Skyrim Special Edition Vs Anniversary Edition - How Is PC Performance Affected?

Skyrim got a new patch this week, and apparently there have been some "general performance optimisations". So what does that mean in terms of frame rate, if anything?
Thanks for watching :)

[@Videohead-eq5cy]

It looks the same. It runs the same. It breaks all the previously established and beloved mods. But it has fishing!

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah guess that’s something lol

[@gearfriedtheswmas]

Best summary.

[@Aguijon1982]

It looks the same, it feels the same, it runs the same, but you get the wonderful experience of paying for it again.

[@NiceuRiceu]

"It breaks all the previously established and beloved mods" no, it only broke SKSE script mods, half of which bloat your game with endless script lag

[@MrHendrikje]

But skyrim has fishing since.... forever. There is very little that bethesda can ad that wasb't already a mod. The difference is that it is included in the base game. Performance wise, I think they have hit the limit to how much they can optimize the game and engine it is using.

[@SantiagoSantiago]

What a shame, not even a graphics upgrade lol Thanks for the video man!

[@jonathansoko1085]

All it is is a way for them to push creation club mods onto you $ that is all this is

[@greatdelusion7654]

At least there even _was_ an update. I can’t recount too many developers who still update their games _10 years later._

[@GoneAngel]

I'd rather they didn't since it's not an optional update like a Hi Res dlc.

[@amf9797]

@@greatdelusion7654 Which is a bad thing in Skyrim's case since it breaks a lot of mod supports, even though it can be fixed very quickly, some modders just don't play the game any more and won't update their mod.

[@snoochpounder]

It’s a paid upgrade not an update though

[@NkeliteYT]

Skyrim Patch Notes: General Performance Optimizations Randomgaminginhd: This is were i come in!

[@darrelljohnson1319]

Game worse since Microsoft destroys everything they buy

[@ThiccNose]

Skyrim feels like it came out 30 years ago yet it's still being rereleased every other year. Why are people buying 20 versions of the same game?

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah I got the special edition but I’d I didn’t benchmark things I’d still have the 2011 original haha

[@PotatInside]

Buying? People are buying Skyrim, huh?!

[@lolitaras22]

Because they're people and people act like people.

[@LucianoSilva-oficial]

Wait. What? They buy Skyrim?

[@kevinf10000]

@@RandomGaminginHD Are you don't still have the 2011 and want to benchmark it? I can set you up if that's the case. I still have 2 CD copys and an account with the old version still on it.

[@prezidenttrump5171]

This is why I love your channel man, you're always ahead of the curve when it comes to older titles getting updates, or just seeing how newer titles run on older hardware. So amazing, thanks for your continued content man!

[@Pedrojerico]

Would be interesting to see a CPU bound scenario. I've heard script performance has been improved, so maybe this impacts lower end cpus?

[@Locust5uc01]

Always a joy when you upload

[@Melechtna]

"General Performance Optimizations" I'll translate for you. "We broke mods because we don't like them"

[@MuchWhittering]

Mate they literally provide the tools to make mods, and Todd Howard has confirmed mod support for Starfield. 20 years of providing mod support, why would they stop now?

[@frozenturbo8623]

More like "We like little bit more money" instead of "no mods" The main reason why people play Skyrim is because of mods.

[@frozenturbo8623]

@Minwon Jang Yes that's true but I hate how Bethesda releases the "Ultimate special Scholarship anniversary Deluxe edition" For a price not even free.

[@GamingwithSteeeve]

look at the mountains at 2:00, way less fidelity in the update

[@Haddley333]

is that from dumping more of that volumetric fog or whatever it is that makes it look like a n64 game?

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

Holy shit you are right.

[@gamerxt333]

DOF is stronger I guess.

[@beardalaxy]

I'd be curious to see whether or not optimizations were made in terms of more capable hardware running lots of mods. I don't expect it to change, but perhaps the different architecture of the hardware and how they might process code compilations using newer software might be interesting to see.

[@CaporegimeMarcus]

I've been thinking about buying the upgrade since it's just $14 but I wasn't sure how the performance on PC was affected. I can now buy it with no worries. Thanks so much for the video!

[@majimagoro2428]

What about mods? Didn't you have troubles with compatibility?

[@ORGkash]

The only significant change as far as I know, is that they fixed a lot of bugs on the engine that hindered Skyrim script extender, though it also broke it in a way. Though in the long run, there'll likely be better performance once they get the script extender back to what it was.

[@frshunter]

Your favorite area... the mountains have more detail than the Anniversary Edition and are less fuzzy. Could it have to do with what time of day?

[@turbofanlover]

Good to know. I was wondering how the update would affect performance. Although I haven't played this classic game in a while, I'm sure I will again, at some point.

[@brando3342]

Dang man… even me, a staunch defender of this great game, is thinking “Is this game never going to die?” Absolutely insane, let it die lol

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah wait until we get the 20th anniversary edition haha

[@brando3342]

@@RandomGaminginHD 😂

[@johntrevy1]

@@RandomGaminginHD See you at the 20 year reunion party.

[@WayStedYou]

@@RandomGaminginHD excuse me, you forgettting the 15th anniversary.

[@brando3342]

@@WayStedYou Haha can’t forget year 15 😂

[@evenblackercrow4476]

Yeah, I knew I could count on you to review this bit related to the most excellent game written (and modded) ever. Thanks

[@h4x0y]

Awesome video. My system is very similar and I'm glad to know I can run it just as well.

[@houseofmeditation8945]

Dude, make longer videos, your voice and presentation are top notch!

[@dimag5399]

Nothing like a good relaxing video from RGHD after college

[@lvxmagick9560]

I love your style of tec, thanks for the vid.

[@vulzes]

so as a first time pc skyrim player i should go for the special edition opposed to the anniversary edition if im want to mod, right?

[@weiserwolfsgeist]

So, is Skyrim Special Edition 1.6 or is Skyrim Anniversary Edition 1.6 or are they both that way? If not, then what is the latest patch for Skyrim Special Edition? I'm trying to figure this out so I can have an easier time using the original mod page for Skyrim instead of having to use the new page for SSE.

[@solarismortum383]

I was really surprised there weren't more practical fixes / performance changes 😕 good video!

[@alexmentink8567]

As I looked at the average fps numbers I noticed as well that the framerates did not change. Yeah the .1% lows in certain areas may have improved marginally, but that is negligible. What I did notice was that as an overall trend, the CPU utilization was a few percentage points lower in the anniversary edition than the previous version... Interesting. Perhaps that's what they meant by optimizations.

[@JGD185]

I haven't played Skyrim in years and want to get back into it. I was thinking about getting the Anniversary edition but is it ok to play vanilla, or do I need mods to make it more enjoyable?

[@paulxD25863]

yes

[@vora300]

When Elden ring comes out could you make a video with the 750 ti?

[@kendodd1255]

What happened to your other GTA video from yesterday?

[@Stelio_Contos]

Throughout your benchmarks it would seem that the Anniversary edition is using almost roughly 10% less of the CPU then the standard edition at times, yet maintaining the same FPS

[@LadyNicola]

10 years later and I'm still getting my head around LOOT & SSSEdit Quick clean. All mods work OK. Not sure about the full upgrade.

[@gerald8573]

OMG thank you so much! 1440p 60 looks so fucking goooooood!!!! This brings your already top notch videos up to the next level!

[@gerald8573]

no more YT-compression

[@yakamozsunsen2661]

I bought a rig i3-3220 - 8GB DDR3 Dual Kit - Sapphire HD6790 - 240GB SSD - 400W PSU for 80£ (1000₺ in my country). What do you think a good deal or a waste?

[@rogoznicafc9672]

Wait so if I have the regular version it will about update to this one? Is there way to stop this bcz yk, mods and stuff?

[@awesomejimthethird]

It's special edition. And if you want to avoid the update you have to set the game to update only when launched. That way it will only update if you click launch in steam. Launch using skse instead, then it won't update. Also back up the game

[@jullemasa2182]

I could say that only saw some difference on memory usage but when it changed about same on winter section, it felt like it was just coincidence. Also just really small thing anyway. Had to look those numbers so closely that didn't see the game itself. :P

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah I thought the usage was higher too but after an hour of playing it evened out with both versions

[@Loco34324]

I love how in the spec requirements in steam, it says you need 12 GB ram for AE (Anniversary Edition), when as far as I'm a-where, the graphics are literally the same as SE (it says 12GB for me, when I have 8)

[@alencorbic5917]

So...I have a problem hahah can't finde or buy online Skyrim anniversary addition. Can anyone help me achieve that? Steam is not an option while they say I can not purchase without any explanation. I do have credited and debit card. I am a Skyrim fan and I need it fast so...help meeeeeeee

[@likeclockwork64butbetter58]

What about performance improvements for low end like the HD 7770/GTX750 Ti? Look how demanding that lighting is on Ultra! I'd rather run super HQ texture packs and run light AA than even turn that tessellated lighting on if the fps hit is that hard. My unlocked ref HD 6950 did og Skyrim maxed with really nice looking texture packs

[@ExySmexy]

This is just a smart way for them to sell their creation kit garbage. There literally is no difference.

[@animerestoration2701]

What mods did the anniversary edition break? Just installed the anniversary edition and installed like 20 mods from Nexus and they all work fine???

[@untaterbang]

The Script Extender is being updated, that means any mod that requires it needs to be uodated as well. You can get their preliminary release at reddit, if you want. If your mods didn't need the Script Extender, you should be fine.

[@therag3988]

I have never played any elder scrolls skyrim.. How should i start?

[@gyrozeppeli00]

I'm confused, does it automatically update, does absolutely nothing and fucks all of my mods over if I have the special edition?

[@kingofskyrim30]

The fking black screen bug when i load my save is really tedious. I had no mods installed tho...

[@camirock17]

The update is ok, but the DLC to "Actually have" the anniversay edition is kinda "wtf"

[@Alexandru1996_]

For some reason, with the aniversary edition and win 11 i get less fps compared to win 10 and no qniversary edition. Maybe it is from win 11 being not yet optimised 100% or maybe becouse i didn't deactivate all the bloatware that it brings

[@papagrounds]

So, did I get this straight: if I buy the SE from Steam, I can then update it into AE? 🤔 Or was that update just for them who bought the SE before the release of AE?

[@RunawayYe]

If you buy SE from Steam, you will get the "free updates" which are - these performance optimizations, plus fishing, plus Saints and Seducers creation club content. The AE is an extra purchase on top of the SE (or you can buy the AE version directly) and it includes a bunch of extra creation club content.

[@papagrounds]

@@RunawayYe Thanks for the clarification 👍 Wasn't quite sure what's the difference between SE and AE.

[@RunawayYe]

@@papagrounds Yeah it was confusing me too. The easiest way to think of it is - SE has been around for years. The free Anniversary "update" is just a few goodies everyone who owns SE gets. The paid Anniversary "edition" is the extra package with a bunch of creation club content, it's a DLC in a way.

[@VictorBillordo]

Maybe with a minimum requirements setup may appear any differences

[@jamdonut]

performance optimizations doesnt always mean gfx and fps. for example - did it load a save faster? did it auto save faster? did it load mods faster? etc etc think inside the box

[@donottouch9110]

You should do a guide as to how to revert to the older version mod support literally died

[@michaelthompson9798]

Wow the “Anniversary Edition” look at the optimisations and graphics changes ….. 😖 WTF was the update, other then a use of disk space and time downloading 🤔

[@jorda229]

it's just creation club stuff they're adding

[@ThisIsAHandleOrSomething]

Supposedly papyrus got a big script processing speed increase. So in the long term this will be very beneficial for mods in particular.

[@michaelthompson9798]

@@ThisIsAHandleOrSomething awesome!

[@markus9641]

I find that the major improvements were done for consoles. Shouting or just going into foggy areas would cause framerate to dip to the 30s at points. Now it's rock solid 60.

[@gamerxt333]

Thought they would of added a resolution scaler, I guess not though.

[@moucelium]

Make a video featuring Amd A10 series apu before and after update.

[@annespeeltvideogames]

Ooh yes skyrim the first game i ever preorded😁 for the ps3 back then

[@lolitaras22]

I hope CP2077 was the last preorder.

[@annespeeltvideogames]

@Name Yeah me 2 :) you can only replay skyrim so many times ;) Even though it is a great game that is stil will pickup from time to time

[@addictedtoRS]

I stood in line outside for 4 hours in -35C weather for this game 😂 can't believe that was 10 years ago

[@annespeeltvideogames]

@@addictedtoRS 🥶

[@Radek494]

@@addictedtoRS Bruh where do you live that's this cold in November?

[@joshhuffman]

Haha, that benchmark system was my main build back in 2013!

[@DarkRaikon]

Half a year later and i still don't know the change!!! Was it just to make it xbox friendly and adding more cash grab?

[@Josue31627]

Did ya delete your Rockstar Launcher being down video? It was pretty amusing. As for Skyrim... I have to try it. And all these re-releases don't encourage me to do so.

[@ZephrusPrime]

Mine also updated even though I have the update turned off AND I only launch through SKSE/Mo2.- Which was said to be the only way to avoid the update.

[@SuperJbohn]

I heard that the latest update breaks skse is that true?

[@awesomejimthethird]

Yes

[@randomgaminginfullhd7347]

So wait, what are the actual differences between SE and AE then?

[@frozenturbo8623]

AE has higher 0.1% and less CPU usage, would I recommend buying it for 20 euros? No.

[@vanyadolly]

They never said there'd be a graphical update for PC. The optimization seems to be scripts running faster from what I've seen modders discuss. It's broken some mods on its own, but is probably a good thing in the long run.

[@squeezerdsqueezerd2427]

But does it fix the crashes? And we still need modders to patch fix this game with mods so what else is new ? And i care less about the fishing i dont even fish in real life why would i want to fishing in a game ? Thats so boring.

[@reto]

Noticed that GPU temp was a bit higher on the Anniversary Edition test. Slight difference might be due to the card core clock boosting a tiny bit higher at lower temps.

[@voltage731]

@randomGamingHD Hey my man I have a ryzen 5 4600g+3060 standard build with basically no overclocking, If you wanted I'd be happy to participate in some benchmarking for you to upload at no cost to you. I appreciate what you do an have a similar passion for testing performance/playing with settings and benchmarking. So i'd love to help you educate people/Test games. I'm not sure what your hardware line up is. But I could do both integrated graphics testing and 3060 testing..

[@engineerkuno3507]

Remembered running this game on my gt710. When all i want is to play and not care about the graphics, thou still managed to add some decent mods

[@garytallowin6623]

loading times seem faster loading from my nvme? but that could be placebo.

[@Ishan.khanna]

I'm still hunting for this on my PS3 in disc format

[@mr8I7]

Looks worse? The mountains in the background are clearly less detailed and harder to see in the new update.

[@cleioa]

So many memories

[@barathsreelal3390]

Fx 6300 + GTX 760 is what I have in my old pc. They work decent to this date.

[@bigcazza5260]

not only did i screw up and just lose my level 200 save but now my load order is gunna get bombed for next to no gain in gpu constrained scenarios ;( i think ive been cursed by a daedra tried watching a camel works video on the deep ones and it killed my z390 strix

[@takehirolol5962]

Honestly, I just started this version today. Best thing of all? No crashes for the first 3 hours.

[@MGoogle3146]

If they say it's been optimised and there's no fps improvement... are they fibbing?

[@ibizenco]

Still playing the vanilla edition here :-) On my 8-year-or-so old 2500K machine, with an ASUS RadeonHD 6870 and 4 GB DDR3_RAM, and that on a small 1600x900 monitor. And the same time on my R7 3700X with an ASUS Dual 2060 Super and 16 GB DDR4-RAM on a 1080p monitor. With my R5 1600 (and a 1050Ti) there was this annoying "micro"-stuttering that does not happen with my 3700X, nor with my old 2500K.

[@utsavbasu1048]

Vanilla is the best, similarly as gta trilogy

[@MuchWhittering]

Vanilla means unmodded. It does not refer to the OG release.

[@SilverWhitefang]

I see no diffrance in graphics lol. Nice video!

[@halistinejenkins5289]

looks to me as if there's less cpu utilization on the Ann. edition.

[@ivailok3376]

I guess the point if this update is for Bethesda to provide all creation club content for a more reasonable price. And there is a lot of creation club content in store if you've never downloaded any of it. I personally haven't, so I'm excited to play through all of it.

[@awesomejimthethird]

So break most free mods to sell us paid mods?

[@ivailok3376]

@@awesomejimthethird That's a bit of an overreaction. Mods break at every update, always have, not just this one. At least the SKSE ones, which are a not a few, but a lot less than the standard plugin mods, certainly not *most* of the total mods out there. Simply wait a while and the mod authors will update their mods to work with the new game version.

[@ConfusedStu]

RGHD - answering the questions you didn't even know you had. :)

[@mattparker9726]

I can't wait for the 110th anniversary edition of Skyrim!

[@koreannom]

YO THE FX 6300 + GTX 760 COMBO WAS MY OLD PC HAHAHA

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Nice 👍

[@mikachusenai7554]

My biggest question here is how the heck is he getting almost 60fps on a GTX 760 2GB VRAM FX6300 and 8GB DDR3 RAM, while my GTX960m 4GB VRAM, Intel i7 8core and 16GB DDR4 RAM runs on 5-40 fps on the lowest settings (I also have an Intel i7 8core with a GTX950 2GB VRAM with 8GB DDR3 RAM and it will run the game at max 5fps on lowest settings)

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

skyrim definitive edition soon? then a remaster. and finally a remake? :o nah, they wouldn't do a remake

[@user-eu1uk8br7y]

CPU usage appears to be a bit lower on AE but it hardly seems worth it considering it broke all the mods.

[@exxor9108]

Seems the first test is within margin of error.

[@TheBasedDepartment.]

Don't take this personally. But maybe try looking at it with newer hardware. A gtx 760 is unlikely to have any change in performance because it is from around the same time period as the og skyrim. Maybe the game was 'optimized' so it could play nice with new hardware.

[@ashenold]

The anniversary update seems to have slightly lower CPU usage, surprisingly. I even noticed this on my 5900X, I had around 2% less usage overall.

[@WafelixRox]

People that have ae on gog are saying that the game runs so extremely smoothly because of being an actual drm free game, dunno if it's true but hey, discussion is always welcome

[@joelsebastiansilvestri9005]

2023 and i want to Re play Skyrim as it was my favourite game back in 2011 I loved that game really loved it and now I have a new gaming laptop and want to play Skyrim If the FPS are the same ill go with the special edition because on steam is 11 Australian dollars now, really cheap

[@_CrescentMoon]

The AE is harder to run on lower end laptops because of Creation Club contents

[@F7GOS]

RGinHD and Skyrim... thats a vintage combo

[@YourSkyliner]

Just great how this breaks all the mods while not doing anything new **at all**

[@DyoKasparov]

as pretty much always, "performance tweaks" and "performance fixes" is added just to make he changelog longer

[@generallee1863]

Was just playing Skyrim when I saw this lol

[@xKynOx]

They updated the C++ it will not doing anything to FPS but scripts run alot faster so if you are a hardcore modder you will not have script bloat killing your saves.

[@cookiesupervisor2211]

I played like 500h in Skyrim .. and i never finish it ...

[@wodar2741]

In my opinion you should do the test with 4gb vram in card. It's clearly stopping both versions to show their max fps cause of bottleneck in this case.

[@RunawayYe]

a lot of people are still running gpus with less than 4gb vram, for example the 970.

[@wodar2741]

@@RunawayYe Yea i know, but look at the vram usage for people with less than 4gb vram will be no difference.

[@blisterbrain]

I've still not played! I've been waiting until I've finished Oblivion. Which I've also not even installed yet! Best blow the dust off that old disc, and see if it will work.

[@champisthebunny6003]

My understanding is that the scripts execute a lot more efficiently, ie faster, in AE vs SSE. So, I wouldnt expect your test to reflect this and, it doesn't. Running randomly around the world, may, or may not (likely), show much difference, and that is exactly what happened. My own SSE install, ~70gb(No Dyndolod) is currently on pause so cannot verify (yet), the impact myself. My 1.5x install, has no notable performance issues either, but, if scripts are being handled better as its claimed, I would expect that to have some impact, but in my case, that is still to be seen. While I am sure, some optimizations may well have been implemented, the details is in the devil as they say and such comments are almost always lacking in specifics.

[@skysweet3588]

Did you notice an increase?

[@BastosFC2]

So they basically broke every mod for 1 less fps and the exact same graphics ? Makes sense

[@UncleMikeRetro]

Maybe I am the only one here, but I never really saw any difference in the Skyrim versus Skyrim Special Edition. At least not enough to warrant starting all over again (again).

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

From what I saw here. It looks like the update made the shadows darker, and details more visible from a distance. But also dropped the 0.1% lows a few frames. Pros outweigh the cons here if you ask me.

[@ThisIsAHandleOrSomething]

papyrus processing speed was increased as well

[@koofdome]

I hate that the game is capped at 60fps. I have a 3080 and literally maxed out 4k settings still just is 60fps. Cuz their "physics engine"

[@DarkDao]

There are some optimisations that will help modders in the long run, but nothing for gamers.