Performance hit in Skyrim when moving from XP to Win7

[Ugubriat]

Hi folks,

I was playing Skyrim on Windows XP. It worked well on mostly low graphics settings. That is, until my system HDD broke.

I bought a new, 1TB HDD and installed Windows 7 and Skyrim. Nothing else about my rig has changed (you should be able to see the details in my sig). All graphics drivers are up to date. But Skyrim is now choppy.

Any idea why? Or how I could fix that?

Many thanks for your ideas.
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Quick edit, signature fail. Specs:

Pentium Dual-Core 2.8 GHz | 3GB DDR2 RAM | ATI Radeon HD 4600

 

[HEXiT]

reason? it will now be running in dx10.1 not dx9...
you could force dx9 and you should get most if not all your performance back. but please upgrade as your system is at the very limit of what is minimum requirements.

 

[Ugubriat]

reason? it will now be running in dx10.1 not dx9...
you could force dx9 and you should get most if not all your performance back. but please upgrade as your system is at the very limit of what is minimum requirements.

Thanks, HEXiT. How do I force dx9?

Yeah, I recognise my system is at its limits. It was created to ensure adequate performance when running Starcraft 2, so Skyrim is somewhat beyond its intended ambit.

 

[HEXiT]

adiquate for starcraft2? lol. mine barley manages 60fps minimum on multiplayer...
as for forcing dx9 you can do it in the games ini file. i think...
or you can use the d3d9.dl that replaces the in game 1. you get it from here http://www.curse.com/mods/skyrim/skyrim-better-performance/552705 you may have to reload the tab to start the download...
just put it in the main skyrim folder. it will auto detect your settings again and display the wrong info for your gfx card but thats ok... the game should run a lot smoother and you should be able to increase the image quality a bit...
if your game is fully patched this dll may not have any effect as im pretty sure they used it on a later patch...

 

[AntiZig]

Hello, disable win 7 aero theme if you have it enabled, it hogs a lot of system resource.


Hexit: I wasn't aware that skyrim had a dx10 renderer, was that included in some recent update?

 

[Ugubriat]

Thanks, AntiZig, I'll do that.

HEXit, thanks again. I used the d3d9.dll file and it broke my "application profiles" program, so I couldn't run Skyrim (or Mass Effect)... so that option is out. I'll have to investigate the ini files and see what I can do.

Regarding StarCraft 2, yeah, it depends what you regard as adequate! I get 30+ fps on mostly medium quality (but high-quality textures) and with mouse lag reduced, which I find is playable. Also, I'm in South Africa and can't afford a high-quality rig, so I have to make do.

 

[Ugubriat]

Best answer selected by Ugubriat.

 

[HEXiT]

if it didnt work then you need the version thats supported by your gfx. mine is ati and it worked for me, but there is an nvidia specific version...