Hey guys, on the whole, Skyrim runs perfectly. I'm running on high settings using an:
ATI Radeon 7950 3GB
i5 2550k 3.4GHz
4GB DDR3
Windows 7 64-bit
1920x1080

Although the game has given be almost no problems whatsoever, the ONE place that does make my FPS fall below 60 (52-58) is Riften when looking directly into the marketplace.

Things I've tried so far:
Antialiasing is completely disabled
Object Distance etc is about 1/3 through the slider.
Turned shadows to low
Gamebooster & Advanced Systemcare Pro
Skyboost (hasn't been updated to work with 1.4.27)
Overclocked my GPU (really don't want to OC the CPU due to increased temps)

Is there anything else I can try? I really don't want to lower my graphics further.

It's not the Graphics, but the NPCs that are causing this the FPS drops. Anywhere you have a number of NPCs in "view" of the player character, the game has to run all the scripts attached to those NPCs. You can turn the graphics down to Ultra Low and you will still have these drops.

So, short of a killing spree in Riften, turn off your FPS counter and enjoy the game.

if 52-58 fps is the lowest you get, I would say that you are doing quite well. Be grateful that your freamerate is as steady as it is, others aren't so lucky. I wouldn't start worrying unless it starts falling below 30...which is still very much playable.

Is it like this for a majority of people, or only me? The drops in Riften I mean.

Strange.. your system is more than enough for 60fps. I thought the 7950 was the new radeon series card.

• Are you using ENB?
  
• Ambient Occlusion?
  
• Latest drivers and skyrim patch (1.4.27)
  
• Any mods? If so, please list them. You can copy and paste them from your plugins.txt file.
  
• What fps are you typically getting?
  
• SLI?
  
• Use MSI Afterburner and it will give us an indication as to how much vram and load the card is under.
  
• Have you got the card set to use maximum performance?

The drops are due to the leaves falling from trees, there is a mod that fixes that.


52-58 fps is awful for his system and even on a lower system it would feel terrible. When I use ENB my fps runs between 55-60 and its so choppy its horrendous but a constant 60fps is silky smooth. BF3 on my xbox @ 30fps is smoother than skyrim on my PC at 55fps.

I'm not using ENB, nor am I using AO. I'm using the latest drivers and the patch; no mods either. EVERYWHERE else apart from Riften I'm getting 60+. Only a single card, I can't be bothered to download MSI Afterburner but it's no secret Skyrim makes more use of the CPU than the GPU. It's set to maximum performance too, yeah.

Edit: Could you send me the link to the mod? Thanks a ton.

I pull 80 - 85 FPS in most areas but Riften always chokes a little at certain times of day. Just be happy it's not like looking down from Dragonreach used to be pre-optimization - it was like 30fps

I wouldn't worry about it. If it really bothers you, lower your resolution.

Well its not a secret that Skyrim doesn't use much of the GPU as I consistently use 60%-90% outdoors around 40-50% indoors on my GTX 580 @ 890mhz. However when I overclocked my i5-2500k from 3.3Ghz to 4.3Ghz I saw an 11fps improvement.

The mod: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=6387

You should be able to play the game on Ultra settings with shadows on High with your system.. no idea why you can't.

I can play with Ultra with High settings with Ambient Occlusion and 3x3 supersampling (I know crazy), Triple Buffering and 40+ texture mods and I don't even max my gpu usage and get 60fps with vsync everywhere, never dips for a second regardless of weather or even if 30 NPC's are present when I use the Warzones mod.

I actually just downloaded a mod that removed falling leaves entirely, made no difference in frame-rate. Would it still be worthwhile downloading this mod? Thanks for the link.

I'm really quite disappointed this game runs under 60fps in Riften. I'm incredibly picky and don't even want to play this game under 60fps.

Well I don't use the mod so I don't know.

Have you removed the Skyboost files from your installation folder since it doesn't work well with the new 1.4.27? What settings do you use when you dip below 60fps in Riften?

No it is not. Expecting a solid 60 fps everywhere, all the time is just a silly pipe dream that just isn't going to happen. Fluctuations in fps are going to happen for everybody at some time.

I run Skyrim maxed out with room to spare, and still get fluctuations in my framerate, but I don't worry about it because these things happen...it is a Bethesda game after all.

Yep I've removed them, it doesn't work at all, it refuses to run if they're present. When I dip below 60FPS, I use the 'High' Detail setting, then proceed to set the shadows to low. Resolution is at 1920x1080 and I really do not want to lower it. What's weird is that if I manually modify the shadows in the SkyrimPrefs.ini folder to run at a higher resolution therefore not being blurry anymore, it has little (if no) effect on FPS.

The help is much appreciated by the way, I don't know what else I can do..

Fluctuations in fps does not occur for some people even though you may think it does. With my above mentioned settings I get 60fps except when loading from interior to exterior and it dips for 2 secs which is fine as the other 99% I play the game it is 60fps. The OP should have 60fps everywhere with his card. I just looked it up and it is a very good card. I think he needs to overclock his CPU. I have a 2500k but he has a 2550k so I don't know what settings to use. I would say 4.0ghz on stock cooler but I would do research before going with that.

Agreed on overclocking. That is where op will benefit the most, however, I'm not so sure that overclocking would be wise on stock cooling...especially if the case doesn't have adequate ventilation or headroom. Some of the after market coolers are pretty large.

As for your other point...I'll just quit now before I say something I'll regret later.

I'm really not a big fan of overclocking, I just blew a wad of cash on upgrading my PC and I really don't want to kill the CPU prematurely.

It's your choice really, and your pc. If you're not comfortable with overclocking, then don't do it. You should know however, that with the 2500k and 2600k (suspect the 2550 is no different), it is ridiculously simple to do. They even have turbo mode which safely overclocks your system with just about the click of a button. With Skyrim, that is where you will see the most improvement.

If that's the case, then I suppose I would be willing to try. How would I go about doing this?

Sorry for the double post, I checked the BIOS (Gigabyte Mobo) and Turbo is enabled already. I could switch between Normal, Turbo and Extreme.

Check if your motherboard has a "turbo" switch, my i5 2500k can go to 4.3 ghz with my motherboards default ocing software, I have it personally at 4.8 ghz in stock fans with artic silver paste, but I also have 8 case fans ([censored] was on sale, I know it's ridiculous). The 2xxxk designation means its built for overclocking, you will not melt any processor unless you are tremendously dumb!

Ahh, well that answers my next question.

While I did overclock my pc on my own and it is very much stable (11hrs Prime95 blend + 3 hours Intel Burn test. highest temp 69 c) I am no teacher and am not really interested in attempting to be one. Perhaps it would be better for me to allow someone who is more comfortable in giving overclocking advice, to help you further.

Because it dips slightly below 60fps in one area? Your problem is not your PC. Seriously.

Anyway, like 60 FPS is fantastic? Oh but 52 FPS is the end of the world??

I guarantee you're ALL getting fluctuations in FPS but have your benchmarking software set differently. That begs the question, what benchmarking software are you using? Do you have it set to show average or low / high readings? Oh wait... you know what? I don't care.

Ew.