I got an Asus GT240 512mb ddr5 graphics card which I also overclocked some 10%. It runs Skyrim alright on medium/high settings. And am playing the game now for some 90 hours total.

But next to that in the PC is a quadcore 2500k processor which is currently overclocked to 4000mhz. But the game by far doesn't use all of its 16000mhz total.

Is there a way to configure Skyrim that like one core of 4000mhz is helping the graphics getting faster? Like for physics/gravity? Maybe in the Nvidia settings?

Uh, you need a GPU to see much improvement.

Don't think of your processors as 4000MHz x 4, it simply isn't true. Even if the game used all four cores at 100% utilization it is not the same as one core at 16,000MHz.

CPU cores and Graphics shader cores are completely different animals, the CPU cannot process graphical rendering subroutines. Also a GPU shader core cannot process Operating System and general use commands. Yes, certain CPU do have GPU based cores inside, but those separate and different they just happen to be inside the same package.

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Your CPU is obviously not in question, however the GPU no matter how to overclock it, will always have 96 shader cores. This limits its performance. Usually nvidia graphics cards (with three digit naming scheme) with the last two digits (60-99) are made for gaming. They have more shader cores, more memory bandwidth, and more memory.

If you meet the power requirements getting one of those gaming grade graphics cards should allow you to play Skyrim and other games at much higher settings. If you can afford it I recommend upgrading the graphics card to a 5xx or 6xx series Geforce (note the last two digits) or an AMD Radeon equivalent. AMD uses a four digits scheme, with the last three digits indicating performance (600-799 for mid range, 800-999 for enthusiast).

Yep. a stronger GPU is what you need. When I got my first PC for gaming in '08, it had an Nvidia 8500GT in it. That's not a gaming card at all. I used it until it gave out, bought a used ATI Radeon HD 2600xt for 40 bucks, and it was like two of the 8500GT's. When that one crapped out I scraqed up enough to get an ATI Radeon HD 5670, 1 Gb DDR3. It's not the best card for gaming, but with some ini tweaks (basically killing the shadows), I run it on high settings, but without grass, AA handled by the card, the game's AF on 8, FXAA on, all the water reflection stuff on, and get a solid 50 fps outdoors, and up to 75 indoors.

Thanks all for the answers/help.

I understand a faster graphics card is the easiest choice. But it's not that I am not happy with my GT240's performance. Just wondering if the CPU's extra power could add.

And I noticed the CPU can help the GPU, as in the Nvidia control panel there is a physx setting where you can tell that part of the calculations to be done by a CPU core instead of the GPU processor.

I was just wondering, if the CPU could help the Skyrim game to run faster, as there is extra performance in the computer. I guess not.

You'll always be limited by your bottleneck, that is the worst piece of hardware in your PC. It doesn't matter if you have the best CPU in the world, if your GPU can't keep up, the CPU has to wait in order to carry on. This is what's causing your performance loss.

Yes, the CPU can handle physics if need be. In fact I believe only nVidia cards and PPU (defunct.) can handle physics besides the CPU. IMO, there is no reason to offload physics to the CPU when the GPU can handle it.

You shouldn't be happy with a GT240's performance it isn't a gaming graphics card.

Actually, when it was brand new, nVIDIA advertised the GT 240 as a gaming card, and it was good enough when it was brand new, but progress has been relatively rapid since then, and newer games demand more than it can offer now, so its AGE is now telling the story.

Bethesda's unwillingness to hire anyone with hardware knowledge is why the official requirements make no logical sense as written, so that a GT 240 might "seem" to meet the requirements, when it cannot.

Yes, when I bought it, the GT240 was an entry/mid level card. Gaming goes pretty good with it actually. I played several 3D games and it al goes well. I just can't go for the extreme settings and resolutions. But that's okay, Skyrim still looks and plays very good on high settings and 1280x800 resolution and I tweaked in the ini some settings even up a level to make them look better, like shadows. Bethesda also has the GT240 in their list as good card to play Skyrim with, and it a lot better than all those integrated graphic like HD3000.

Although I am looking around to spend some 100 max euros on a new card, but am not sure yet. I upgraded most of my computer the last year, only the graphics are from 2-3 years ago now. I like a GTX550 or a 7750, but maybe I wait a bit longer for the release of the 650.