Crossfire and Skyrim

[manshiny]

Ok, So i've owned Skyrim since release, been running it fine on my desktop, running at ultra (W/O AA)

Today I upgraded my GPU to Crossfire, and my performance has dropped significantly despite the AMD driver update 11.11

FPS dropped from 60 to about 30 (in some cases i only get about 15)

My current rig

- 2500k @3.3ghz
- 8gb ram
- 2x 6950 1gb in Crossfire

So whats up with it?

 

[rwayne]

There are 3 different Catalyst 11.11 drivers out there right now

■11.11
■11.11b
■11.11c

Just about all of them address Skyrim issues in one way or another.

Don't hold me to this but I think 11.11b fixed crossfire issues with the HD6000 series of cards and 11.11c fixed it with the HD5000 series.

If you don't have 11c download it and try the game again.

 

[rwayne]

Check out this article:

http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/item/25072-amd-releases-catalyst-1111c-performance-driver

As was promised with the release of the 11.11b performance driver, AMD has now launched yet another performance driver that fixes performance scaling on Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards in the Elder Scrolls Skyrim.
AMD received a lot of bad press over driver performance in some games for quite a while now, but it looks as if that the company is finally getting it right, as we have seen a couple of performance drivers and tweaks in a very short period of time. The first performance 11.11 driver was released on 22nd of November. In addition to the added Crossfire scaling for the AMD Radeon HD 5000 series cards in Elder Scrolls Skyrim, the new Catalyst 11.11c performance driver also brings all the performance improvements, tweaks and fixes seen in the Catalyst 11.11a performance driver.

Of course, it is mostly a minor update or two for new game titles but it is definitely a way to go. Hopefully, we'll see these "performance drivers" in future as well.

The new driver can be found here, but unless you are running on Radeon HD 5000 series cards in Crossfire and want to play Skyrim, you'll be fine with the 11.11a as that is the one with all the performance improvements.

 

[jitpublisher]

Woah, you are trying to run 2 6950's on a no name 650watt PSU? Thats a really, really bad idea you got going on there.

 

[manshiny]

Oh right, i havent updated my component thingy on the site, i have a CM 750w Bronze PSU

 

[manshiny]

Just updated
Sorry about that S:

 

[manshiny]

I'm able to run other games sweet (crysis, 2k12, and everything else i've got)
i've seen major performance increase in everything but skyrim

 

[beltzy]

That's probably not the issue. Despite driver releases there are still large bugs w performance. I was encountering the same kind of problems as you (I'm using 2x5850). There is a .dll file that is floating around that you can drop into the folder where your .exe file is for Skyrim that largely fixes the issues. However, I still have strange texture bugs occassionally and find that running on Ultra brings very random, problematic performance (sometimes dropping to and hanging around 1-10 fps; alt-tabing out and coming back completely corrects it but who wants to have to do that while playing).

The easy fix is to disable crossfire before playing Skyrim since there are so many problems. You can already run at 60 fps so you're not giving anything up. You still have your 2nd card for games that need the extra performance.

 

[manshiny]

That's probably not the issue. Despite driver releases there are still large bugs w performance. I was encountering the same kind of problems as you (I'm using 2x5850). There is a .dll file that is floating around that you can drop into the folder where your .exe file is for Skyrim that largely fixes the issues. However, I still have strange texture bugs occassionally and find that running on Ultra brings very random, problematic performance (sometimes dropping to and hanging around 1-10 fps; alt-tabing out and coming back completely corrects it but who wants to have to do that while playing).

The easy fix is to disable crossfire before playing Skyrim since there are so many problems. You can already run at 60 fps so you're not giving anything up. You still have your 2nd card for games that need the extra performance.

Yeah I was gonna do that, but the only reason i bought a second GPU was for game recording, so i was hoping that a second card would greatly increase the quality of my recordings.

What .dll file is it that you speak of? Is it the AA fix thing on Skyrimnexus?

 

[manshiny]

Cpu power is what is needed for recording

Really? dang didnt know that, learn something new everyday :O

Awell, i've wanted a second 6950 for ages, win win XD

anyway, I just "updated" to 11.11b, lets hope that this fixes something

 

[manshiny]

Here is my vid of BF3 at ultra on a single GTX480 using the i5 2500k at 4.5ghz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17q7wbyQEMs

The raw power of the i5 stopped it going below 33fps

Haha, I checked out your videos (from a different post) earlier, pretty nice. Hows BF3 run overall?
My friend bought his first gaming computer a few months ago, spent like $1600 and only for a 5770, gets like 10fps on BF3

Just updated to 11.11b, I swear I had it already, but meh all look the same to me lol

 

[manshiny]

Thats pretty epic

Playing Skyrim atm, Alt tab it and it knocked itself back to 60fps.

Time to 'crossfire' my firebolt spells

does anyone know of any future updates regarding skyrim/amd

 

[manshiny]

Best answer selected by manshiny.