsense thought lol.

The reason for your low fps? Probs a combination of the CPU bottlenecks (fixed with Skyboost or the 1.4 beta skyrim patch) and your ridiculous antialiasing lol. Just leave it on 8, or have SS on maybe 4

Edit: Oh and my card is better than yours, simply because it has AMD and HD in the name... bazinga!

I have almost the same setup barring my 560 being a twin frozr so i have it heavily oced, with the i5 2500k oced to 4.8ghz. Install the beta update, I had similar fps to yours with the game maxed and modded, the patch has put me at just about a constant 55 fps.

for the OP : i also have a GTX 560 Ti, with a 3.3 GHZ i7 cpu

im running a 27" 60 hz monitor at 1080P

i usually get between 40 to 60 fps outdoors - it drops to low 30's at times

most interiors are high 40s to 60 - some interiors have also dropped to low 30's

when it has dropped to low 30's - the game feels like its chugging hard because it has stutters along with the lower FPS

Well the best advice I can give you is to... overclock your CPU ! Even if you have still stock intel cooler you can reach 3.6 ghz safely IMHO and get some more fps

Overclocking ftw!

Yup ocing is your friend, I'm stable at 4.8ghz on stock fan with artic silver paste. Six or seven case fans though, so excellent air flow.

Overclocking can be addicting. But your on stock heatsink/fan? I never even attempted overclocking with that, in fact, I still have the stock HS/F in my closet unused from my 2600k.

Does setting AA and AF in the control panel work when the in-game settings are off? In the beta nVidia control panel I can no longer select enhance game setting in the Skyrim specific profile so I set the default for everything to 8CSAA, 4TRAA and 16AF with high details and clamp. Everything looks good but there are some odd artifacts around stairs.

I have AA & AF set to OFF in the skyrim launcher.

I have AA on 8x & AF on 16x in the Nvidia control panel.

It isnt as smooth looking as it was when i had it enabled in the Launcher, but its definantly working (doing this did give a boost the the FPS).

Thanks. Still learning this tweaking thing.

Also make sure you've turned down transparency AA to 2x, or 4x if you don't mind a FPS drop. Transparency AA will destroy your FPS at high enough amounts.