PC lags skyrim, not sure why

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

Heyo, I've got some problems with my PC, specifically its performance on Skyrim, but exclusively that game.I can't run it at lowest possible graphics settings, yet I can run many other games at very high (Watch Dogs, League of Legends, Civilization, Sleeping Dogs, Dark Souls, etc) with no lag whatsoever. I realize skyrim uses a lot of power to run, but I would think if I can run all these other games at very high, I could at least hit medium with Skyrim.. I'm not exactly what you call computer savvy so I'm here for your advice.

Anyway, here's the layout:

Windows 8 x64bit
Intel Core i5-3230M CPU 2.60 GHz (dual core with dual threads or something like that)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (This is listed in my device manager alongside the GeForce, not sure if there are supposed to be two)


If you need any other information or specs, just say so and I'll do my best to find that information out!

PS I run Skyrim (and my other games) off steam, and it lags even in offline mode :(

 

[Legendary Silke]

Your system is an NVIDIA Optimus configuration. Usually, it should work out of the box, but sometimes you might forget things.

There are two things you can look for right away:
Check your computer's power management settings. Seeing as it's a laptop, click on the battery indicator on the desktop taskbar, and see if it's not "Power saver" or any other similar power-saving configuration. You'd want to set it to "Balanced" or "High performance", or whatever your PC OEM provides instead.

Open NVIDIA Control Panel, and go to Manage 3D Settings. In the "Global Settings" tab, make sure "Preferred graphics processor" is set to auto-select, and in "Program Settings", open up the entry for Skyrim - it should be labelled "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (tesv.exe)", and also check that "Preferred graphics processor" is set to automatically select the NVIDIA GPU.

If neither works, I'd suggest you install the latest NVIDIA driver packages, by way of a clean install. Try again afterwards.

If that still doesn't work, check your laptop vents and see if anything's really dusty or clogged up. If yes, clean it out.

If that still doesn't work out, send the laptop in for servicing.

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

Thanks for the quick and clear response! I'll try all of these suggestions later today (taking placement tests now).

 

[Legendary Silke]

Almost forgot about this bit: before sending in for servicing, try to factory reset your PC. (If Windows 8.x, this should be in PC settings; if earlier, check your manual) Do this only as a last resort, and back up everything before doing that.

 

[«Chuckles»]

Steam could also be your problem, the overlay might be taking up too much of your CPU?, some times getting a crack for steam games is better than using steam.

 

[Legendary Silke]

Steam could also be your problem, the overlay might be taking up too much of your CPU?, some times getting a crack for steam games is better than using steam.

The Steam overlay is extremely unlikely to affect performance in my opinion - and Skyrim doesn't really require much CPU, anyway. Expect under-clocked CPUs during normal game play.

 

[«Chuckles»]

I personally dont suffer from that but just people say that they get a boost in performance from not suing the overlay and such. I'm only going from numerous people saying that it helps and that it helped.

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

The Graphics card fixy thingy Twiggy suggested worked. Err, this:

Open NVIDIA Control Panel, and go to Manage 3D Settings. In the "Global Settings" tab, make sure "Preferred graphics processor" is set to auto-select, and in "Program Settings", open up the entry for Skyrim - it should be labelled "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (tesv.exe)", and also check that "Preferred graphics processor" is set to automatically select the NVIDIA GPU.

I guess it was autoselecting my other graphics card which couldn't handle the game. Anyways, thanks for the help guys!

 

[Legendary Silke]

Good to see that it worked out for you. Out of curiosity, what is the driver version of the NVIDIA driver package? The latest WHQL release is 337.88.

It's usually a good idea to update graphics drivers often if you even bother with PC gaming. That's the exception to the rule with regard to driver updates.