I have a quad core computer and I am interested in seeing a quad core optimized Skyrim so it can run better I'm just curious if there is any more like me or if I'm alone on this one. Also do you think quad core optimization will be included in skyrim? why or why not?

It should be capable of utilizing three cores (which is how many the Xbox 360's CPU has).

And they are going to need to squeeze every last bit of juice out of that machine to get Skyrim to work, so I'm not worried.

I hope quad core optimization will be implemented for Skyrim because multi-core processors have become quite popular for newer computers. As of right now, I see multi-core as the future for PCs and I hope Bethesda will use its technology for their future games.

I don't think it will support 4 or more cores. Or if it does it won't be well optimized, and won't make a bit of difference in performance.

I'd be happy to see the game make use of 2 cores, and actually use near 100% each cores power. I have a quad with Ht, and I don't expect to see it stressed or used to it's full potential, though I hope I'm wrong.

According to the Steam hardware survey, quad-core CPUs are still only used by just over 40% of the respondents, with nearer 50% using 2 cores. I think it's more important for Bethesda to optimise Skyrim for 2 cores, with reasonably efficient use of 4 cores being necessary and good optimisation for 4 cores being desirable.

I think it will be included, now whether or not they do it well is another question. FO:3 for instance supported multiple cores but you were better off editing the .ini file to limit it to 2 cores as it had a lot of freezing issues with quad cores.

I'm not expecting much or having high hopes for any of the PC optimizations.



Well, its not really the future, its the now. :thumbsup:

I hope they do, what can I say I have a Q6600 that has never been stressed in its life time, I think it may grow old and never see its full potential. Do you guys think that the ini file will allow us to do some tweaking and let the game use 4 cores? If so do you think it will help much?

40% of the market is still too many to ignore, and that number will only rise from now until November. Most modern games support quad-cores, why should this be any different?

I imagine it will from the get go, as I mentioned how much it helps is really up in the air. From the general lack of talk about any sort of PC optimization aside from vague "yeah its better" references I don't anticipate them spending much time on it.

I wonder is a mod can solve this, should there be no optimization... ?

My point was that if the game is optimised to run well on 2 cores, then 4 core machines will not be overburdened. Notice that I said that reasonably efficient use of 4 cores was necessary. That's not ignoring 4 core machines . Having it optimised to run as efficiently as possible on 4 core machines would be nice, but let's face it, once Bethesda have it using 4 cores reasonably efficiently then as they optimise it for greater and greater efficiency on 4 cores;

1) They run into the problem of diminishing returns, with greater effort at finer optimisation giving smaller and smaller returns, and
2) They risk making it run less efficiently on 2 cores or fewer.

So I stand by my comments, it should be highly optimised for 2 cores, so that it runs well on 2 core machines, and it should be reasonably well optimised for 4 cores so that it runs at least as well as on 2 cores, but that getting every possible bit of power from a 4 core machine should be a lower priority.

I always find it hard to agree with optimizing for obsolete technology. Even if today you have a fairly even split of 2 and 4 core machines out there, moving forward that number is going to increase ever more rapidly in favor of the 4 core machines. Looking at games like MW and OB and seeing the shelf life these games have on the PC optimizing the game for technology that can't even be purchased anymore seems like any extremely bad choice.

If the multi core (4, 6,etc.) optimization is left at a mediocre or worse point what will that mean for the game a year from now, or 5 years from now. MW was released almost 10 years ago and is still played with an active mod'ing community today. How many dual core machines would anyone anticipate still being in use and in circulation 10 years from now?

I'd much rather them keep an eye toward the future and making sure they are supporting/able to support the game into the future instead of having the game run great on tech no one will even be using anymore in a fairly short time frame and just "okay" on what we will be using for the foreseeable future. I want my TES experience to get better with time, not worse.

This same argument applies pretty well to the addition of a 64 bit exe, but that's another thread.....