AMD Radeon 7950: Skyrim stuttering with no drop in framerate

[AxiomPoetica]

Here are my system specs, in relevant part:

Intel Core i3-2120 3.3 ghz w/ Hyper 212+ Cooler (Stand-in until Ivy Bridge)
XFX Radeon R7950 Double-D @ 1000/1425
16 gb (4x4) Corsair Vengeance @ 1600
Crucial m4 128gb SSD
MSI Z68A-GD65(G3) MB
Corsair TX850M PSU

I am suffering seemingly intractable stuttering/jankiness in Skyrim. The problem's parameters are as follows:

- Only appears to affect first-person perspective. In 3rd-person, everything appears smooth, even on Ultra.
- It is most severe when using a bow in first-person. When I nock an arrow and attempt to aim, the bow/arrow will "jank" disturbingly on movement, especially on the vertical axis.
- When I "zoom" with Eagle Eye and Steady Hand, the zoom will feel slow and uneven.
- Also stutters or halts a bit when I am moving quickly in first person, especially when turning or spinning in place.
- The problems appear unresponsive to graphics quality. They occur even at the lowest graphics settings.
- FRAPS says my framerates on Ultra are solidly between 55-60 FPS out in the open, slowing to 30-40 FPS in town. On High, they hover around 60 FPS everywhere. There is no corresponding drop in FRAPS framerate when I experience the stuttering issues.
- GPU temp never climbs above 65. CPU temp never climbs north of 50.
- Occurs with both mouse and XBox 360 controller.


I have reviews other threads on this and other forums re: stuttering, and specifically re: Radeon cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/332356-33-6970-stutters-skyrim
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/115099-13-skyrim-stuttering-firstperson-view

I have tried every fix I can find (turned off Mouse Accelleration in both Skyrimprefs and Windows, run in Windowed mode, etc.), to no effect. I have toyed with shadows and completely turned off anti-aliasing, etc., all to no effect.

I am inclined to think this is an AMD driver issue, but other people seem to be able to run the game smoothly on 6000-series cards. Could it be my processor? I realize it's the most likely bottleneck, but CPU-Z shows it running no higher than 80% even on ultra settings.

Anyone have any ideas?

If I can't fix this problem, I am going to go back to playing Skyrim on my 360, where visuals aren't as rich, but movement is buttery (and immersively) smooth, return the card, and wait for Ivy Bridge and Kepler to roll out in a couple months. If anyone thinks that is the right option either way, please feel free to chime in.

 

[Deafhawk36]

Upon some further expierementation, Capping my fps at 60fps seems to have fixed my problem as well which further supports my prediction that the game wants to go higher thatn 60fps and that there is a problem with the fps limiter/ vsync in skyrim or the GPU drivers. I might post about this in the official TES forums in hopes that we can get the problem addressed in a future patch or update. Not sure where I would post this info as far as for getting drivers updated if it is a driver issue. Hopefully we will see this get fixed so we don't have to go through so much trouble in the future to get this problem fixed. Seeing as it only occurs on ATI cards, it is most likely a driver to game communication issue.