There are nearly zero gains going from 3 cores/threads to anything higher. At that point, clock speed is important.
 
Also, SLI DOES work properly in Skyrim. You just need to actually task the GPUs. The game is CPU limited not due to us having weak CPUs...It's because of how the engine works. It's just an upgraded Gamebryo engine. It's not optimized well for the CPU. If it were, it would use at least four cores and push them to 80% at least. But again, SLI works properly. If you enable Ultra settings and ambient occlusion in the nvidia control panel, and disable vsync, you will often see your cards jump into 99% usage.

Sumazi

There are nearly zero gains going from 3 cores/threads to anything higher. At that point, clock speed is important.

Also, SLI DOES work properly in Skyrim. You just need to actually task the GPUs. The game is CPU limited not due to us having weak CPUs...It's because of how the engine works. It's just an upgraded Gamebryo engine. It's not optimized well for the CPU. If it were, it would use at least four cores and push them to 80% at least. But again, SLI works properly. If you enable Ultra settings and ambient occlusion in the nvidia control panel, and disable vsync, you will often see your cards jump into 99% usage.

 
Yea I can confirm its a game engine problem, cause in areas where I drop to 20 - 30fps, I get mouse lag, and my GPU usage drops to 50 - 60%
 
its only in smooth areas 50fps and above I don't have mouse issues and GPU usage is at 99%
 
Modified Gamebryo engine for sure. bethesda said it would be a whole new game engine which I guess was a lie...

Okay, how did you enable it, then?  Several posters in this thread are noting that the nVidia inspector panel doesn't present the same options in the new beta driver.

I'm using the Skyrim BETA drivers, and enabled ambient occlusion just fine using the nvidia inspector and the steps listed. It might be their particular version of nvidia inspector - I downloaded 1.9.5.5.
 
One thing that I did notice, with all my other settings adjusted for extreme (not ultra, via an .ini generator), setting AO on ultra high in the inspector would drop my framerate to low 40s. I tried setting it one step below - it still looks great, and now I'm seeing 60-90 FPS again.
 
That, and I can enjoy all the eye candy that I want and use every bit of the 3GB of VRAM available. 

Nice post, I'd like to add some things I have found.
 
AA:
Driver based MSAA works on things like inventory objects and not on things like environment objects (e.g. stairs leading to a house). Game based MSAA works the other way around. Game based TrMSAA causes no problems (no idea if it does anything though), on the other hand driver based TrMSAA seems to cause trouble to game based MSAA. The best thing for me (concerning AA on 2560x1600) is to use 4x MSAA (TrMSAA on) from game and 2x MSAA from driver (TrAA off).
 
AO:
Yes, it's fantastic. I use quality setting and I am ok with 580gtx SLI. It's the best single setting imo, at least at 2560x1600. If you can trade AA for AO-Quality, it is definitely worth it (at least at 2560x1600). If you can have both, all the better.
 
CPU and GPU utilization:
I have a i7 950 - 4.00 Ghz (conservative o/c). I turned HT off to get more accurate results. The load on the 4 cores seems to be fluctuating a lot and all the time. As one core's load is going a bit down, another one's is going up. I don't know if that is "healthy" (such a degree of fluctuation), but it's what happens. The average load of the cores is like 40/70/40/70 with HT off. Turning HT on does nothing to performance for me.
 
A strange thing:
Looking at specific places drops fps without an obvious reason. You can read the OP and my posts (gt23_) in thread if you are curious about what I am talking about. In short, staring at some specific screens, your fps is limited without any obvious reason. My fps is locked at 39 there (while at 60 under normal circumstances), without GPU/CPU maxing out. By tweaking resolution 1920x/2560x, AO off/quality/high quality, SLI off/on, GPU load was scaling but fps NOT. No core goes over 80 and they usually stay at 40/70/40/70, still GPU/SLI scaling perfectly fine tells me that it has to be CPU related.
 
So imo it's some bad optimization related to the CPU. Further testing is needed, like tweaking shadows, physics, etc. Additionally, someone can use different CPU o/c profiles at that screen and see if his/hers fps limit disappears. Obviously, in order to conduct such a test you need to use appropriate resolution/AO settings so as not to be GPU limited. Anyone curious enough, go for it.

PurSpyk

Hi,
Is there anyway to improve the snow textures espcially around Bleak Falls Barrow, and the castle just below, if you enter the castle and go up the stairs, the textures are just plain white, looks awful.

I have tried all the ini tweaks, have all the other options on the best, makes no difference.

 
Thats the HDR thats doing that, it makes it too bright in lots of areas and causes it to wash out the textures. it's been a known issue for a long time with many games that have it.

I just wish that i could enable Ambient Occlusion with AMD. :(

^ I dont think the games too gpu dependant.....as I stated before, this game runs perfectly on max minus Ambient Occlusion on my laptop....and it has a measly 6870m.

FPS in those "low fps areas" will increase if you set your game settings to low. Try it. In Whiterun it IS possible to not drop to 30-40 FPS if you set to low. Instead it's around 60-80. I haven't done enough testing to figure out which setting directly affect this, because the FPS drops don't bother me enough to reduce image quality so drastically...After all, it's a single player game where precise input doesn't even matter...And the FPS drops are so rare. This game engine is unoptimized, and there may be fixes that mods and/or patches can create.

Hello gents! Question for you guys. I'm using the 285.79 beta drivers. If I enable AO through the nvidia control panel, will it work in skyrim? Or is the only way to enable AO is through inspector?

Also, what does the ini section for shadows do when increasing it from standard 8000 to 16000? Does it make shadows visable from a further distance?

I made a little tool if anyone wants to use it. Let me know if you have any problems or would like anything added. Some things like fov, and skip intro are not working not sure what the deal is with those.
 
http://www.adamcbowen.com/Apps/Skyrim/Setup.zip
 

AO isn't supported by Skyrim, so you have to force it. That is what Nvidia inspector is for - I used 1.9.5.5 and it works just like the OP wrote.

Bowenac

I made a little tool if anyone wants to use it. Let me know if you have any problems or would like anything added. Some things like fov, and skip intro are not working not sure what the deal is with those.

http://www.adamcbowen.com/Apps/Skyrim/Setup.zip

 
disabling the bethesda intro is easy, go into the Data/Video Folder of the game files and rename BGS_Logo.bik to BGS_Logo .bik
 
basicly just add a space in the file name and the game won't find it. It works.

I noticed that this is the only setting in the ini file that always resets itself when I load the game.  What does this one do again?
 
fshadowBiasScale=0.1500  
 
I lower it to .1000 as suggested for better shadow quality, but it always defaults back.

Whats the best flag to use for AO in skyrim?  I read some say to use Fallout 3 or Oblivion 4 or COD..   Which one offers the best picture / performance?