If I'm not mistaken, Skyrim has vsync enabled by default, and requires modifications to some config file to disable it. However, I just used Fraps to have a look at the game's FPS, and I found out that it doesn't look as if vsync is active: For example, I had frame rates of around 40 or 47 fps. With vsync, it should be either 30 or 60 fps, but nothing in between.

I didn't modify any config files so far. I had vsync disabled in the AMD Control Panel for testing purposes, but now I've set it back to "application controlled" and still get these strange results.

Any idea what might be going wrong here?

Nothing's wrong there, the FPS you see in Fraps is just an average calculated over a short time period.

Vsync does not force your video hardware to render at 60 or 30 FPS or some other integer fraction of the screen refresh rate, but it stops new frames from being presented except when a scan has just finished. So occasionally there's a frame ready just after a new one was just shown, sometimes there's not.

There's actually different ways to implement Vertical Sync, even within DirectX itself. The variable you use to disable Vsync in Skyrim is called "iPresentInterval" which leads me to believe it's using D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL method. There are SIX possible flags (implementations) for D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL. Basically there are different timings which can be used with some of the six possible methods which would result in it going over 30, but generally not over 60, with a monitor @ 60Hz. Ideally there should be no tearing or stuttering even at 40FPS as long as it's not fluctuating a lot.

Read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172585(VS.85).aspx

Thank you for your answers

I was a bit worried after I read that Skyrim seems to be a bit picky with framerates and vsync.

My problem with the Vertical Sync is that when it is set to application controlled I get extremely long load times. With it turned off in the nvidia control panel I can barely have time enough to read most sentences during the load times. Why does this happen? Any way to fix it? I do notice that it isn't as smooth with the Vertical Sync disabled.

Specs:

Nvidia 285 w/ 2gb
Asus m4n98td evo
6gb of ram
AMD Phenom II x4 970

Yes, vertical sync effects load time on my machine as well, which is why I can't use a FPS Limiter, as that'll drastically increase my load times (up to 60+ seconds where it was ~5 seconds before).

However I haven't noticed increased load times from leaving it on in Skyrim. I generally have it forced on in the Nvidia Control Panel and off in Skyrim.