My Guide to a Smooth running Skyrim with only 4GB of RAM

[haiUnder]

Hey guys Its been about 2 months since I got Skyrim on PC and I seem to finally have it running smoothy thanks to some programs, performance mods, and settings under SkyrimPrefs. I'll tell you even the most basic things because everyone is different and may not know how to update drivers or find reliable programs and so on. I'll show you how bad my System Specs are first.

 

 

System Specs

• Model and Manufacturer: Dell N5050 Laptop
• Processor Intel Core i3-2350M CPU @2.30GHz
• Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB
• System type: 64-bit Operating System
• Graphics card is a horrible Intel 3000 (best keep this in mind)

 

Programs on my PC that help:

• Microsoft Security Essentials (My anti-virus)
  • Its the most reliable and trusted anti-virus, made by Microsoft and doesnt seem to have problems like the other free anti-virus programs I have used.
• Advanced System Care 7 (IObit) FREE VERSION
  • Does scans and fixes for your whole pc from system optimization to vulnerablility fixes and so on. (Do not COMPLETELY rely on this program to make your pc run faster, although it helps so much). Also has a turbo boost feature for gaming.
• Game Booster 3 (IObit) FREE VERSION
  • I use both boosters since they dont seem to end the same programs which I find as a good thing.

 

 

A Couple things you should know

 

Task Manager (Everyone has this)

• Both boosters dont fully do the trick so please end all processes that you are not using. Make sure to show all processes from users so then you can end some non essential system ones which are usually a couple of svchost ones since they take up a lot of RAM at times. Do not end all svchost processes, only the ones taking up a lot of RAM if there are any. Before you show all processes from users make sure that your own user processes with your user name do not have any processes taking up a lot of RAM. Only do this right before you are playing Skyrim.

Windows Temp files

• You should at least once a week delete your temp files. Hold the Windows Key and press R. Type in %temp% and a file will come up. Click on a file and hold the Ctrl key and press A. Right click and Delete but make sure you skip for every message that pops up.

 

 

How to Update Your Drivers

 

You do not need a program to update and download your drivers for you. The only one Ive seen for free is an IObit one and I really do like their programs but that one is unessesary. All you need to do is go to control panel and find "Performance Information and Tools." Once you are there go to "View ways to increase your score" and now you are at a support website for your manufacturer (In my case its Dell). Then just type in the Model you have and it shows you the latest drivers for that model for you to dowload. You should know how to do the rest since there are step by step inscructions after you download each new driver.

 

 

Performance Mods from Skyrim Nexus

 

Keep in mind that you have to browse for these but these are the names of the mods. I only have Heathfire DLC so a couple of these mods are for Skyrim only without DLC, but there are other versions of the mod.

 

Lastly these are not the only mods I have, I have many that I use to enhance or enjoy my game like ENBs, house mods, quest mods, even some non simplistic mods like TES Arena - SKyrim Frontier Fortress which has around 6-8 new cities and I barely get FPS drops or performance loss at all.

• Optimizer Textures
• Remove Underwater Grass
• Skyrim Performance PLUS - Pine Needles FX
• Skyrim Performance PLUS - Rainfall FX
• Skyrim Performance PLUS - Snowfall FX
• Skyrim Performance PLUS - The Rift - Aspen Leaves FX - Super Performance
• Bethesda Performance Textures - Animals and Creatures - BPT_AC_SKYRIM_1_2
• Bethesda Performance Textures - Animals and Creatures - BPT_Argonian
• Bethesda Performance Textures - Animals and Creatures - BPT_Khajiit
• Bethesda Performance Textures - Armor - Clothes - Weapons - BPT_Skyrim_3_0
• Colorful Lights - No Shadows - More FPS
• FPS Limiter
• HIALGOBOOST GPU UPGRADE
• CTD and Memory pantch ENBoost
• Gigantic Skyrim FPS Performance Patch
• Skyrim CFG
• Awesome Loading Screen Replacement (it helps load less with a simplistic 2d loading screen which makes your performance better)
• Skyrim Performance Monitor v3_63

 

Skyrim Options and Skyrim Prefs

 

I used this to get a good Skyrim Prefs file just make sure when you replace it make a backup file to put your previous Skyrim Prefs just in case something goes wrong. Go to your Documents/Games/Skyrim and you will see it. Make sure when you finish downloading you extract files and once you do that read the read me. After everything is done right click the new SkyrimPrefs file and go to properties and make it read only, so then settings would not change when starting up Skyrim. Make sure your Nexus Mod Manager is not able to change the read only setting on the SkyrimPrefs.

 

Here is a link to the download. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/18593/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D18593&pUp=1

 

Lastly you need to go to your Skyrim Launcher and go to Options.

Make both the Antialiasing and Anisotroptic Filtering turned off.

 

Click Advanced.

 

Make the first option Medium, second and third options Low, and last option None. Go to the view distance tab and move all the markers towards the left with Distant Object Detail on low. I have Object Detail Fade on I dont think that would mess with anything.

 

Note: Keep in mind that I have an Intel 3000, if you have a newer pc but with still 4GB of RAM you can try putting the texture quality on high. I tried it myself but I was getting some FPS drops. If you dont like it you can always change the settings anyways.

 

 

Before: 3-8 FPS

After: 35-40 FPS

Keep in mind that results vary but this was my result.

 

I think I got everything covered and I know some of this everyone knows or should know but a couple might find those things useful. I made this because I never saw a post and tried everything when to boost my performance when I started out. I hope this can help others.

Edited September 6, 2014 by haiUnder

[gedocs1217]

Hi,

 

Very good summary. I used to have similar problems with Fallout with a slightly worse rig and I also went through many of these workarounds you wrote, with a result. As a complementary suggestion to your advices, I would say SSME or the new skse memory patch. They radically reduce freezes and ctds as well as infinite loadscreens by allocating more vram, Skyrim can handle by default. In my experience they have the same effect. Though I don't know if they have any impact on the performance, but stability also counts a lot.

 

I would tell my experience with the techniques I tried from your list, if you don't mind. Maybe it comes handy for someone. Then I was playing on an i3 2.3GHZ 2GB RAM monster, with a nvidia GT 420M gpu (1GB RAM)

Texture optimizer was a great deal and gave me a much better performance when I reduced textures significantly. Skyrim Performance PLUS is handy but only in certain areas, and honestly I hadn’t actually noticed its benefits directly while playing. For me, Hi Algo worked in the opposite way I expected: my fps dropped down and I got heavy stutter, so I removed it. On the other hand, ENBoost was the best solution, which I've ever tried. When I used its functions without graphics, I finally got a smooth gameplay. From then, I personally keep away from any third-party boosters and dll hacks other than Boris' ENBoost injector, since they don't work well together. But it's only my opinion... As for these ini tweaks, I can confirm, they worked for me and setting iPresentInterval=0 (disables vsync) in skyrimPrefs.ini helps too. (By now, I have a much better PC but I've also been using many of these tricks, because most of them are essential)

good luck and hope many people find your guide useful!

Edited December 4, 2014 by gedocs1217

[haiUnder]

I never used or installed SSME or the new SKSE memory patch, I dont know where to get them. Im still a beginner for Skyrim PC pretty much :P

[gedocs1217]

SSME http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305/? is easier to set up.
Skse http://skse.silverlock.org/ is also highly recommended and often required for the majority of mods. If you decide to install this, there's a file in data\skse folder, called skse.ini (if not, create it). You should add these lines in it:

 

[General]
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

[Memory]
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
ScrapHeapSizeMB=256

Edited September 8, 2014 by gedocs1217

[NickYez]

Another tip I'd like to add:

 

What helped me the most for being able to play with an acceptable frame rate on a low-end laptop (after trying alot of these performance boosters), is playing in windowed mode. I play in windowed mode on a 800x450 resolution, and while that is pretty small, I do get a way better gameplay experience, and the low quality textures are less noticable.

Definitely something to try!

 

Also, if you want atleast some sort of Anti-Aliasing, I found SMAA to be quite good: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.de/p/injectsmaa.html

It does lower my fps by 3-4 frames, but you can easily turn it off and on by pressing the "pause" button on the keyboard.

[haiUnder]

Another tip I'd like to add:

 

What helped me the most for being able to play with an acceptable frame rate on a low-end laptop (after trying a lot of these performance boosters), is playing in windowed mode. I play in windowed mode on a 800x450 resolution, and while that is pretty small, I do get a way better gameplay experience, and the low quality textures are less noticable.

Definitely something to try!

 

Also, if you want atleast some sort of Anti-Aliasing, I found SMAA to be quite good: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.de/p/injectsmaa.html

It does lower my fps by 3-4 frames, but you can easily turn it off and on by pressing the "pause" button on the keyboard.

The SSMA doesnt seem to work for me I downloaded it and put it in my Skyrim folder like it told me to do. I tried both DirectX 9 and 10. :/