I installed a number of graphical mods, but when I launched Skyrim, nothing looked any different. The mods I grabbed are from this list and they're installed using the mod manager. I loaded it up and started a new game to see what had changed, graphics wise, and there was absolutely no difference. I have a couple steam workshop mods in, if that might be an issue, but other than that, I can't see what would be causing this problem.