Alienware M17x - Skyrim discussion thread

Anyone have an ETA on the newest ATI drivers/CAP5?? Hoping official drivers/CAP5 will make crossfire work better for me as all the other fixes I read on here didnt help.

 

11.11 and CAP 1 was released today, but many people are having horrible BSOD's from the driver, i'm not sure if the caps have a Skyrim profile or not.

 

I did this and did not really experience any change =[

 

Hey Guys,

I'm having some problems with Skyrim. The game exits to desktop after some time and I'm having around 20-25 fps in the game. I am running 11.10 drivers and cap 4. Any suggestions to increase the performance and fix the problem with the game shouting down randomly?

5870x2
920xm

 

Check this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/623774-elder-scrolls-skyrim-low-fps-9.html

there are some tweaks to improve performance, 2-3 of them are on the last page

 

how far are you guys into the game? I am right now finishing the thieves guild quests, also found a sword named dawnbreaker, the best looking sword ever in any game in history...

 

I've been so busy I've only gotten to level 7 and am still working on the main story line. So i guess you can say im still a skyrim noob at this point.

 

I am also not to far into the game (well I am not sure, I found the ebony armor ) but this game has 300 hours of gameplay and I played 30 something so far gorgeous graphics.. some scenes makes me wonder if it looks better in real life

 

some of those scenes remind me of some of the mountain views up here in the frozen AK

 

50 hours into the game here, i probably have done just 2 or 3 quest of the main story line, and there a lot of sidequest that alone are worth the entire game

It is amazing

 

indeed... I am so much falling in love with this game, this time I am going elf thief mage, next time nord barbarian

also, let's face it, by far it is the game of the year..

 

Unfortunately, I'm unable to play because of some stupid black screen crash
I heard there's a patch coming soon though

 

Let me just say one thing...if you are ever in a random skyrim tavern and some guy challenges you to a drinking contest, do it! Hilarious quest!

This game is &%^$#% great. Seriously! And it actually runs pretty darn good, all things considered. Sometimes I wish I spent less time worrying about how to get a game to run perfectly and more time just enjoying the game!!

 

I've noticed the high-fps/laggy feeling phenomenon too. There's something with the graphics engine on this game that makes higher frame rates feel "stuttery". 45 fps here does not feel the same as 45 fps with crysis 2. The Skyrim engine just feels kind of sloppy.

 

exactly, it is a ridiculously fun epic storyline kine of game, nightingale armor is awesome btw

 

come on man, this is elder scrolls, if they even tried to have something like cry engine 3, the game should have been 2TB of hard disk space (all open environment, crysis 2 is the most linear game alive on the planet, I am a BIG crysis 1/2 fan though) and also I don't think anything could have run it, also honestly, the graphics are not that bad either right, especially some scenes are plain simple gorgeous, I also agree that some interesting stuff happens, game reports 45fps at points (especially when you are in a dungeon or a room) but the game feels laggy.. however they spent all their time on landscapes / quests / npcs / and many other very tough concepts to implement an open world gameplay. I know crysis 1 also had this problems, but compared to skyrim, lingshan islands is just a little garden (really, in skyrim you can go everywhere, mountains, forests.. name it, and it IS HUGE)

 

I always stick around with the Companions. And they turned me into a werewolf too (I did the cure after 2 days... being a werewolf has its disadvantages but i had fun ). I love slaying dragons and collecting their soul and especially the shouts Unrelenting Force!

UPDATE: I finished the Graybeards quest. I now have the full power of unrelenting force, giants are pushed away intensely when i shout, really funny!

 

Actually I think what you are referring to is a difference in the quality of the animations for the various characters and creatures throughout the world. This is mostly due to the "open world" nature of the game, IMO.

Since most of the resources are used to draw the massive world from virtually any which way a person can come at a particular point, they spend less time on the animations of the various characters.

This would be more noticeable at higher FPS as the lower quality animations would look skippy or jumpy vs the 45 fps everywhere else you are looking.

 

nice point..

 

I'm seeing dropping fps occasionally but i think it's ok with me.

 

I'm getting a solid 48-60+ fps everywhere except the Ragged Flaggon where it drops down to 20 fps in some parts of that area.

Overall, very satisfied with performance, but some tweaks via a patch and/or driver update would be welcome.

 

oh yes, ragged dragon is like a GPU killer right now

 

Interesting... I did a test just now to see what the GPU and CPU run at while playing Skyrim. I figured all along that my system was GPU limited. To my surprise though, I went to the Ragged Flaggon, where I was getting 20-25 fps and noticed that the GPU and CPU were only running at 68% and 27% respectively.

I assume its an optimization problem with the CPU... probably with threading, but I can't tell for sure. There's definitely a bottleneck somewhere though.

 

It's a shame the game doesn't utilise our quad CPU's very well (designed for consoles), as even desktop PCs are having problems - looking down at Whiterun from Dragonsreach. Hopefully a patch will fix that

 

Hello everyone

I own a new m17x R3 (it arrived yesterday) with a GTX 580M. I want to play Skyrim but, even after updating nVidia drivers, and after seeing that Control Panel DOES recognize Skyrim as game and enabling there the discrete graphic, in the Launcher I can only set Intel HD family integrated card and the game, in fact, DOES NOT use my dedicated GTX 580M. It runs VERY slow indeed.

How can I play finally my game with my powerful graphic card? I really tried every single option there on the CP, nothing. Even tried beta drivers, old drivers... no chance. I read user graz'zt is using a machine close to mine, how did you manage to play Skyrim?

ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated...

thanks

 

Hello shoni89p, congratz on such a nice system, as for the R3 i think the same rules apply to them as for any other optimus system. whitelist the steamlaunch.exe as well as tesv.exe. then your GTX580M...should be found

 

if you don't know how to whitelist, just right click the tesv.exe and run with high performance nvidia processor otherwise go nvidia control panel, and manage 3d settings, congratz on your new beast btw! you will fall in love with the world of skyrim soon enough, go on top of mountains, the view is something to behold

 

It truly is a beautiful game, and I think well living up to the promise from Bethesda of another world to go and live in. I haven't really touched the main quest in any detail beyond meeting the first dragon. I've been having far too much fun just running around exploring and trying stupid stuff. I threw up a video yesterday that I believe covers the world's first ever backwards headshot.

Skyrim Trick Shot Awesomeness (incl 1st Ever Backwards Headshot) - YouTube

 

It must be a taste for the graphics. I like my graphics to flow well in a game, not just look really nice. Those screenshots on the first page even proves it further that the graphics is just pretty and doesn't flow well together. If you must have comparison you only need to look at Assassin's Creed or Castlevania Lord of Shadows.

Character animations and movement are much better in those two games. NPC animation and movement is WAY better than Skyrim. I can't stand seeing a NPC turn 180 degrees in one place before moving, so artificial. Creed has multiple NPCs roaming around.

Without this seamless integration it's looks very artificial to me, again the screenshots on the first page. Towns are hideous because it just seems like the house was just placed there instead of actually being a part of the it. Rocks in the environment also lack this integration.

I have to admit I've only play an hour into the game though. Still, the dragon at the beginning was hugely metallic looking, in a bad way. I was so disappointed as I'm such a dragon fan.

 

i agree with you but this series was never (really) about graphics.

 

Playing through on Master when I get my new hard drive tonight. I predict lots of saving...

 

wein! You got those 6990's in? How are you finding it?

 

They're awesome! The only thing that would make them more awesome is the ability to use both of them to play Skyrim But at least one card can max it with a good fps.

 

amazing! Seems you really upgraded your rig...the specs are looking quite impressive!

yeah, crossfire is broken in Skyrim. Still, it will run fabulous on your rig. I've already applied a ton of mods. If you haven't already done so, i found disabling vsync to be one of the greatest things i ever did. performance is so much smoother now (so fps has increased) and the mouse jittering is gone.

To disable VSync in Skyrim, add iPresentInterval=0 to the bottom of the [Display] section of the Skyrim.ini file in the \Users\[Username]\My Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory

 

Thanks! Do you use RadeonPro to force the Oblivion CF profile, or does that not do anything? I've also seen a .dll that you can put in your Skyrim folder that claims to enable CF. Can't wait for 11.12...

 

I don't know about RadeonPro, but I'd try the DLL for sure. Also heard that the alt-tabbing trick really works!

 

I so wanna get back to skyrim though I have ton of things to do no gaming for the coming 2 weeks GRRRR

 

Does anyone have a link to that .dll file? I'm not being lazy I just want to use one we all know works with laptop cards.

Edit: found it.

 

I have barely had time to play skyrim at all I'm only a lvl 9 noob lol

 

I'm sorry to tell you that i'm running 11.12 beta and crossfire in skyrim is disabled..

i had it working with 11.10, no cap and atiumdag.dll on the skyrim dir.

 

What kind of GPS are you gtx560m users getting with high settings? With or without OC.

 

GUYS CHECK THIS OUT

TESV Acceleration Layer at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community

Removes all of the lag you get in cities thanks to some CPU optimization

It has completely removed all the lag for me when looking down at Whiterun from Dragonsreach

 

I'll give it a try, by the way, i am not so happy with the way Bethesda is patching every patch at each update, for instance why don't they let us play skyrim on 4Gb (or even more)?

 

Nice Find Geo! I don't really suffer from lag, but this can't hurt. rep+ after i've spread some around lol

Skyrim version 1.3.1 makes the game large address aware so you can use 4gig...or if you don't have that patch, you can download the 4gig aware patch on SkyrimNexus. Steam should automatically download this version

 

Thanks heaps GeoCake. I haven't had any real lag problems but I'm sure this can't hurt. +Rep

 

Tried it out and noticed a few more FPS in areas like the entrance to Riften. Thanks!

 

Ditto, thanks Geo Cake, this really works! Be sure to follow the directions and create a the new Plugins folder etc and you need Script Extender.

 

What's up guys

I done a bit more reading and apparently SkyBoost is better - it's based on the same code but has further enhancements;

Get it from here: SkyBoost (topic 3) - Bethesda Softworks Forums
Public vote - which is the better enhancement: Which is framerate enhancer is best? - Bethesda Softworks Forums

All the mods I am currently running along with that:

CLICK -> http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2100/modsx.png
Alongside http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5028 to fix the poor shadows.

My settings are Ultra with AA set to x4 with AMD Catalyst 8.94 22 December Driver . My FPS is pretty much 60FPS almost everywhere average around 55 ~ 60 and the experience is simply f*cking excellent

 

Wow that is a lot of mods GeoCake!

I'll give that SkyBoost a whirl. Again, thanks for the tip

 

Downloaded all the mods Game looks quite boss if I say so myself