The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Performance & IQ Preview @ [H]

I'm not sure SLI is truly working for me. I have it enabled, and I can see GPU utilization on both cards, but it peaks around 40-45% utilization per GPU and my frame rates will dip down to the 30s-40s with a ton of special effects on screen.

Running 1920x1200 Ultra, special tree/land shadow flags on, 8X AA / 16X AF. System is in sig. I should be getting much better performance. Any chance you could check your GPU utilization on your test box? Your frame rates are much better than mine.

I've noticed the same thing with my GTX 580 SLI setup (and i7 930) w/beta drivers. EVGA Precision shows both cards running at around 40-45% with all settings maxed. Haven't turned off vsync yet, but it sounds like that won't make a difference.
 
We like to complain about what's in front of us. While I agree that ATI/AMD drivers are very delayed, and some features and bugs never get addressed, I quit supporting Nvidia when they started down the road that 3dfx walked. "The Way it's Meant To Be Played" and all of their private deals with developers to shut out competition, while slowing down their development cycle allowed ATI to catch up. They were not focusing on making their product better, just forcing it upon us. I do not want a monopoly, but as with cell phones, you pick the lesser of evils.

This may not be a console "port" exactly, but it was certainly developed with the consoles being the primary focus. I fell in love with Arena, and Morrowind. I do not care much for Oblivion. The story is less engaging, and you have fewer controls and more restrictions on your character. No more clothes AND armor, no more flight(or "slowfalling"), no more Medium armor or short blade skills. And by the looks of things, Skyrim is even more restricted. One spell at the ready?! I had 8 before! And I like spreading out my inventory screen on my high-res monitor, it takes so long to see everything now, and the map is almost useless. At least I got a plugin that expanded the map a bit for Oblivion.

I probably will end up getting this anyway, but I am certainly going to wait for either a price drop or a bona-fide PC upgraded version. I bought Oblivion the day it came out because I enjoyed Morrowind so much. Not this time.

This has become a console game, they're targeting the mainstream. That is not why I fell in love with Arena. All companies want to grow, and edgy games that appeal to smaller audiences are a niche market quickly abandoned.
 
Just wanted to post a big thank you and much appreciation for this quick review. I have the game delivering today from Amazon and will run into the AMD issues with my 6870, good to know what's coming and I'll look for tweaks.

I dig the straight forward reviews you guys put out here, makes it easier to spend my money or avoid it at times! haha

***11/11/11 update - For those of you in the SoCal area or in reach of a Stone Brewery distributor, make sure to look for the Stone 11/11 beer release! Cheers to all my fellow and future veterans. :cool:
 
I doubt I will purchase this until there is a Game Of the Year edition or something like that, or they release a DX11 patch. They calaimed this is a new game engine but the way it renders stuff still looks a lot like New Vegas. I like a good PC RPG but this dosn't look like the one for me. I finally got around to playing The Witcher this year and am going to move on to part 2 when finished and I must say dispite its flaws it is an awsome game.
 
Thanks for the write up, I was hoping to read about how the texture compression affected the game, it looks kind of noticeable in some areas. AMD is definitely dropping the ball on driver support, and seeing as I have a 5870 and I'm the kind of person that votes with his wallet, this will not be forgotten. I stayed away from Fermi (for good reasons) in favor of the 5870, but driver support seems to be becoming more and more important to those who want to have a proper launch day experience, and right now NVIDIA is providing better driver support in that area.

Can I ask one thing? Why do game companies not test a game on a previous version of drivers that works good and then optimize the graphics for that driver version? Or is that not possible, as in driver updates screw that up? Forgive me, as I am uneducated on this.
 
"" We have harped over this before, but this game shows once again that AMD's driver support is biting it in the butt on a new game release""


Haha now thats a terrible comment. What you really meant was
|
\/

OH WERE SORRY WE ARE SO STUPID WE HAD NO CLUE XFIRE OR SLI WAS BROKEN UPON RELEASE (( even though we made the crap )) WE DINT KNOW WE MAKE SOMETHING BROKEN WERE STUPID, ITS AMD"S FAULT


They chose to shovel it to market, that's not AMD or Nvidia fault, that's just a cheap software company trying to maintain a budget.

So a few hundred people cry about it, they dont care when they sell a few million copies at 60 bucks a pop, they are laughing all the way to the bank either way.

That game company full well knew it was a busted feature, yet "CHOSE TO" shovel the crap out anyways. AMD told them not ready, but they need cash, so this is what we get now adays.
 
I've never owned an ATI card myself, but I have worked on and installed many in years past.
Nothing but problems!!! Either removing drivers or installing an NV card in a once ATI rig........ Drivers are always the culprit!

Never once have I had a problem or had to use any type of driver cleaner on an NV rig! NEVER!! :confused:

AMD is going downhill fast! If any of you have stock, you better dump it fast :eek:

Troll much?
 
Although I am disappointed in the slower driver response of AMD, at least I have never had an AMD/ATI card die on me. Technically I have had five Nvidia cards die on me, although they worked great while they functioned.

Even my X1600 Pro still works now that I think of it. :)
 
Although I am disappointed in the slower driver response of AMD, at least I have never had an AMD/ATI card die on me. Technically I have had five Nvidia cards die on me, although they worked great while they functioned.

That's a good point, both my 8800 and GTX280 died not long after their warranties expired... :mad:
 
Has anyone tried the Oblivion profile using Radeon Pro? I read over at Rage3D that it works ok.

Can we ever have a single thread that doesn't devolve into people bashing other's purchases to justify their own?
 
I had a capacitor break off a nvidia card and it still works fine today a 7950gt, then again every Ati/Amd card i had worked flawlessly, due to bitcoin I sold my ATI cards for a profit : ).
 
That's a good point, both my 8800 and GTX280 died not long after their warranties expired... :mad:

I had BFG so I was just out of luck. What really set me off Nvidia this time around was that I was sent three seperate DOA or only semi-working GTX 280's back to back through BFG's warranty and not until they finally send me a GTX 295 did I have a functioning card. I would try every card in three seperate motherbaords and power supplies, on top of I knew BFG didn't actually make the card.

Not a single issue with my current 6950(or 4850/x1600) and it overclocks like a champ. Waiting a few days for a driver is significantly better than two weeks for a new card. ;)
 
I had BFG so I was just out of luck. What really set me off Nvidia this time around was that I was sent three seperate DOA or only semi-working GTX 280's back to back through BFG's warranty and not until they finally send me a GTX 295 did I have a functioning card. I would try every card in three seperate motherbaords and power supplies, on top of I knew BFG didn't actually make the card.

BFG as well. :( Was a great card, the GTX280 was powering my setup at 2560x1600 up until...May? of this year, ran everything pretty damn well.
 
I recently bought a MSI 6970 Lightning and each time I read something like this I wish I spent the extra $200 on a MSI 580 Lightning 3GB. Overall I'm pretty happy but support for new games has been terrible.
 
I recently bought a MSI 6970 Lightning and each time I read something like this I wish I spent the extra $200 on a MSI 580 Lightning 3GB. Overall I'm pretty happy but support for new games has been terrible.

Have you even PLAYED the game on that card yet or just feeling remorse from what you are reading?
 
Blame the game developers for negligence. This isn't the days of Intel, Matrox, 3dfx, powerVR, Nvidia, SiS, Ati, ect.. There are only 2 real players in the PC GPU world, and a company can't get a game out the door that works correctly with current drivers? Or support current tech like Eyefinity/Surround correctly straight out of the box! So did the developer just forget to test this multi-million dollar release on AMD's flagship GFX card?
 
I've never owned an ATI card myself, but I have worked on and installed many in years past.
Nothing but problems!!! Either removing drivers or installing an NV card in a once ATI rig........ Drivers are always the culprit!

Never once have I had a problem or had to use any type of driver cleaner on an NV rig! NEVER!! :confused:

AMD is going downhill fast! If any of you have stock, you better dump it fast :eek:

funny, they're making more money every quarter :p

You guys are all funny, the game was released today, and Catalyst maker says they're working on a driver and you get upset.
 
Blame the game developers for negligence. This isn't the days of Intel, Matrox, 3dfx, powerVR, Nvidia, SiS, Ati, ect.. There are only 2 real players in the PC GPU world, and a company can't get a game out the door that works correctly with current drivers? Or support current tech like Eyefinity/Surround correctly straight out of the box! So did the developer just forget to test this multi-million dollar release on AMD's flagship GFX card?

What if there was no way to get it working with AMD's current drivers?

It's AMD's responsibility to release drivers that work correctly.

AMD knew that the game was coming out and exactly when.

Sorry, but blaming the developer is just silly -- especially when it comes to DirectX-based games.
 
Why is Bethesda so vocally adamant that every game problem they have is AMD's fault?

Why is it that other big-name developers have no struggles with AMD?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the Gamebryo Engine been historically horrible with Crossfire scaling/support? I'm speaking from personal experience as a former Rift player. There were numerous reports of non-existent scaling in the Rift tech forums on the topic before I cancelled my subscription.

Skyrim's Creation Engine is based on on the Gamebryo Engine so the lack of Xfire Support/Scalaing doesn't come as much of a surprise. Hmm.
 
What if there was no way to get it working with AMD's current drivers?

It's AMD's responsibility to release drivers that work correctly.

AMD knew that the game was coming out and exactly when.

Sorry, but blaming the developer is just silly -- especially when it comes to DirectX-based games.


LOL

I use BF3 and MW3 both brand new big game releases those work in xfire for me, so why is this game, busted thats AMD fault also lol ??

2 other big time game companies got it working right with your so called current drivers busted theory when other companies have no issues with getting it working ??

They knew it was busted but decided to sell anyways thats 100% thier business choice, not amd at all. If they want to put out broken QA software before its fixed to market, cant blame someone else for it.

Many companies fix these before its released that's their job to put good working as advertised products to market, not blame someone else after you start selling it that's retarded.
 
At 1920x1080 my 6950 never dips below 30 outdoors and is a constant 50-60 indoors. Also this game amazingly never suffers from stutter or dips. Before I turned on Fraps I thought I was getting 100+ FPS, I was extremely shocked to see I only had 30-40 yet my game felt smooth as butter. And I am a man who needs his 60+ to feel smooth in FPS games but I do not suffer this problem in Skyrim.

Have you tried playing Split/Second on the PC? That game feels smooth, no visible lag and stutter. Fire up FRAPS, and it turns out that it's capped @ 30 fps. Note to developers, not all gamers have the hardware to drive the 60 sweet spot. Please use the motion blur correctly so that us casual PC gamers won't notice the lag. Better yet, give an option for a fps cap in the settings.
 
Can't wait to fire this up, forgot all about it actually.

Thanks for the ini tweaks too, everyone who posted links.
 
I have been bitten by the pathetic ATI driver support in the last few months (Rage, Deus-Ex, BF3 and now Skyrim). Seriously, WTF ATI! This is getting old fast. My next card will be an NVIDIA.

you should go ask to work for them for free then. AMD/ATI doesn't have the man power to release drivers for game developers that don't give them the games with enough leeway to release drivers when the game comes out. Nvidia has a couple hundred people testing and developing their drivers, AMD/ATI doesn't.


What if there was no way to get it working with AMD's current drivers?

It's AMD's responsibility to release drivers that work correctly.

AMD knew that the game was coming out and exactly when.

Sorry, but blaming the developer is just silly -- especially when it comes to DirectX-based games.


its also game developers responsibility to make sure the companies get the game in time to actually optimize their drivers to work. its quite obvious they only had a couple weeks to work on the driver optimization's for skyrim given the fact that Nvidia wasn't even able to scale SLI correctly in the game. so to put all the blame on AMD is bullcrap. the fact is you can't expect AMD or Nvidia to be miracle workers to make sure a game works correctly on release day, hell game developers can't even be bothered to make sure their games work on release day anymore.


Have you tried playing Split/Second on the PC? That game feels smooth, no visible lag and stutter. Fire up FRAPS, and it turns out that it's capped @ 30 fps. Note to developers, not all gamers have the hardware to drive the 60 sweet spot. Please use the motion blur correctly so that us casual PC gamers won't notice the lag. Better yet, give an option for a fps cap in the settings.


played it and beat the game and yes the game does feel laggy. the difference is theres nothing to compare it to since you can't unlock the 60fps. but if you fraps a video of it at 30fps then watch it. you really see the lag then. (look on youtube using my forum name in the search you will see one of my videos i did of split/second)
 
Last edited:
you should go ask to work for them for free then. AMD/ATI doesn't have the man power to release drivers for game developers that don't give them the games with enough leeway to release drivers when the game comes out. Nvidia has a couple hundred people testing and developing their drivers.

This is some of the most retarded, asinine logic I have read in a long time. It doesnt matter what ati's woes are, that's not the customers problem. If I'm selling food that taste like shit because I don't have enough cooks in the kitchen or a good relationship with the food distributor, are my customers just supposed to smile, choke down their shitty meal and thank me for it? Hell no, they go down the street and eat at the restaraunt where the guy knows how to run his business. I swear to god, I'm going to stop there before I tell you what I really think.
 
protip1: who cares about gpu usage as long as you're scaling in CF/SLI (or not dipping below 60), a somewhat light weight game like this is gonna hit cpu limits, it's not like crysis or metro that will actually use up 100% for dual gpus

protip2: CCC's vsync option is only for opengl, brent or kyle havent noticed this in all the years of testing?

protip3: disable CF (or force profiles in radeonpro) for the few days that there is no CAP, yeesh it's just a game, nobody's life depends on it except the devs that need to be paid
 
Heh, the proof reader for the article must have missed their midnight mocha or something.
 
Why is Bethesda so vocally adamant that every game problem they have is AMD's fault?

Why is it that other big-name developers have no struggles with AMD?

AA did not work with Batman on AMD cards when it was released, same with Starcraft II. That's 2 pretty big developers right there.
 
This is some of the most retarded, asinine logic I have read in a long time. It doesnt matter what ati's woes are, that's not the customers problem. If I'm selling food that taste like shit because I don't have enough cooks in the kitchen or a good relationship with the food distributor, are my customers just supposed to smile, choke down their shitty meal and thank me for it? Hell no, they go down the street and eat at the restaraunt where the guy knows how to run his business. I swear to god, I'm going to stop there before I tell you what I really think.

I agree with you. I just spent $500 on dual gpu's advertised to provide an excellent gaming experience by AMD, the fact that they then don't live up to it is failure on their part not mine.
 
Wow, AMD's recent drivers have me pondering a switch back to nvidia. I'll try and be strong and wait for new hardware before I make that decision. :(
 
Wow, lots of animosity here. Let's not forget that the performance isn't that bad. The game is still enjoyable and certainly exceeds my expectations.

That said, I'm looking forward to the new drivers for my AMD SLI setup.
 
Have you even PLAYED the game on that card yet or just feeling remorse from what you are reading?

Haven't played it yet. But I do know I've had some issues with the other games mentioned. I wanted to buy it today but sadly all of our stores are closed today so I can't get it until tomorrow. I have the CE pre-ordered btw.
 
Isn't there any chance there will be unified drivers someday in the future for both Nvidia + AMD? IMO that would help a lot for developing stable PC games.
 
I can forgive the sometime laggy graphics but the audio cutting out during dialogue is driving me nuts. Also audio isn't tracking with characters. My brother who is using the same onboard audio that I am claims to have to issues, but I can't imagine I am alone. I am just going to put the game away and wait for the first patch.
 
Isn't there any chance there will be unified drivers someday in the future for both Nvidia + AMD? IMO that would help a lot for developing stable PC games.

The unification you mention is essentially the function Directx performs, providing a single set of graphics calls and functions that the developer can leverage regardless of the underlying hardware on the users machine. Unfortunately due to the massive architectural differences between AMD and Nvidia GPU's, you still have to rely on the vendor to produce a driver that can take the directx calls and translate them into usable machine language for the chip. The reason new games (particularly on new engines) often break drivers is because they use new graphical functions or use them in a different combination with other functions and the existing interpretations of these functions are not optimized for that combination in the drivers. There is a reason driver packages are a hundred MB, there is a LOT of code in there and its nearly impossible for them to cover all cases.

Having said that, this does not exclude the vendor from appropriately resourcing this updating task so that it is ready for major game launches. AMD is really dropping the ball in that regard.
 
Back
Top