Hi All,

I've got 2 x 4890s running Crossfire using 11.12 catalyst drivers from ATI. Skyrim lags like crazy in XP x64, and this is the only game I have problems with in XP x64. I have a dual-boot setup and when I played the game in Windows 7, I had no issues whatsoever and no lag. Why is there such a huge performance difference depending on the operating system? Both operating systems are running the latest drivers with application profiles... My core i7 920 should be able to hand this game no problem no matter the OS.

I don't get why performance is worse in XP. Anyone know why? Is this a graphics card driver issue, or Skyrim issue? I've tried various addons including the ENB Anti-Freeze in XP x64, and it makes no difference. I'm running the latest version of Skyrim.... if that makes a difference.

It would seem that this benchmark describes exactly what I'm seeing:

http://benchmark3d.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-benchmark

I'll start with I'm not terribly familiar with how ATI's crossfire works but as a comparison Nvidia's SLI suffered greatly under XP and flat out could not do more then two cards with that OS, perhaps ATI's own efforts suffer from the same constraints.

Interesting. I hope this isn't the case. I prefer to play all games under one OS though... I play quite a few old games

Hrm, may have to split it up, not sure there'd be a way around that. Fortunately older games don't tend to need as much horsepower as your twined cards can deliver

Windows XP's DirectX capabilities with Multiple GPUS is poor to begin with, additionally the OS's memory management system as well as threading is also fairly poor too.

The OS is indeed quite old.. and the same performance issues are seen with windows XP 32bit.

Windows x64 is also less optimised and supported by major titles due to being built around the 2003 server OS ... the denotion of the 5.2 build type clearly shows this.

Unfortunately while a lot will work properly under x64.... windows XP is just a dead horse...... that is getting repeatedly beaten

I'm not sure if you're being serious mate. You're asking why Windows 7 gives better performance for a game released 2 months ago, over and operating system that's 10 years old?

I think it's pretty obvious why.

The drivers and the model for how the drivers interact with the OS are very different as well as other above suggestions. Not to mention XP uses older direct X, no doubt with less optimization.

All comes down tot he very old OS thing.

Well Skyrim uses ONLY DirectX9.0c so your argument isn't really one because dx9 is almost ten years old now as well...
DirectX 9.0 4.09.00.0900 (RC4) December 19, 2002 and well Skyrim is an unoptimized piece of crap from a developers point of view (Arisu laid that out very well with TESVAL!) and just to add some more oil into da flames:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hkfEy.jpg[/IMG]
Really maximum CPU usage 53% (on a quadcore) and maximum GPU load 74%? (running 62 texturemods btw)

First off: From what's visible of your desktop: That's quite the disturbing background buddy.

Do you really want a game using 100% CPU while the game itself is basically do nothing but idle crap?
Do something significant, like start a fight with 50 drunks, here I'll save you the trouble:
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6788/skythread03angrydrunks.jpg

XP 64 is not a gaming OS, in fact it's plain not supported by most games - as already mentioned it's derived from a server OS and isn't meant for home desktop use. The whole gaming API stuff (driver model, directX etc) is bolted on as an afterthought.

Was that a serious question?
Ofcourse you do; a game is never* idle.




*(With the exception of having one thread waiting for vertical sync; if you have it enabled.)

Win 7 is far better at allocating threads to cpu cores. Also the driver model is different re: memory managment.

I am running a single card on XP32 and the game runs just fine. I think it is more a driver issue with XP and Crossfire that is causing this than the OS itself. Have you tried running the game on one video card? One of your cards should give decent frame rates.

Indeed and that's why you needed Windows Vista for DX10 because they designed the new driver model around it. Evil Taoistis correct.

XP32 is not related to XP 64. They really are completely different operating systems which shouldn't share a name ideally. XP 32 was a brilliant OS for gaming - the fact it's still usable today is testament to that.

I can fully agree with this statement. Love XP32 and still use it today for many, many games. But then again, I love Windows 7 64 so it's nice to finally have a true upgrade to how great XP32 really was for gaming.

windows xp x64 is superior to xp 32bit in numerous ways.... don't get that confused with what i said about x64 xp being "bad" by todays standards... frankly it's the only thing left holding up the old XP die hard users just like when people refused to migrate from windows 98se

However windows XP in either flavour has relatively bad "multi" gpu capabilities.... it's just poor.... with directX updates that are within vista/win7/win8, that make MUCH better efficient use of multi gpu solution EVEN if the game is using an older directx.... the directX mode in vista/win7/win8 is a more up to date "wrapper" in a ware that feeds the calls and such through it's dx10/11 parts with the necessary multi gpu enhanced parts.... it just "works" much better and more efficiently.

The game runs fine under x64 xp.... it's just not as good as the newer OSes.. and it sure as hell runs marginally better than 32bit xp... and in other cases WAY better.

Today if someone insisted on a windows xp install.. i would be doing x64 windows xp... not 32bit... 32bit is a dead standard.... just quit beating the dead horse..... you can't even recognize it's a horse anymore.... stop it

The best way to run skyrim is with multi gpu disabled even under windows vista/7.... unfortunately in AMD's brilliants, they removed crossfire disabling option for x2 users.. so they have to go into the device manager and under display adapters, select the 2nd one listed for their card and then right click it and disable it. Otherwise they are stuck with crossfire forced on and enabled.

I use XP x64 solely as my gaming OS. I hate Windows 7 because I can't play Quake 3 engine based games without having a hard time aiming (Mouse movements when looking around to the left or right are too fast no matter what sensitivity I set). The mouse is setup differently in Win 7... doesn't work with the old games I play most (MOHAA). All games work on XP x64... I haven't had one that does not work...

I'd assume DX9 would be far less laggy than DX10 or DX11... at least, it should be. XP x64 is still supported until 2014. As such, I hope something might be done...

windows 7 is way more optimized than xp
that simple

especialy true if you got a ore recent machine, for which xp will really not fare well

anyway, xp is verry verry old stuff, I didn t even knew there was a 64 version. is that server .... maybe not what you want ....

Ilu Bumpin <3 <3 <3