Good morning,

Last night I performed my first "do it yourself" home installation of the following hardware:
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply

SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCIE Graphics Card

I was quite pleased that I managed to get both of the pieces installed (pats self on the back), but I wanted to check that I did everything right.

My DVD drive only works sporadically (no idea why) so I downloaded the newest AMD drivers from the website. Shortly thereafter, I saw the "huge pixel" bug and reverted to 12.1 drivers. The performance improvement is just wonderful. I can play on ultra and everything is so smooth and detailed. Before I was getting about 7fps on medium. It's honestly like a completely new game!

Anyhow, I read that I should also delete Skyrim's old ini. files and do some other things to properly setup the new hardware. I have no idea what that refers to. Could someone offer any advise?

Is there anything else I should do to maximize my performance?

Thank you!

P.S. I noticed that the computer makes a very loud noise--most likely the GPU's fan--every so often with Skyrim. It persists for around 30s to a minute. There are no fps spikes or lag associated with the noise, but I wanted to make sure it's nothing to worry about.

A cursory feel of the desktop case doesn't suggest any overheating.

System Specs:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 (quad core)
6gigs DDR 3 Ram
Windows 7 64 bit
AMD Radeon 6870 1G
OCZ 700w Power Supply

Congrats on self-built comp.

Ideally you should delete the ini files under My Documents\My Games\Skyrim. If you want a clean start, then you could do that + uninstall Skyrim. Then delete all files (if any are left) under \Steamapps\Common\Skyrim. This to ensure there are no mod files left. Then reinstall Skyrim.

The noise could be your GPU fan yes. Does it do that when playing other games as well? And is it silent when in Windows? If yes, then it's probably just the GPU fan kicking in to keep the card cool when it heats up during heavy load (as in games).

Also, I hear 12.3 drivers are out and working fine. You could check those out.

Thanks!

This is very helpful. So a full uninstall/reinstall for Skyrim, and a manual deletion of the ini files will help? I may have to hold off on the uninstall bit.. seeing as I can't get my DVD drive going haha.

The fan sound is just with Skyrim (and very rarely with Starcraft II) and like you said, is most likely just cooling off the card. It doesn't happen in Windows.

I'll try 12.3

Thanks again!

Manual deletion of ini files yes. New ones will be created when you start Skyrim. And if you have had mods installed you should delete those files as well. Check the instructions for the particular mod to see where you copied the files if you can't remember. Or use a mod installer to remove if you installed with such a tool.


Regarding your DVD: I don't really know your tech level, but you know what BIOS is right, since you built your rig yourself? If you enter BIOS upon reboot then you should check if the SATA mode (which is a setting for harddisks, SSD-drives and optical drives) is set to AHCI or IDE. The problem with your DVD makes me think it is set to AHCI, or that your DVD is connected to a port that uses AHCI. Many optical drives have an issue with AHCI, as the DVD will not work outside of Windows, in Windows or both. This is a known issue. The simplest solution is to simply switch to IDE mode. Another solution is to set just one of the ports to use IDE (if that is possible on your mobo) and then connect the DVD to that port.

Some may argue that ACHI gives better SSD performance, but according to this article http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/ide-sata-and-ahci-all-you-need-to-know it shouldn't really matter, at least not much. (Note: I can't vouch for the authenticity or truthfulness in that article, but it seems legit).

I recently built a system with a motherboard that had AHCI set by default, and my DVD didn't work in Windows. It only worked in BIOS and at boot. I switched to IDE and it worked fine in Windows. But if your DVD doesn't work with IDE either, then it's probably faulty. It happens.

Thanks, Whitestar!

I'll try that when I get home. Time to venture into BIOS again.. hah

I get all my mods from Steam (or most of them) can I just unsubscribe in the workshop? Or is it a matter of going into the folders and manually deleting?

Also, I should move my savefiles somewhere else before all of this, yes?

Much appreciated.

is the noise on from the gpu odd? or is it just the fans kicking into high gear? i have the gigabyte version of this card, and when all 3 of those fans get going...it can be loud!

Hmmm, I'm not sure how it is with mods from Steam. Maybe someone else should answer this. I download all my mods from nexus.

It never hurts to have backups of your saves. Just copy the \My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Save (or Saves) folder to a safe location. Although I don't think they are touched during uninstall. Might be optional. Can't remember. Better be safe and copy them.

You're the man! Thanks.

@Smoka I think it's the GPU's fan. I also have the 1g version.