Nvidia Launches Two Tweak Guides for Skyrim

[Cumulonimbus incus]

Skyrim aside. Does any of this actually make the game better? nVidia can help to mitigate any potential damage to its own reputation by covering for poor developer choices (like DX v OpenGL) and sloppy coding but they simply can't tweak a good game from a bad game. That's conceptual; and a game has it or hasn't. Your choice of PC or gaming hardware will never alter that fact.

 

[wolfram23]

Pretty handy guide. I knew most of it, but some of it is definitely a good point of reference, especially with shadows. I had read numerous times that iblurdeferredshadows maxes out at 32, but they're saying it's only 7. I'll definitely have to test that one out tonight. I think it's a much better way of improving shadows than increasing the resolution, because there's a much less dramatic FPS hit.

That ugridstoload is a great tweak but sadly it also greatly reduces performance. My rig can handle it at 7, but when at 9 my FPS drops dramatically - and yet GPU usage doesn't really change much, which tells me it's a CPU limited thing for whatever reason. Either that, or AMD's CFX is still not working properly. I'm sure they can get a lot more scaling out of it, anyway.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]wardler[/nom]The merit for a crappier graphical experience. The merit of longer load times. The merit of using a controller with a very limited number of inputs. The merit of using an analog stick instead of a mouse.The merit of having glitches that you can't tweak to fix.The only real merit for console gaming is that it's cheaper. Unless you include a decent high def television.[/citation]

"The only real merit for console gaming is that it's cheaper. Unless you include a decent high def television."

Its not even cheaper when you start to add a bunch games into the mix and they are more expensive on consoled, only the unit is cheaper but the player pays down range instead. Unlike the pc where the entry level hardware is a tad more expensive at start but then earn it downrange (and with way better gfx ect) and thats not even including the possibility to upgrade rather than get a complete new system. The choice was really easy for me.

 

[technoholic]

I strongly recommend reading this guide to everyone (including those with AMD GPUs). I have a notebook with HD 5650 GPU & Core i7 CPU and the game performance was poor before i read this guide. After i read and did the tweaks in the guide, my game looked MUCH better and also i got higher FPS

 

[Anomalyx]

[citation][nom]aevm[/nom]How about AMD, did they make a guide for their cards too?[/citation]
Pretty much all of the advice and graphs in the nVidia guide should hold true for ATI cards as well.
I don't find either brand of card to be better than the other... I only buy ATI because I know their product line much better than nVidia's, and am therefore more educated and comfortable as to what exactly I'm buying.

 

[JonnyDough]

[citation][nom]Anomalyx[/nom]Pretty much all of the advice and graphs in the nVidia guide should hold true for ATI cards as well.I don't find either brand of card to be better than the other... I only buy ATI because I know their product line much better than nVidia's, and am therefore more educated and comfortable as to what exactly I'm buying.[/citation]

That wouldn't be due to NV's annoying and confusing naming schemes, would it?

 

[soccerdocks]

[citation][nom]JonnyDough[/nom]That wouldn't be due to NV's annoying and confusing naming schemes, would it?[/citation]

I actually think nVidia's naming scheme is much more logical than AMD. The only card they have right now that doesnt really make sense is the 560 TI 448 core.

 

[eddieroolz]

Didn't know Skyrim was that intense on the hardware.

 

[freename]

Shouldn't the headline be "Lazy Skyrim devs leave it up to other companies to provide tweaks to get their game running properly" ?