Ok I seem to be experiencing some weird behaviour with my HD4870 x2.

My current setup is:
I7 2600K @ stock
16 GB DDR3 Ram
HD4870 x2

With this setup Running on Ultra I get about 20 - 30 FPS when there are 10+ NPCs in screen, As expected when I drop the settings a bit I get better performance.

The odd thing is that when I check my GPU usage In CCC it stays at around 60% give or take , even when my FPS drop in to the 25 - 20 range.
Is this normal or is the game not utilizing the full capabilities of my GPU?

P.S. I'm using the TESV Acceleration Layer.

Your gpu isn't the problem. Skyrim is totally cpu-bound, but it only runs in two threads so it'll slow down no matter what you have. That said, have you installed any overhauls that improve the appearance of npcs? That could have something to do with it.

I basically have a budget version of your rig and have similiar issues (i5 2500k and a 4870 1gb)

Nope no overhauls installed, the only thing I have installed is SKSE and the TESV Acceleration Layer.
Its a clean install of Windows and Skyrim.
I just moved to the 2600K from my Q9550 that died and strangely enough I'm not seeing any real improvements FPS wise.

Switch to SkyBoost, it's even faster than TESV.

That's not the point.
I'm trying to understand why despite having a overall decent RIG and only having around 60% GPU usage I'm getting a measly 20 FPS in the game.

As was pointed out, Skyrim is cpu bound (this is for everyone not just you), and hense the need for TESV or SkyBoost.

Skyrim was coded for the Xbox/PS3 specs. As stated before - the game is very CPU intensive but not able to take advantage of any better cpu than much more than is in either the Xbox or PS3. Even on Nvidia's Skyrim performance boost guide it mentions how one could have very good cards but if one has a slow cpu you will see low fps.

Our friendly modders are hard at work doing what can be done. Use TESV or Skyboost depending on your specific components, experiment with both and see what works best for your rig.

Odd. I have AA off, the other 16x, everything else ultra on 1920x1080 with big texture packs on a i7 950 (stock speed) and a MSI 560TI. I get some stutter on some areas, Whiterun and Markarth notorious areas can go down to 15, but otherwise I kick 60 FPS. Windhelms intro area can also kick my [censored]. And those low FPS areas are small, I can usually get out of them and have fine performance. If I can't do that I...

also notice if I play for awhile, hit some stutter, just shutdown, reload, it's all good.

Ok thanks for the replies everyone.

I was thinking that I was getting lousy performance in Skyrim due to my GPU, I guess I was wrong.

Now time to find out if Skyboost helps me improve my performance in any significant way.
Anyone know what Daedra lord I Should pray to for Bethesda to include Optimization in one of their patches.

It's not your GPU, Skyrim is very CPU dependent. Overclock your CPU, trust me you will get a major FPS boost, you can easily overclock your i7 to 4.4-4.7 on stock volts depending on it's quality(and your cooling) using just the multipler.

Also if your using Crossfire, trying switching to single card mode, this game doesn't play well with Crossfire/SLI.

Oh trust me I have every intention of OCing this thing I got the Noctua NH-C14 cooler for it.

I just havent gotten around to it yet, only got it 2 days ago.

Ahh, very nice air cooler, not much on the color side though the OC will do you justice, at 4.6 my i5 and my 560ti net me a constant 60fps on ultra, except in very specific locations, like that one spot in Whiterun and a few spots in Markarth.

Oh, forgot to add that should you use any texture packs such as Skyrim 2k, you may need to watch your VRAM with GPUZ, if it reaches it's limit you will see a heavy fps hit. Although you wouldn't have to worry about this unless you use any heavy graphical mods.

I am running a Intel -i7 processor rig with 9 gig ram and have no issues with FPS at all.. Guess 8 cores does help... Also have top of the line video card. One thing I DID notice helped was my xfi sound card though!

I'll second that. I wasn't sure if using my xf-fi xtreme sound card would help, but now I'm using it (with onboard sound disabled in device manager) I seem to be having a smoother game, especially when there's lots of audio going on in game.

Disable your 2nd GPU on the 4870x2.... should increase your framerate potentially by a factor of 2 in places or more..

to disable crossfire...... on x2 model cards.. unfortunately you have to go into the device manager and under display adapters.. right click the 2nd adapter and select "disable"... this will force a screen refresh followed by the CCC seeing only one GPU running.

Load skyrim and see if there is an improvement.


Skyrim plays HORRIBLY with 99% of the multi GPU cards/solutions... even sli/crossfire in most cases still doesn't work even with newer official/beta drivers.