Low FPS with 6850 in Skyrim on Ultra

the 6850 isnt that much more powerful than the 4890...sure it'll give you maybe 5-10 more fps than the 4890, but nothing more on ultra..this game is also HEAVILY based off of CPU power more than GPU

and if you're playing with the CPU in ur sig, thats definately what is going to be bottlenecking you. you need to have at least an i5 2500k or phenom x4 at 3.5ghz to run comfortable framerates
Edited by jakim - 11/16/11 at 1:55pm

Skyrim isn't a demanding game by any means. It is however a game that would stress the CPU more than anything. With that said, it seems that you are being limited in framerate with that Athlon chip.

This image, taken from TomsHardware.com's benchmark tests on the game shows that their Radeon HD 6850 was able to achieve an average of 48fps with minimum of 40. They used an i5-2500K processor overclocked to 4GHz to test and the same catalyst version that you are using.

Sidenote, a 430 watt PSU powering a Radeon HD 6850. I think that is cutting it rather close, but I might be wrong.
Edited by gamer11200 - 11/16/11 at 7:28pm

I'm playing at High detail with a couple distance sliders adjusted slightly closer.

At vanilla High settings, I'd notice the occasional dip below 30fps, especially while turning.

You need a faster card if you want to play it on ultra...

I can just hold 60 fps on ultra with a single 570, and I am a harder time trying to hold 120 fps with with my 570 sli...

Although I think in time the game will be more efficient, because I can definately sence some odd mishaps in the game, for example my gpu usage going from ~65% to 99% when I go into the inventory or a chat screen sometimes...