Can these specs run a heavily modded skyrim at 60fps

[tayosm]

So I have over 200 mods installed (include 4k textures for almost everything), and I'm also using a heavy ENB. My game runs at 15fps minimum and at 40fps maximum if I'm lucky. It drops all the way down to 5fps with +40 npcs. What's bothering me is that I've seen some people running a heavily modded 4k skyrim at 60fps with the same specs as mine :confused: here are my specs:

 

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz

RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3

Motherboard: ASUS Z97

GPU: Two 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

Monitor: 2560x1440

I've also tweaked the inis, downloaded mods such as the memory block mod and ssme.. am I doing something wrong? I don't have the best knowledge so please enlighten me.

Thanks in advance.

[bben46]

Nothing can guarantee a high fps. The more stuff you pile on the harder the game has to work to keep up.

Some other suggestions - background processes can slow things down. Messaging programs are well known for this.

Some mods are not well optimized and will slow things out of proportion to what they do in the game

Beth games in the past have not responded well to multiple GPU cards. Try with just one and document the differences you see.

People lie a lot about how well their computer performs, so take those claims with a grain of salt. :tongue:

[tayosm]

Nothing can guarantee a high fps. The more stuff you pile on the harder the game has to work to keep up.

Some other suggestions - background processes can slow things down. Messaging programs are well known for this.

Some mods are not well optimized and will slow things out of proportion to what they do in the game

Beth games in the past have not responded well to multiple GPU cards. Try with just one and document the differences you see.

People lie a lot about how well their computer performs, so take those claims with a grain of salt. :tongue:

 

Actually, it's quite the opposite for me when it comes to the multiple GPU cards :smile: I remember finding out that the SLI was never enabled, so I enabled it and I was amazed by the difference it made in performance. But :laugh: that was before I went crazy and installed everything 4k.

I also close all programs before running skyrim. I think that it does have something to do with some mods not being well optimized.

And yes, I think you're right.

 

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/1-13-2016/cwTkF-.gif

 

Lol, thanks for the reply! :)

[prinyo]

"Heavily modded" can mean a lot of things :-) I have found that the key is "cleverly modded".

 

I'm running over 200 mods on lower specs ( like 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960) on a 4K resolution and I have no problems keeping up the 60fps. I do however experience longer loading screens.

The key is to select the texture mods carefully. Here is a really good (however quite long) guide that might help: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2ahhop/ultimate_guide_for_the_best_visual_to_performance/

 

 

In short the rule is that for most items you do not really need the 4k textures. The simple rule I use is - the bigger the object the better the textures need to be. You don't really need 4k textures for septims, pots, baskets, weapons, armor and so on. They will slow you down with no visible benefit. Rocks, mountains, houses and such deserve the better quality.

 

I found that installing the ENB patch (without preset, only the optimization patch) helped a lot in order to stabilize the game on 4K.

 

I haven't however found a solution for the loading screens yet. On a 4K resolution with medium quality settings I get about 3 seconds loading screen. On ultra settings it can go up to 3 minutes.

Edited January 14, 2016 by prinyo

[ironbender800]

I am currently using a gtx 970 and ENB and heavy textures at that resolution will likely cripple it.

 

Even at 1080p you arent getting 60fps with a bunch of textures and ENB. Now without ENB thats a different story.

 

always use performance versions of ENB

[536861646f57]

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5 series with 2K textures, and I get a 30FPS average. Try reducing your antialiasing settings to 4x, there's no visible difference, especially on a large monitor such as yours. ENBs can really bog down a system. I tried an ENB with ONLY God Rays and my FPS dropped by 15 (on a different machine). Try the multithreading tweaks if you haven't. Disable mods which do similar things, I'm sure you can live without some of them and still be happy. I try to keep my modcount UNDER 40, because once you get past 50-60 mods your system is really bogged down. Another thing is slightly reducing your render resolution. 1366x768 for me versus 1600x900 produced a massive difference in framerate and a hardly noticeable difference in quality. One more thing is after you've uninstalled all of your redundant mods, (try to keep the .esp count below 150), download a save cleaner. Residual scripts and data can hurt a system. I used a crappy Dell for a long time, and I got 45 FPS on 800x600 average, but when I got further into the game and added mods it went down to about 15-20 FPS. I reinstalled Skyrim on it and started a fresh game and my framerate shot back up. ENBs are not always the solution to poor GFX quality, sometimes modding the internal renderer's settings (like Imaginator) can produce the same effect without screwing your system over. Try some AMD cards, crossfire is generally better than SLI.

 

Edit #1: Uninstall any mods you haven't used or dealt with in the past week. I use the two week rule because I have less mods, but the principal still applies. I empty my Recycle Bin every day, and empty my FRAPS folder ever day as well. Buy CCleaner if you want, sometimes Windows has internal issues that can affect application performance.

Edited January 14, 2016 by 536861646f57

[tayosm]

"Heavily modded" can mean a lot of things :-) I have found that the key is "cleverly modded".

 

I'm running over 200 mods on lower specs ( like 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960) on a 4K resolution and I have no problems keeping up the 60fps. I do however experience longer loading screens.

The key is to select the texture mods carefully. Here is a really good (however quite long) guide that might help: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2ahhop/ultimate_guide_for_the_best_visual_to_performance/

 

 

In short the rule is that for most items you do not really need the 4k textures. The simple rule I use is - the bigger the object the better the textures need to be. You don't really need 4k textures for septims, pots, baskets, weapons, armor and so on. They will slow you down with no visible benefit. Rocks, mountains, houses and such deserve the better quality.

 

I found that installing the ENB patch (without preset, only the optimization patch) helped a lot in order to stabilize the game on 4K.

 

I haven't however found a solution for the loading screens yet. On a 4K resolution with medium quality settings I get about 3 seconds loading screen. On ultra settings it can go up to 3 minutes.

 

I guess I'll go back to your suggestion if I couldn't find any other solution :smile: cuz I take screenshots and there's no way I would give up using a preset. But I think that your rule is great, " the bigger the object the better the textures need to be". So I'll do that :smile: thanks

 

Edit: As for the slow loading screen, perhaps you'd find something here? http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/2138899-my-loading-screens-are-disgustingly-longi-cant-bare-it/

Edited January 16, 2016 by tayosm

[tayosm]

I am currently using a gtx 970 and ENB and heavy textures at that resolution will likely cripple it.

 

Even at 1080p you arent getting 60fps with a bunch of textures and ENB. Now without ENB thats a different story.

 

always use performance versions of ENB

 

Guess I should stop being stubborn and give up some of the 4ks :laugh:

[tayosm]

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5 series with 2K textures, and I get a 30FPS average. Try reducing your antialiasing settings to 4x, there's no visible difference, especially on a large monitor such as yours. ENBs can really bog down a system. I tried an ENB with ONLY God Rays and my FPS dropped by 15 (on a different machine). Try the multithreading tweaks if you haven't. Disable mods which do similar things, I'm sure you can live without some of them and still be happy. I try to keep my modcount UNDER 40, because once you get past 50-60 mods your system is really bogged down. Another thing is slightly reducing your render resolution. 1366x768 for me versus 1600x900 produced a massive difference in framerate and a hardly noticeable difference in quality. One more thing is after you've uninstalled all of your redundant mods, (try to keep the .esp count below 150), download a save cleaner. Residual scripts and data can hurt a system. I used a crappy Dell for a long time, and I got 45 FPS on 800x600 average, but when I got further into the game and added mods it went down to about 15-20 FPS. I reinstalled Skyrim on it and started a fresh game and my framerate shot back up. ENBs are not always the solution to poor GFX quality, sometimes modding the internal renderer's settings (like Imaginator) can produce the same effect without screwing your system over. Try some AMD cards, crossfire is generally better than SLI.

 

Edit #1: Uninstall any mods you haven't used or dealt with in the past week. I use the two week rule because I have less mods, but the principal still applies. I empty my Recycle Bin every day, and empty my FRAPS folder ever day as well. Buy CCleaner if you want, sometimes Windows has internal issues that can affect application performance.

 

ENBs requires disabling antialiasing most of the time so. You're right, to be honest, without an ENB I can actually reach 40-60 fps! but I can't give up using a preset cuz I take screenshots a lot. And the game just looks hideous without a preset. The multithreading tweaks did nothing, shame. I was excited I actually thought I found a solution. Thanks alot :) I'm gonna try all of the other tips like getting rid of unnecessary mods, cleaning save files, and reducing my render resolution.

[Signette]

I honestly don't see the reason to have heavy-preset ENBs for Skyrim, 4k textures, enhanced lighting, parallax and stuff for purely playing purposes. Most of this stuff is made for showcases in mind where FPS doesn't play huge role. In monatge videos or for screenshots if game has 30 FPS average - it's perfectly fine.

 

Now, while you play, even in insanely modded Skyrim towards visual beauty it still looks odd, to say the least... Game is old, and you'll definitely find some low-res textures somewhere. When furry, live-like Khahiit moves like a plastic doll and has clipping, steel plate scales on his chest when he moves and etc gives you VERY odd impression.

 

Visuals can be modded towards improvement, sure, but to logical extent, keeping in mind that you won't pay too much attention at high-res sand with parallax and sun reflexions on the beach which gonna eat up tons of hardware resources for no good reason. And yes, you can have NASA computer, but heavy-ENBs + visual mods gonna kill FPS hardcore.