It took me 2 days to figure out my settings.

I haven't played Skyrim for a few months and now I got problems.

I downloaded all the DLC's and got graphical errors all over the place, already in the beginning.

Some places just showed blue with items hanging in the air, others showed my guide in the beginning

losing his figure. You can't run around relying on a mere helmet!?

My comp can take ultra on every game, except Skyrim after the patches.

So to play it for now, off Anti-aliasing, set it to medium and you can play.

I didn't crash for the 2 hrs I played, so it's very much a graphical issue.

Only the wizards here can make my game look pretty again.

Upgrade your videocard driver. Lower the graphic settings a little. Delete Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini in the document/settings/skyrim folder and let the game renders new ones. You may download the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31083 from Nexus mod site. Use http://skse.silverlock.org/. Use http://code.google.com/p/better-oblivion-sorting-software/downloads/list.

Make sure you Verify Integrity of Game Cache (Steam->Library->All Games->Skyrim->Properties->Local files).

If you have the official high res text pack 1-3, add/edit this line under [Archive] in Skyrim.ini:
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Voicesixtra.bsa, HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa, HighResTexturePack03.bsa

You may add: ipresentinterval=1 in Skyrim.ini and bFloatPointRenderTarget=1 in Skyrimprefs.ini as well.

Alot of examples of Skyrim.ini / skyrimprefs.ini tweaks you find while google are either wrong or outdated. Some tweaks are also done on very high end computers and will harm less powerfull ones. I say it again, don't mess with the Ugridstoload. Keep the default ones (Uexterior Cell Buffer=36) unless you are 100% sure the computer can take the heat.

Here are mine Skyrim.ini /Skyrimprefs.ini http://www.multinet.no/~kkleven/skyrim-ini-settings.html.
Cheers,
KK

That is no longer necessary as of the non-beta release of 1.4

Okay, thanks for keeping me update

And I almost forgot to give credits to other players setups and their view of how to tweak Skyrim.

Cheers. -KK-

Use TES5Edit to clean your plugins, there's a nice tutorial by Gopher. Also use SMCO, it's dead simple to use and converts all of your textures to the smallest format with essentially no loss in quality.

TES5Edit - http://www.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25859

SMCO - http://www.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13529

Gopher's TES5Edit tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw3g_N1jcZQ

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go over the weekend.

Ok, first hurdle:

1 file failed to validate and will be reacquired...

Meaning what? Reinstalling the game?

I'm not very good with this stuff...

I'd recommend starting with a clean slate. Wipe your Skyrim folder, navigate to my games\skyrim and delete that as well, re-download the game, defragment your hard drive, and then begin cleaning your plugins.

2% fragged HD, never understood how much/little could do damage, but I'll do that.

Got the box-version, so a total wipeout will commence....brrr, I hate that.

And I have no mods at all.

Thank you for the advice, gutlessVADER!