If you have Xbox Game Pass, you have access to the notoriously-portable Skyrim, fifth game in the Elder Scrolls series. There’s a good chance you’ve played this game already, multiple times even. You may have even already purchased Skyrim Special Edition for Xbox One back when it came out. Unfortunately the console version is locked to 30 fps. But if you’re grabbing it from Game Pass for the first time, and have a Series X, you’re gonna want to know this trick.
How to Play Skyrim on Xbox Series X at 60 FPS (and Keep Achievements On)
The Xbox versions of Bethesda games allow access to user-created mods in some form or another. Skyrim is a big deal for that, as the modding community is super active and has been for years. It’s super easy, too. On the title screen, all you have to do is press down a couple times – it’s right on the main list. You can browse the selections, but one caveat is that enabling mods disables achievements. But there’s one exception, and it’s the only way to play Skyrim at 4K/60 fps on a console.
In the mods shop, find the Uncap FPS mod. It’s easy enough to find; it popped up right away for me without a search. It takes no time at all to download, and immediately enables itself. It’s worth double-checking though. To know a mod is enabled, you’ll see a checkmark on the icon in your library. Back out to the title screen, and Skyrim will restart itself.
At this point, you have Skyrim with an unlocked frame rate, but your achievements will be locked instead. Luckily, since this specific mod only kicks on when you launch the software, you can go back into the mods library, and disable Uncap FPS in your library. Again, returning to the title screen will restart the game, but it doesn’t close the executable. So Skyrim will think you don’t have mods enabled, but the frame rate remains uncapped.
It’s pretty slick-looking considering how old Skyrim is at this point. But if you aren’t running the game on a modern-ish PC, this is the best way to get the most out of it on a console. At this point the only problem is that if you actually close the software, the mod will actually be disabled. You’ll have to do these steps over again. But since the Xbox Series X has its Quick Resume function, you don’t have to close the game out entirely unless you really want/need to.
Presumably this isn’t considered an exploit, since this mod has been available and functioning this way forever. But from screen tearing to lower resolutions and instability, the Xbox Series X allows this mod to really do what everyone wanted it to in the first place.
Are you checking out Skyrim for the first time now that it’s on Game Pass? Or are you just replaying it for the nth time to check out how it runs on Series X? Let us know your thoughts on the whole Skyrim thing over at the Prima Games Facebook and Twitter channels!
