Discuss Skyrim

sygnus21 · 15 Dec 2011

Any AMD graphic card users giving the latest 12.1 preview dirvers a run? Two things of note.....

The AMD Catalyst™ 12.1 Preview includes all of the features found in AMD Catalyst™ 11.12 and also includes all of the latest optimizations found in the AMD Catalyst 11.11c performance drivers (AMD Catalyst 11.12 does not include the latest 11.11c optimizations). It is highly recommended that all gamers use the AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver.

Improves performance (10-15%) in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim when Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing is enabled on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series for single GPU and AMD CrossfireX configurations

AMD Catalyst

I'm using them and while I haven't noticed any significant improvements in Skyrim I have noticed an imporvement in my desktop performance as noted here - Latest AMD Catalyst Video Driver for Windows 7

I'll play with them some more a post back.

fseal · 15 Dec 2011

sygnus21 said:

Yeah I finished the main quest and civil war about a week ago. Now I'm currently in the process of doing the thieves guild and other minor quests.

Yes, time for the slow descent into evil and finally madness!

Mop up the many still undiscovered dungoens, castles and mini quests along the way.

Hunt for excalibur.

Join theives guild and dark brotherhood, loot ships and warehouses, finish the Daedric quests, and when the CK comes out, get a giant mansion on a mountain side and fill it's halls with the loot of Skyrim.

Still only found 5 of the 8 masks and 3 of the 10 treasure maps...

Oh and only one of what looks like 6 volumes of the "Lusty Argonian Maid"

sygnus21 · 15 Dec 2011

fseal said:

Still only found 5 of the 8 masks and 3 of the 10 treasure maps...

Well I only have 3 mask. Don't tell me!

As for books I just look through them and see if I gain anything, other than that I don't collect them.

Haven't done any treasure hunts, though I have like 5 maps.

Anyways I just did another round in Skyrim and I can say that the 12.1 Preview drivers seem to provide some improvements as the stuttering around the mage's college has decreased to near nothing (for me) :)

MrNeeds · 15 Dec 2011

After a gruelling few weeks with my new GPU, I've finally found it's sweet spot, I can now run skyrim with everything maxed out and it's silky smooth, unfortunately, I no longer have 8GB of Ram any more, see as this was the issue, I got stuttering and performance drops due to my motherboard not being able to cope with 4 slots taken up, so took out 2 sticks and viola, smooth as silk.

sygnus21 · 15 Dec 2011

Yeah I have a Q6600 on an Intel board (975XBX2) with 4gig of RAM. I tried filling that board with 8gig but it hated having all four slots filled, even at lowered memory speeds.

Glad to hear the game is running better for you now that you removed the extra RAM.

smarteyeball · 16 Dec 2011

sygnus21 said:

Well I'm getting to the point where I need to take a break. And creating another character and starting all over agian doesn't appeal to me at this point in time. That's me.

Not just you mate - The prospect of starting from scratch after investing X amount of time levelling up again puts me off as well.

I put in well over 200+ hours into Oblivion on the 360. When I got the DLC, I thought I'd start a new character, but after getting so far, I was already over it. I still haven't finished those DLC. Same with FO3 and NV. Never finished the DLC in FO3 and haven't even bothered to finish New Vegas's main quest, let alone the DLC

Skyrim will most likely be the same.

sygnus21 · 16 Dec 2011

For me its doubly hard because I've basically played Oblivion and Skyrim back to back. And it doesn't help that I played the ultimate edition of Oblivion with all the DLC and stuff. Now we have the never ending Skyrim.

The funny thing though is that no matter how much I want to put it down it keeps calling me back for more

Anyway I’m seriously thinking about giving Deus Ex: Human Evolution another go just to break the monotony of Skyrim – Play a FPS with some guns and stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love Skyrim, but I need a break.

Now watch as I play all weekend long like a junkie needing a fix

vierasniper · 16 Dec 2011

Im taking a wee bit of a break too. im playing the revamped witcher 2.0, its pretty neat. neater than i remember, and im trying out the new ''dark'' difficulty. last time i played on normal i felt overpowered towards the end.

smarteyeball · 16 Dec 2011

sygnus21 said:

For me its doubly hard because I've basically played Oblivion and Skyrim back to back. And it doesn't help that I played the ultimate edition of Oblivion with all the DLC and stuff. Now we have the never ending Skyrim.

It doesn't help that that since the underlying core gameplay has stayed the same since oblivion, it really has the sense of 'been there done that-itis' when playing.

New story/setting - but ultimately it's still the same game. Still lots of fun, but elements are becoming very chore-ish.

Wishmaster · 16 Dec 2011

smarteyeball said:

sygnus21 said:

For me its doubly hard because I've basically played Oblivion and Skyrim back to back. And it doesn't help that I played the ultimate edition of Oblivion with all the DLC and stuff. Now we have the never ending Skyrim.

It doesn't help that that since the underlying core gameplay has stayed the same since oblivion, it really has the sense of 'been there done that-itis' when playing.

New story/setting - but ultimately it's still the same game. Still lots of fun, but elements are becoming very chore-ish.

Yea, kinda like Fallout 3 -> Fallout NV.

Still, Skyrim is probably one of the best games Ive played this year.
And, certainly worth its price, a feat not all games are worthy of IMHO.

Discuss Skyrim

Catalyst 12.1 Preview Drivers