Massive performance problem in Skyrim with Clevo P170SM (Radeon 8970 video)

Hi guys,

I bought a son a Sager NP8275 (Clevo P170SM) with the Radeon 8970M upgrade. The thing runs fine, though I find the integrated/discrete video switch to be incredibly annoying. Most games run great though, and the discrete video comes on normally. All the latest drivers are installed. The laptop is running Windows 8.1.

The trouble is that in Skyrim, the system runs at 20 frames in Medium setting, when it SHOULD be running 60 frames on Ultra. The 'discrete video' light comes on, but when the Skyrim launcher appears and I go to configure the game, it only shows Inter 4600 video as the recognized option, not Radeon 8970 -- and the game acts as if it's displaying to Inter rather than Radeon. The launcher and configuration utility run as regular desktop apps.

I edited the global Catalyst game-switch setting, and set it to 'maximize performance' for all modes, including battery. The laptop is hooked up to a power source currently. The discrete graphics are on even in the desktop mode, but Skyrim launcher still only shows Intern 4600 as the detected device -- and the game (in fullscreen mode, not windowed) runs like crap. If I do force windowed mode, the performance actually becomes decent, but of course windowed mode sucks, and my son would like to run it full-screen.

Any sage advice on how to deal with Skyrim's stupidity (or too-clever-for-its-own-good-ness) and make it use Radeon video in full-screen mode?

Thanks in advance guys!

 

update your drivers ,first of all !

Intel HD to version 15.33.9.64.3355
AMD 8970m driver to 13.12 WHQL

 

Already at the latest, as I mentioned. But the problem is still there, and I suspect, though I know of no way to verifying it, is that it's because Skyrim is actually using Intel video device, unless I force it to run in windowed mode.

 

what do you mean no way of verifying it? Install msi afterburner to check it. Just launch your game and after that start msi afterburner. If you can see in the graphs that the utilisation is more than 0% it's using your discrete graphics 100% sure. If that's the case then there must be some driver issue(messed up driver or something)

 

Yep, if there is no activity on the dGPU then it's using the IGP then ^-^

 

Another issue might be mods, are you running Vanilla version of Skyrim launching through Steam without any mods and something like SKSE?

 

Well, don't worry about the Option in the launcher saying it's the Intel 4600 working, that's normal. I have that too, but the game does run 60fps at ultra, even with a few mods.
And after installing +30 visual mods with enb series, making the game look like photorealism, it still runs at 30fps!
Try reinstalling?