The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

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We express our gratitude to the 1C-SoftClub company for providing a copy of the game for testing

Year: 2011
Genre: Action (Shooter) / 3D / 1st Person
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

After the assassination of the King of Skyrim, the empire was on the brink of disaster. New alliances rallied around contenders for the throne, and conflict flared up. In addition, as the Ancient Scrolls predicted, an ancient evil has awakened – cruel and merciless dragons have returned to the world. Now the future of Skyrim and the entire empire will depend on the dragonborn – a man in whose veins the blood of legendary creatures flows. Only this hero, using the power of the Voice given to him, will be able to resist the dragons. And it is up to you to play his role and determine the fate of Tamriel!

The game went on sale on November 11, 2011 on all platforms.

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 Review: Playability 

Five years after its release  Oblivion developers have released a sequel to the long-awaited game from this series  called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Long-starved fans of the series were expecting “bread and circuses”, and to a greater extent the developers managed to achieve their goals… The events of the new game from the Elder Scrolls series take place 200 years after the events of Oblivion, at the moment when the main character is about to be executed. After the death of the king, a civil war broke out in Skyrim between supporters and opponents of joining the Empire. The Staff of Chaos, the Numidium, the Red Mountain, the Gates of Oblivion, and finally the fratricidal war are all part of an ancient prophecy about the return of the dragons banished a thousand years ago. They have returned and are now awaiting the coming of the dragon god Alduin, whose victory will lead to the destruction of the entire world. Only the protagonist, the last of the dragonborn, with the help of Esbern, one of the last surviving Blades, can stop the invasion and save the world. He will have to climb Hrothgar’s Peak, talk with the ancient cult of Graybeards, learn special dragon roars (a kind of dragon magic) that will allow him to defeat dragons. In order to learn them, the hero will have to visit several ancient sanctuaries and face formidable enemies, such as the evil draugr, the living dead Nords.

The Kingdom of Skyrim is located in the north of the continent of Tamriel. The climate is subarctic and arctic. Most of the province is occupied by tundra, turning into an icy desert in the north and into a mountain range in the west. The fauna is represented by saber-toothed tigers, moose, mammoths, giants, trolls, and ice ghosts. There are five major cities in the kingdom. Skyrim retains the large, open world concept of The Elder Scrolls series. The player can freely wander throughout the entire territory of the province of Skyrim, which includes five large cities, many small villages, as well as vast expanses of wild lands and high mountains. In cities, the player can indulge in activities such as cooking, farming, ore mining, or blacksmithing. At the same time, the developers note that the gameplay can take about 300 hours.

The player’s level increases as skills are upgraded. The game has a leveling system – the availability of new things in stores and dungeons, as well as the strength and number of monsters the player fights depend on his level. The developers decided to completely abandon the class system introduced in Oblivion, the previous game in the series. The game contains perks – special abilities associated with certain player skills. Perks are organized into an extensive system called the “skill tree.” Each level increase allows you to take on another perk. There are a total of 280 perks in the game, designed for 50 levels; however, a player can level up above level fiftieth – the limit is not defined.

The HUD only appears on screen when the player’s health, stamina, or magic is depleted. The compass is the only interface element that is present on the screen all the time. Items can be saved to the “favorites” menu, and the inventory menu (opening which pauses the game) has a visual style reminiscent of a compass. While in inventory mode, each game item can be rotated, zoomed in and viewed in full 3D.

Weapons can be assigned to either the right or left hand, allowing you to carry one weapon in each hand. A special menu will allow the player to quickly switch between different types of weapons and armor. You can attack with a shield, but it takes some time to build a block with it. Each type of weapon (one-handed, two-handed, bow) has its own special advantage and purpose. Archery takes longer to draw than in previous Elder Scrolls games, but the shots deal more damage to the enemy. For this reason, arrows are very expensive and considered rare. A player armed with a bow can use it for melee defense, just as they can use a two-handed weapon or a shield for this purpose (though a shield is most effective in this situation).

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is rightfully a worthy successor to The Elder Scrolls series and, as many have already noted, will appeal not only to its fans, but also to newcomers. This game is simply recommended for purchase and, by definition, can be considered one of the best games of this year.

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Review: Graphics (author Spec)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is based on the Creation Engine. It allows you to draw many small objects at great distances, resulting in a truly impressive level of detail, much higher than before. Not only has the rendering of the landscape become better, shadows are now cast on all objects, making the picture even more realistic. This engine is specifically designed to display vast distances, handle more complex graphics, and more realistically simulate the movement of water and the rustling of leaves in the wind. There is even an advanced mechanism responsible for snow, it tries to reproduce falling flakes and realistic “sprinkling” of objects with snow. Snow lingers on the leaves of trees and falls to the ground unevenly, just like in the real world. In addition, the higher you climb into the mountains, the worse the weather will be.

The next important component of the Creation Engine is Radiant AI. His goal is to create the impression of Skyrim as a living, breathing world. Residents in Oblivion only had five or six commands that they had to follow throughout the day; in Skyrim, the population has significantly more complex tasks. It was previously noted that during a conversation with an NPC the camera is no longer fixed. Now it has become known that during a conversation you can move the camera in any way that is convenient, observing what is happening around you. The physics in the game is calculated by Havok Behavior: the developers have created authentic body movement and realistic animation. For those who like not only to contemplate, but also to create something of their own, TES 5 provides a full-fledged editor called Creation Kit.

By the way, it should also be noted that the landscape has become a landscape. All hillocks, pebbles and trees now matter, since you won’t be able to hit through them. Accordingly, an arrow fired by an ill-wisher will not be able to fly at you through a huge boulder. In general, the physics of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been radically redesigned compared to previous parts. So we can really observe the action of the wind – the swaying of branches, a cloak that interferes with walking, a light snowball twisting into whirlwinds, sliding ground on which it is difficult to stop movement… True, I don’t think that everything will be so rosy – after all, we haven’t yet We live in games, but all we do is draw them.

The game uses DirectX9, but the graphics met our expectations, presenting the amazing game world in all its glory. The graphics adapter settings, accessible from the main menu, are present in quite sufficient quantities and allow you to set parameters such as anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, texture quality, shadow detailing and blurring to your liking.

The game has a truly realistic environment thanks to the high level of detail. Clouds floating across the sky look three-dimensional, natural and move in real time. The new precipitation system itself calculates how much snow should lie on a particular object, depending on the landscape of the area. For example, if you look around, you will notice that more snow accumulates in hollows than on a flat surface. The high-poly character models are very pleasing to the eye; their realistic animation and tissue simulation allow you to see even blood vessels on their bodies. Next, we move directly to testing and determine the performance of various graphics adapters and central processors in this game…

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 Review: Resource-intensive game (author SVL)

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. Below is the configuration of our test systems.

Test configuration
test stands	Test bench No. 1 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 2 based on the Intel Socket 1366 platform Test bench No. 3 based on the AMD Soket AM2 platform Test bench No. 4 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 5 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 6 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 7 based on the Intel Socket 775 platform Test bench No. 8 based on the Intel Socket 1156 platform
Multimedia equipment	3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 Dell U3010 monitor product provided by the company AMD 3D Vision Kit product provided by the company Nvidia
Software configuration
Operating system	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 SP1
Graphics driver	Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 285.79 AMD Catalyst 11.10
Monitoring program	MSI Afterburner v2.2.0 beta 8

Less productive video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 4870 are tested on the basis of Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, depending on the resource intensity of the game, and more productive ones are based on more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.

Our video cards were tested at separate screen sizes of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 with high and maximum graphics quality settings allowed by the game. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology was tested thanks to fresh beta drivers, which brought the game an “Excellent” rating, but AMD Eyefinity was not tested, since the game cannot work with multi-monitor configurations at the moment. The performance of SLI is excellent, but the work of Cross Fire using the HD 6990 as an example was full of artifacts associated with unfinished drivers, so this card was not included in the tests… AMD cards do not force vertical synchronization through the drivers, so they have limited FPS 60 frames.

Testing at high quality settings 1920×1080

With high graphics quality settings at a resolution of 1920×1080, the graphics engine allows you to play on all of our tested video cards without any problems. An acceptable level of performance in the game will be shown by the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 250. The most comfortable frame rate for smooth gaming will be provided by video cards of the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce GTS 450 level. I remember 2006, when for the sake of Oblivion I had to change yet another video card…

Testing at high quality settings 2560×1600

At a resolution of 2560×1600, the acceptable level of performance will be shown by video cards Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 465. The optimal video cards for these settings will be video accelerators of the Radeon HD 4890 or GeForce GTX 285 level.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080

With maximum graphics quality settings at a resolution of 1920×1080, the acceptable level of performance will rise to video cards of the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce GTS 450 level. Video cards of the Radeon HD 6790 or GeForce GTX 280 level will be the most optimal for comfortable gaming with these settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600

And so, at a resolution of 2560×1600, with maximum graphics quality settings, video cards Radeon HD 5850 or GeForce GTX 465 will show an acceptable level of performance. The optimal video cards for maximum graphics settings will be video cards Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 470. At the moment, according to the summary tests carried out In terms of driver optimization and gaming performance, NVIDIA cards are preferable.

Testing using NVIDIA 3D Vision technology

In 3D Vision drivers, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has a very solid 3D rating of “Excellent,” which characterizes its exceptional quality. Therefore, for all lovers of 3D immersion, this game is recommended for completion. In 3D mode there is an internal FPS limit of 60 frames.

Testing at high quality settings using NVIDIA 3D Vision technology

The minimum level of performance at a high level of quality will be shown by a video card of the GeForce GTX 275 level. The most optimal solution should be considered a video card of the GeForce GTX 480 class and higher.

Testing at maximum quality settings using NVIDIA 3D Vision technology

The minimum level of performance at ultra-high levels will be shown by a video card of the GeForce GTX 480 level. The most optimal solution should be considered a video card of the GeForce GTX 590 class and higher.

CPU dependency testing

We tested processor dependence on 12 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 800×600 with maximum visual quality settings in a “busy” settlement.

Testing at minimum quality settings 800×600

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim pushed the comfortable performance of modern gaming CPU models almost to the very edge. And as you were able to notice, the main thing in the game is not the number of cores we use, but the frequency and type of architecture of the central processors.

	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is rightfully a worthy successor to The Elder Scrolls series and, as many have already noted, will appeal not only to its fans, but also to newcomers.
	The graphics in the game did not produce a shocking effect, like The Witcher 2, but it is also unlikely to be called lagging behind. Just look at the landscapes and snow-covered plains…
	Game optimization is quite high, and almost all modern gaming video accelerators can handle maximum graphics settings.