PC High end pc, low fps...

[Necrowizard]

Hi there.
I'm experimenting a really annoying issue relative to my nvidia graphic card in my new pc, and the problem seems to be exclusive of skyrim...
I had an i3, 4gb ram with an ATI radeon of 512mb in an old laptop, and then this week I bought a new machine. i7, 4gb ram, nvidia geforce 610M, 2gb VRAM.

Theoretically, my gaming experience should improve, no? But, strangely, that's not the case. The game is showing better results with the integrated intel HD 4000 grphics card than with my geforce.

I don't know why but Skyrim is not being able to use my graphics card correctly. I have put graphic sets on MINIMUM, and tested. With Integrated GPU: 16-20 fps on insides and outsides. GeForce: 12-16 fps outside, 16-18 fps inside. That's ridiculous, considering the GPU I have!

Troubleshootings tried:
- in skyrim launcher the only option showed is the geforce. If I change on nvidia control panel the standard GPU to intel, than skyrim shows intel as the only option.
- tried playing as administrator
- tried updating all of my drivers and the game itself
- tried reinstalling game
- tried with SKSE, with BOSS optimization and a few mods (only unofficial patches to correct bugs)
- tried game booster
- tried forcing execution with Nvidia
- tried a few ini tweaks to improve performance

Besides that, the game seems to be stuck in the same fps rate always with the geforce activated.
On ultra settings, geforce gives me 8 fps, and I don't remember intel HD (I shall give me even less, of course).

Monitoring my GPU usage I found out that the GPU is being 99% loaded and reaches 70°C while I try to play Skyrim. Even with 99% of the GPU, Skyrim is not playable.
Does anyone have an idea of what is happening?

 

[Sean]

Have you tried other games?

 

[Necrowizard]

Yes and no. As the PC is new, I'm still installing them. Shogun 2 Total War did not work, after all troubleshooting I had. Civilization V runs fine, but Batman Arkham City is like the same as before. In ultra settings Batman AC gave me 10fps, while in medium-high setting it jumps to ~18. If I set down the resolution it jumps until 30-40, but then the game sucks. Minecraft runs perfectly smooth an clean.

I said yes and no because no game until now gave me a real idea of my GPU limits...

 

[Sean]

Yes and no. As the PC is new, I'm still installing them. Shogun 2 Total War did not work, after all troubleshooting I had. Civilization V runs fine, but Batman Arkham City is like the same as before. In ultra settings Batman AC gave me 10fps, while in medium-high setting it jumps to ~18. If I set down the resolution it jumps until 30-40, but then the game sucks. Minecraft runs perfectly smooth an clean.

I said yes and no because no game until now gave me a real idea of my GPU limits...

Read through your post again, and didn't notice the "m" on 640M last time, lol.

You shouldn't be able to play Skyrim on Ultra with that GPU, especially as it is on the lower end of laptop GPUs (still better than integrated).

Here are some optimizations that you can do with your INI files (in Documents > My Games > Skyrim), and these optimizations are for NVIDIA GPUs specifically.

Edit:
Some Reading Material:
-Info on the 640M
-Skyrim and GPUs (scroll to #100)

Also, here are some other things that can boost performance:

-Grass on Steroids
--Better grass, while increasing FPS (uses INI tweak, as well)

-Skyrim Performance Plus
--Lower resolution particles

-Optimizer Textures
--Tool that can optimize texture, and lower resolution if need be

-Razer Game Booster
--Launch the game from this and it will close mostly everything else on your computer except for the game
---Also, let's you RGB's settings, take in game screenshots, and videos, and will show your FPS.

 

[Coleblue]

A 610m is not a fast card it is meant to compete with the hd4000 and is actually slower than it, the best performing setup would be to dedicate the 610 to physX and use the hd4000 for gaming.

Here's a benchmark, you can find he hd400 higher in the list

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+610

 

[Necrowizard]

I can understand what you guys are saying, but it still doesn't make sense. In my old pc, I had an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470, which is way lower than the Geforce 610M on this list, and still I had better results in my Skyrim.

I repeat: I am playing the game on MINIMAL settings, and still can't get more than 20 fps on the geforce.

I will try every possible optimization you suggested, and then I will report back my results.
For now I must thank you anyway.

 

[Necrowizard]

Some Reading Material:
-Info on the 640M
-Skyrim and GPUs (scroll to #100)

Actually, mine would be #294. Still, it gives me 25.5 fps on low settings.

What I still cannot accept is the fact that I spent on a better GPU than I had before, and still can see no improvement. Actually, my gameplay got even worse.

 

[Necrowizard]

Okay, after disabling almost ALL extra features of antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, triple buffering and etc in the NVIDIA control panel, I managed to play the game at 20-20 fps in high textures and medium shadows. I will make some adjustments now and tell you what I get.

 

[Dagmar]

Actually, mine would be #294. Still, it gives me 25.5 fps on low settings.

What I still cannot accept is the fact that I spent on a better GPU than I had before, and still can see no improvement. Actually, my gameplay got even worse.

It's 25.5 at 1280 x 720 resolution. If you have a 17" screen your resolution may be set at 1920x1080 as a default and that will have a large impact on game performance. Even a smaller screen may be set at 1600x900 resolution. If you haven't already done so, lower the resolution setting.

 

[Necrowizard]

It's 25.5 at 1280 x 720 resolution. If you have a 17" screen your resolution may be set at 1920x1080 as a default and that will have a large impact on game performance. Even a smaller screen may be set at 1600x900 resolution. If you haven't already done so, lower the resolution setting.

My default resolution is 1366x768. I reduced it to 1280x720, anyway.

I managed through ini tweaks and reducing some of my GPU settings to play the game with some stability. It's not the amazing 30fps everybody loves, but I can play without complaining. Even with HD textures and almos 200 mods.
Only problem is the frequent freezes the game gives me.

 

[Sean]

It's 25.5 at 1280 x 720 resolution. If you have a 17" screen your resolution may be set at 1920x1080 as a default and that will have a large impact on game performance. Even a smaller screen may be set at 1600x900 resolution. If you haven't already done so, lower the resolution setting.

My default resolution is 1366x768. I reduced it to 1280x720, anyway.

I managed through ini tweaks and reducing some of my GPU settings to play the game with some stability. It's not the amazing 30fps everybody loves, but I can play without complaining. Even with HD textures and almos 200 mods.
Only problem is the frequent freezes the game gives me.

Try this, and then install this, and look at this page if you haven't already.

 

[Dagmar]

...Even with HD textures...

There's no point to using HD textures on a low resolution setting.

 

[Necrowizard]

Try this, and then install this, and look at this page if you haven't already.

The first link bring me back to this post.

The second, I'm gonna try today.

The third I have already done, but thank you.

...Even with HD textures...

There's no point to using HD textures on a low resolution setting.

Well, I never really thougt about this. Now that you say, I makes some sense. However, I see some improvement in the texture quality and the game looks really beautiful to me. Maybe I will try to uninstall the HD textures later and see what the difference is, both in visual and performance. TY

 

[Sean]

Try this, and then install this, and look at this page if you haven't already.

The first link bring me back to this post.

The second, I'm gonna try today.

The third I have already done, but thank you.

...Even with HD textures...

There's no point to using HD textures on a low resolution setting.

Well, I never really thougt about this. Now that you say, I makes some sense. However, I see some improvement in the texture quality and the game looks really beautiful to me. Maybe I will try to uninstall the HD textures later and see what the difference is, both in visual and performance. TY

It looks like I copied the wrong link., this is the correct one:
http://enbdev.com/mod_tesskyrim_v0193.htm

You need that first, then you need the second one.