Skyrim Mid Range PC benchmarking

Recently on GD, we've had numerous technical blogs ranging from temperature measurements, to graphical effects analysis, to a benchmark of the Intel HD Graphics family.

I've decided to go a step further and do a full benchmark of Skyrim using a mid-range rig that I have so that we can have definitive numbers with which to measure your rig with...

I will be conducting various benchmarks like this in the future using the other demanding games that I own, from Just Cause 2, Dead Island, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Sniper Elite V2.

I'll gladly take requests if you have a game that you want benchmarked, as long as it has a demo or isn't expensive. Synthetic benchmarks such as Unigine's Heaven 3.0 and 3DMark may also be used in the future, but that depends on demand from the community.

Now on to the benchmarks. All the numbers were recorded using Fraps in a ninety-second run. Since Skyrim is a free-form open world game, I selected a path to run along outside the main city of Whiterun, and the same run was used for every single setting. All settings were configured through the Skyrim Launcher, and only the presets were used in determining the quality. No custom tweaking was used, and the tests were conducted without any graphical mods being enabled. The only tweak used was the one that disables V-Sync, otherwise all the .ini files were clean.

Test bed:

Intel Core i5-2320 Processor

AMD Radeon HD 6770 1 Gigabyte VRAM Graphics Card

6 Gigabytes of RAM

Windows 7 Home Premium

All presets were benchmarked at resolutions of 1280x720, 1600x900, and 1920x1080, in order to give a wide range of possible settings that the community may play the game at.

Low Preset = No AA, no AF, minimal visibility

Medium Preset = 4x AA, no AF, limited visibility

High Preset = 8x AA, 8x AF, good visibility

Ultra Preset = 8x AA, 16x AF, long-range visibility

If you need to know what AA and AF mean, look for the "Graphical Effects Explained" blog by TeroMarsu, as it is an excellent reference. 

Low Preset

Frames   Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
13095     90000         58   197   145.5

Skyrim, Low Settings, 1280x720, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)    Min   Max   Avg
9698        90000          66   165  107.756

Skyrim, Low Settings, 1600x900, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max    Avg
8604        90000        60    133    95.6

Skyrim, Low Settings, 1920x1080, 90-second run

As you can see in the screenshot, the lack of anisotropic filtering makes distant textures appear muddy, and shadows aren't present on objects beyond the immediate vicinity of the player. The sign has shadows on it, but the carriage in the distance does not. Also, several NPCs were present near the carriage, but the minimal visibility range inhibits you from being able to see them until they are very near.

Medium Preset

Frames     Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
8254        90000        62   127    91.711

Skyrim, Medium Settings, 1280x720, 90-second run

Frames     Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
6433         90000        57    96    71.478

Skyrim, Medium Settings, 1600x900, 90-second run

Frames     Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
4931        90000        36    66    54.789

Skyrim, Medium Settings, 1920x1080, 90-second run

The Medium preset doesn't appear much better than the Low preset, however antialiasing is introduced to the scene, so some jagged edges are removed and the textures gain some crispness, however the subtlety of that effect makes it largely unnoticeable. Shadows have now been extended beyond the immediate surroundings of the player, as they are now visible on the carriage, and the carriage driver is now visible as well, where as in the Low preset, he could not be seen.

High Preset

Frames     Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
5562         90000        41    119   61.8

Skyrim, High Settings, 1280x720, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
4304        90000        28     84   47.822

Skyrim, High Settings, 1600x900, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
3098        90000        18     66    34.422

Skyrim, High Settings, 1920x1080, 90-second run

Using the High preset, additionally antialiasing is applied to the scene, however its effect is nearly invisible. Anisotropic filtering is introduced, and thus distant textures appear much sharper compared to the Low and Medium presets. Shadows have also been scaled up in quality, and appear more realistic.

Ultra Preset

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
2968        90000        14    47    32.978

Skyrim, Ultra Settings, 1280x720, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
1879        90000        8      30    20.878

Skyrim, Ultra Settings, 1600x900, 90-second run

Frames    Time (ms)   Min   Max   Avg
1596        90000       10     24    17.733

Skyrim, Ultra Settings, 1920x1080, 90-second run

The Ultra preset rendered the game unplayable above 1280x720. Also, the VRAM of the graphics card was exceeded, and thus the artifacting shown above became prevalent throughout the game world.

Conclusion

Skyrim, being one of the more demanding games available on the market right now, runs rather well on mid-range computers. With some tweaked settings, Skyrim becomes very playable on the Ultra preset, namely by disabling antialiasing and turning down shadow quality. Those with high-end rigs wishing to know about various tweaks that can be applied, such as the uGrids tweak. I would love to hear your thoughts below, as well as any questions that you may have regarding mods, tweaks, fixes, or advice.