Skyrim – CPU or GPU dependent?

[hhhqwe]

Hey guys,

I’ve been playing with VorpX here and there, but my machine doesn’t deliver enough power to really enjoy Skyrim. Got an i5 4690K + R390. Now I’m thinking of upgrading my PC for VR games in general (either to a 1080 or even 1080Ti, not sure yet)

Here is my question: does upgrading the GPU only allow me to play Skyrim at 90 FPS? Right now there is a lot of juddering in the overworld and I’m not sure if this is due to my PC or something else (using the cloud profile + game optimized profile at the 1280×720 resolution)

[Karlor]

Have you tried some of the different memory patches for Skyrim? If your using a lot of graphics mods they are basically mandatory for running Skyrim. I went from crashing non stop to crashing periodically. Bethesda games use their 20 year old engine and it cant run at 90 fps. It CAN but the game wont function properly. The way the game physics work are tied into FPS or something. So you need to cap about 60 FPS with these games. I know it sucks but it’s what the deal is. Try out some of the memory patches they might be what your looking for without the need to rebuild. Ive recently been re-bit by Skyrim and have been spending a lot of time in VR with it.

[MarkG]

Actually, there’s a .ini hack to make physics work at >60fps.

But Skyrim is CPU-limited, not GPU-limited. Even when I was running on a GTX 970, the Vorpx internal resolution scaling made no different to frame rates, but a huge difference to image quality.

[StreetPreacher]

I’ll try and record my system stats while playing skyrim in Vr, but in my experience there is some stuttering in the overworld while the CPU only shows ~85% utilization. I’m running an i5-6500/GTX 1080ti, so I’m not sure if the stuttering in VR is strictly a hardware issue.

[Ralf]

Multicore CPUs seldomly show 100% usage while gaming, with or without vorpX. Games that fully utilize all cores are still very rare, and Skyrim certainly is not among them. What counts more is the single thread thread performance of a CPU since the main game thread almost always will utilize one full core 100% (which translates to only 25% overall CPU usage shown in the task manager with an i5).

[Karlor]

I spent a few hours looking into the ini uncapper. I couldn’t get it to do much without turning off vsync. The physics tweek dosnt seem to be working for me no matter what. Uncapped without vsync on my flat monitor the fps in a cave was 260+ and the collision physics were wonky.

Now onto the uncapped vr results. When in vr the frames are throttled back to below 60, more around 45. With or without the tweeks, with or without vsynch, inside vr the fps were consistent. I will say I noticed a considerable amout of judder without vsync even though the fps stayed the same.

So in conclusion the tweeks and uncaper yield no gains in vr, at least for me. Somewhere from game to headset the uncaping is rendered inert by something in how all that is processed.

[MarkG]

See my thread a few below this one for why Skyrim may be limited to 45fps in VR.

I’ve seen it get up to around 80 fps with a GTX970 and i7-3770, but it’s highly variable. Just turning a few degrees can take it from 80fps to 30fps.

[StreetPreacher]

Ralf wrote:

What counts more is the single thread thread performance of a CPU since the main game thread almost always will utilize one full core 100% (which translates to only 25% overall CPU usage shown in the task manager with an i5).

Good point Ralph, I wasn’t thinking about the multi-core utilization. I was tracking stats using Afterburner, but I’ll try looking at single core performance during the stutters and see if it is just the CPU choking. :)

[Karlor]

If your using the SKSE memory patch it can cause stutter or judder if not tuned in for your specific system. You can even still experience minor judders even when set up correctly. Basically what I’m getting at is depending on your hard drive speed and how many graphic packs you have added in can cause stuttering. The stutter can come from your HD trying to load these new resources. So if your going along fine in the forest and then BAM you get hit with some stutters then it goes away for a bit it’s your game loading new stuff in. Depending on your location in game these load stutters can be almost non existent or they can really chug down for a few seconds.

I have a 60 GB skyrim install with like 40 GB of added in textures and models, a zillion mods, and occasionally I will experience some MAJOR chugs when needing to load new stuff. It’s a trade off that I’m fine with. These kind of graphic add-ons would normally implode Skyrim and make it CTD when loading. So after getting patched up with ENBoost and SKSE it doesn’t CTD it just stutters and chugs some. I’ll take the chugs over the CTDs any day.

You can upgrade to an SSD and it will help these loading stutters DRAMATICALLY. I have ran VR SKyrim on normal platter HD and SSD. The SSD is probably at least twice as fast. So you’ll still get stutters with SSD as its still loading these resources but they will be much less intrusive. That being said if your looking to upgrade maybe try out a nice SSD for your Skyrim. You might find that your system is adequate and the added speeds from an SSD help fix some of your annoyances. That being said I run mine on a normal platter HD(SSD filled with Flight-Sim) and it chugs a bit but I’m ok with it.

[StreetPreacher]

Karlor wrote:

You can upgrade to an SSD and it will help these loading stutters DRAMATICALLY.

Good tips! I am running a samsung 950pro so hopefully it’s not the hdd speed causing problems :)

I think my other problem is that I’m using the Special Edition… I guess I should try installing the old vanilla skyrim and see if it runs any better. :)

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