Vanilla Skyrim Special Edition won't detect GPU

[MidnightGuideWriter]

I recently upgrade hardware and have been running into issues with Skyrim Special Edition failing to detect my Nvidia GTX 1050 2gb graphics card.

I've tried:
File Validation
Uninstall/Reinstall Skyrim
Uninstall/Reinstall Windows
Uninstall/Reinstall/Rollbacking driver components

Currently I'm reinstalling after figuring out how to set the PhysiX preference in the Nvidia Control Panel.

My current consensus is that my GPU is too weak for Skyrim Special Edition, while it works just fine for regular Skyrim and that I'll just have to play that instead.

Any thoughts or help on this problem?

[Misuune]

Ignore it, it's just a launcher problem with detecting hardware. You'll game will run fine just pick a graphics setting and click play.

[Vlad 254]

Yep happens with my Nvidia RTX 2070, no big deal. make sure you choose your Nvidia gpu in the control panel while also choosing the SkyrimSE.exe

which gpu are you using?

[MidnightGuideWriter]

Okay so I apologize for the brevity since I was waiting for an interview call before I made the post.

The overall problem seems to be that Skyrim is failing to connect to my Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU and is instead rendering using the native Intel Integrated Graphics 4600 which is what the i7-4790k is stocked with.

@Ralof
The reason I'm having an issue, is that the game will not play functionally at any setting due to the graphics card detection error, despite manual tweaks in the graphics settings using the game as is.

Overall it has been playing better after a hardware update, however it is still having significant play-ability issues in the form of gnarly VHS style screen tearing despite being set for V-Sync in all available locations or turning all forms of V-Sync off.

@Vlad
In the Nvidia Control panel, I have now have the Nvidia GTX 1050 selected as my dedicated PhysiX driver control after finding the menu option and I'm currently waiting to find out if this fixed the problem. The hold up is waiting for the game to re-install after giving up and then choosing to chase rabbits again.

I previously tried setting the SkyrimSE.exe file in both the Nvidia control panel and using the GeForce Experience to launch the .exe, however I tried these fixes before dedicating the GTX 1050 GPU in the PhysiX preferences. So my next step is to try launching this way after the re-install.

[Misuune]

Inside NVIDIA Control Panel's Manage 3D Settings "Global Settings" there should be a preferred graphics processor option, select High performance GPU and click apply.

That should technically do it, but delete your INIs just in case so they can be regenerated then just start the game normally and if it will throw up the error again just ignore it and play.

Also PhysX is a physics engine made by NVIDIA, you're only setting it to use your GPU to perform the calculations for the games running with that piece of middleware. So for a game like Skyrim which runs on Havok, this means nothing but for games that run with PhysX it'll do it's job.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

@Ralof

These instructions are more or less the same that I've seen elsewhere and what I've tried to follow except there isn't an option like that anywhere.

My Nvidia Control Panel looks like

3D Settings
-Adjust image with preview
-Manage 3D Settings
--Global Settings / Program Settings
-Configure PhysX
-- PhysX Settings - Nvidia GPU or CPU (Intel Integrated 4600)

I've attempted to adjust the different settings in the Global Settings and no where is there a preferred graphics processor option, the closest I've found was through the Configure PhysX and selecting the GPU instead of Auto.

I've attempted defaulting the 3D settings, I've attempted setting them to performance and I've attempted the quality settings as well and they have no overall affect on the play-ability or graphics settings in the game launcher and turning up the graphics in the Skyrim Launch or trying to match them to the Nvidia Control panel settings also doesn't fix anything and only makes the game run worse.

My overall system is:

CPU: i7-4790k @ 4ghz
MoBo: MSI B85-G43 Gaming
GPU: EVGA NVidia GTX 1050 2gb
RAM: Dual Channeled Patriot Viper DDR3 (2x8) 16gb @ 1600 mhz 8-9-9
PSU: EVGA 550w 80+ Gold

So I more than meet the minimum operating requirements with the fresh CPU and MoBo update and my system isn't running under-powered unless I manually overclock it.

[Vlad 254]

Under "Program Settings" when you set it to Skyrim SE

do you have:

CUDA - GPU's

and

Monitor Technology

[MidnightGuideWriter]

@Vlad 254

I've got:

...
Antialiasing
-FXAA
-Gamma
-Setting
-Transparency
-Background App Max Frame Rate
CUDA GPU - Use Global - Nvidia / Use These GPUs - Nvidia (This Second option Selected)
Low Latency
Max Frame Rate
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA)
OpenGl Rendering GPU
Power Management
...

[Misuune]

If you're using Windows 10, go to settings, graphics settings then under Graphics performance preference select Desktop app if it's set to Microsoft Store for any reason then just browse to Skyrim, select both the launcher and game and set them to use your dedicated GPU.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

@ Ralof

I'm on a fresh installation of windows 10, everything is update and set for performance.

I double checked my Graphics preference through the desktop settings and it is set to:
Desktop App

I just got Skyrim special edition reinstalled and tried to see of the tweaked Nvidia settings were working and got the launcher message that "Skyrim failed to detect graphics hardware and will set to low".

I tried ultra for just because and got some slightly better results without the screen tearing, but once I got into the open it started to render badly and the GPU heated up 20 degrees C, so now I have try stepping down and checking for stability.

The good news is there were no VHS like screen tears happening in the 5 minutes of testing.

[Misuune]

Originally posted by MidnightGuideWriter:

@ Ralof

I'm on a fresh installation of windows 10, everything is update and set for performance.

I double checked my Graphics preference through the desktop settings and it is set to:
Desktop App

I just got Skyrim special edition reinstalled and tried to see of the tweaked Nvidia settings were working and got the launcher message that "Skyrim failed to detect graphics hardware and will set to low".

I tried ultra for just because and got some slightly better results without the screen tearing, but once I got into the open it started to render badly and the GPU heated up 20 degrees C, so now I have try stepping down and checking for stability.

The good news is there were no VHS like screen tears happening in the 5 minutes of testing.

Screen tearing is caused by framerate exceeding monitor's refresh rate, you can enable V-Sync to counter that at cost of slight input lag which doesn't exactly matter for a game like Skyrim. So don't worry about that, otherwise you could limit your FPS to match the refresh rate.

Also set your settings to High as Ultra is generally known to perform worse while not looking much different from High. You can also use a application called BethINI to tweak the configuration files within a user interface, and also the presets in it are better than stock launcher ones due to various changes they contain.

And within the graphics settings you were meant to have Desktop app selected to then click browse and go to game's directory to add the Skyrim.exe then after clicking on the game within Graphics settings select Options and set the GPU there to dedicated one.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by Ralof:

Screen tearing is caused by framerate exceeding monitor's refresh rate, you can enable V-Sync to counter that at cost of slight input lag which doesn't exactly matter for a game like Skyrim. So don't worry about that, otherwise you could limit your FPS to match the refresh rate.

Also set your settings to High as Ultra is generally known to perform worse while not looking much different from High. You can also use a application called BethINI to tweak the configuration files within a user interface, and also the presets in it are better than stock launcher ones due to various changes they contain.

And within the graphics settings you were meant to have Desktop app selected to then click browse and go to game's directory to add the Skyrim.exe then after clicking on the game within Graphics settings select Options and set the GPU there to dedicated one.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

I reduced the settings down to high and whatever series of tweaks I made seems to have resulted in a stable and playable game.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by MidnightGuideWriter:

I reduced the settings down to high and whatever series of tweaks I made seems to have resulted in a stable and playable game.

Excellent news Midnight. Enjoy your game.