Skyrim not recognising video card installed

Osborne134

New member
Hi

I've recently bought a PC from PC Specialist and the computer is great/works a treat.

There is a legacy issue though in that for some reason Skyrim has problems detecting my GPU, I know this is not unique to me. All the conversations I've researched/forums etc are somewhat out of date and so I was wondering if anyone here had the experience of Skyrim not recognising the GPU on their new machine?

Below is my specs. when launching Skyrim in steam, the Skyrim launcher comes up and says Unidentified Video Card.

To be fair the game runs perfectly but I suspect it's due to all other settings on my machine. I can see graphics card is installed correctly on my machine/drivers are there etc and the GPU is set to the default one to use. I do think it is just Skyrim that is the problem and not the computer itself.

Any advice is appreciated

Many thanks,


Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO S600 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700 (3.0GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF B360M-PLUS GAMING: Micro-ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 80 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
 

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Bhuna50

Author Level
Have you tried setting your graphics card as a priority in the nvidia experience / nvidia options ?

Unfortunately I can’t do screen pics for you or remember exactly where as my laptops broke and getting new one built.

Edit: right click desktop, select nvidia control panel, in the Manage 3D sessions you should be able to find Skyrim and then set it to use your geforce card rather than integrated.

Thats all i can remember sorry so if have a look around if its not exactly that or hopefully someone else can come in and say further.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

Gavras

Master Poster
When you say Skyrim, which version, original, SE or modded version of either?

the following is a mod fix for some issues.






it looks like common theme is graphics card not being in database or details in the .ini file.

running via Nvidia experience also seems to work.
 

Osborne134

New member
Hi all

Thank you for your responses

So it's a bizarre one as there is multiple issues here, although thankfully I'm OK

In summary, the Skyrim launcher sometimes cannot detect your GPU, that DOES NOT mean Skyrim itself isn't running of your GPU.

To check if it is running of your GPU, you can go to SkyrimPrefs.ini and search for sD3DDevice= . Here it should state what GPU the game is running on. Mine says the correct GPU

The game runs perfectly on my machine, I'm yet to run any mods/graphical upgrades on it but yes the ini file sees my GPU, there's another file within the installation location of Skyrim called gpu and again within there it is saying the correct GPU

Finally to confirm I am talking about Skyrim Special Edition.

I do need to test this, but the whole "cannot detect graphics card message" is a bit misleading
 
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