What would I need to upgrade to get more performance out of Skyrim?

[InDarkestNight]

So you're saying I already screwed up and spent over $200 buying components that won't actually help me? I guess the processor will let me run games that a bit more script heavy at least. As a long time user of Frostfall, I'm well aware of how much scripting my game can handle. Considering that Frostfall always eats up most of what my comp can handle, I have nothing against improving that even if by a little bit. In the past when I was doing the relic hunter challenge, my game would literally crash if I moved during the first few seconds of starting a new game due to the sheer number of mods being enabled. Seriously.

That said, what will all I've done do? I know the ram isn't going to do much (I already have twice the ram that skyrim LE can use at max), but they're not that expensive and it could help me run other games anyway. The processor was mainly to try and get more out of my graphics card. Its a rather modest one btw, being only 4gb (though I thought it was 2gb for the longest time because the ultra tiny fine print on the box says you NEED at least 2gb of ram to use the card). Besides, I did recently upgrade to an ssd, so maybe a newer processor may be a wiser idea. This one is only 2 years newer granted, but at least its seen 0 use. Hopefully it'll take longer to burn out on me. Not that I've ever had a processor fail. Well, outside this one time I fried the processor of a laptop running games it couldn't handle. I've just never had one fail due to age, it seems it and the motherboard tend to be the last components. I went through two graphics cards on one computer once and I never replaced the processor on that. And yes, both those graphics card fried. The hdd however did last long enough for me to transfer it to a new computer, though it did burn out after 3 years of use in that sony vaio. Like I said, I'm not a version chaser; I don't replace anything in my computer, let alone the computer itself, until the thing straight breaks down. I only upgraded to an ssd due to my sshd frying. I then only switched to linux because before windows 10 wouldn't let me install it. I was overjoyed at having a blank drive that didn't have a single thing installed on it that could stop me. Of course, I'm still in the process of getting all my software up and working (or a functional equivalent of it). Still, switching has given me better performance. Linux doesn't run nearly as much stuff in the background, so I have seen an increase in processing power. The ssd helps too I guess.

As for loading times, if the processor doesn't matter, then why did switching my computer to 'performance' mode decrease the loading time slightly? Before it was set to 'balanced' (intermediate between 'performance' and 'power saver'). Also, I've since found out that ICBINE 1 is sorta infamous for eating up more performance than the later ones. Being in the middle of a playthrough, and being sick and tired of futzing with my load order, I have yet to try ICBINE 3 though.

[7531Leonidas]

Well, I kind of missed that you were running on LE, not SE.  I have had in excess of 18G of memory being swapped around in SE.  Also, I didn't say that the processor didn't matter with loading times, just that I recalled that the other things potentially affected it more.

[InDarkestNight]

Well, installing ICBINE 1 did eat up a lot of scripting time. Like I said, it made load times significantly longer, as in by several fold. I could also tell that my game was acting like I was running too many scripts. I didn't have an fps loss, but I still had the occasional stutter along with other issues. Clearly I'm not running THAT next to Frostfall. That thing alone gives me a far worse performance hit than Frostfall ever did. In fact, as I said it only compared to having over 100 esps installed at once! I don't know if that's normal or not, though I do suspect part of my problem may be my computer having to emulate the dlls, and at the same time as Skyrim no less. Then again, base Skyrim does get better performance on this thing despite being emulated, so maybe its not THAT big of a deal? I'm using proton 8 ge if it matters, which is actually related to the emulators steam comes with, and I hear they actually use on their steam deck.

[RomanR]

"The i7 7700 is going for $184.50 on amazon right now."

"So you're saying I already screwed up and spent over $200 buying components that won't actually help me?"

I hope that you didn't paid such ridiculous price to this scalper. You were reluctant to pay same for new HW, yet you spent it already to support obsolete tech it seems. Yes, I advised you to look for i7-6700/7700, but only because you was stuborn to use such old MB and these two were compatible and most powerful for your chipset. With little searching I found this CPU for about 106$ including postage on EBay from US seller.

Sigh... if only at least one listened to my advices. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in some asylum or among children looking like adult people.

[InDarkestNight]

I did nothing you didn't tell me to. Also, playing it safe and saving money isn't being 'stubborn'. I thought we decided together this was my best option? I even bought the thermal paste just because you told me to. Of course, I also decided to play it safe and get it just in case I needed it. I won't actually know until I put my cpu's fan off, but of course once I do that I"ll need it to put it back together. Besides, it was only $8.

Besides, it not like I'd have any less left over working components even if I did replace the motherboard and powersupply and processor and maybe the graphics card and the ram if I didn't get a motherboard that supported ddr4. Also, its not like anything I bought wouldn't be obsolete in just 2 years. What, should I pay over $1000 every two years for new tech? When I'm just using it to play the same games that were released at best 8 years ago?

Either way, its said and done. You still haven't answered half my questions, which is really getting on my nerves. The latest one being how much of an impact this is actually going to make. I wanted more info, and time and time again you refused to give it to me. Doesn't help I couldn't find much of it on my own. I still don't know what processor I would need at minimum for my graphics card. The one I'm getting isn't it, though it does appear to be closer. Its not like the box lists what processor I would need. It mentions how much RAM I would need, but that's it. Come to think of it, does that mean I have 2gb less ram for other applications due to the graphics card? Have I been effectively running with 6gb of free RAM? Who knows how much of that is being taken up by the emulator? Maybe putting in more RAM would be a good idea, considering that Skyrim alone is taking up 4gb.

Surely this is going to make somewhat of a difference. I don't know how much, but I guess I'll know tomorrow when I finally get the processor and put it. Still not sure a klutz like me should be doing that, but I doubt staples would do it for me, especially for free. Guess I just have to hope I don't destroy both processors in the process of moving them around.

[7531Leonidas]

I do not know if it can be set up to run under Linux, but there is Skyrim Performance Monitor ( https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6491 ).  It could help you keep track of your memory usage, among other stats.  It requires Microsoft.net to run, so it might not be useful to you.

[InDarkestNight]

That would require me to download something directly from microsoft, which I'm assuming wouldn't work on my machine. Besides, it looks a bit shady to me.

That said though, my OS does come with this built-in to an extent. It has a program called 'system monitor', which shows me how much of my processing power I"m using, along with my 'memory' (don't know what that is, but its show a little over 8 gb so I'm assuming its my RAM), along with my internet speed. Simply idling, it shows my 4 cores (yes, it shows all 4 individually) hoving between 0 and 6%. My memory right now is 8.3 gb max, and right now 2.2~2.3 gb are being used. I would imagine part of that is being used by firefox. With steam open, my processors are showing 5%~10% (they're constantly fluctuating). Memory spiked to 3.0~3.1 gb. Opening mod organizer, my processing power doesn't change, though it does make my memory jump to 4.0 gb. So yeah, using half my ram just to run MO. Opening Skyrim (yes, i can keep this window open even when Skyrim's running), my memory goes up to 5.1 gb and my cores are all running at over 50% most of the time. I started in whiterun, then moved to the exterior area. This didn't cause a change in memory usage oddly. Right now I have a very minimal load order. It consists purely of the following mods:

+Grid Transition CTD Fix (non-USLEEP)-1-0
+NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash
+Improved Table Transition Animations LE by Xtudo
+Muffle The Nirnroot - Mute
+Glowing Mushroom Collision Fixes
+Scripts Carefully Reworked - AIO LE by Xtudo-1-1-
+Male Nord Hair 04 fix
+Violent Alduin v1_0 -Normal
+Elemental_Dragons
+Skyrim Immersive Creatures
+Violent Alduin Retexture
+Better Dialogue Controls
+MfgConsole
+Immersive HUD - iHUD
+SkyUI
+Skyrim Underground - esm

Note that its listed upside for some reason. I have no graphics related mods installed right now; the closest is that 'male nord hair fix', which stops one of the nord hairdos from clipping through helmets. Most of what I have are actually tools and quality of life stuff (such as that glowing mushroom collision fix and better dialogue controls, along with a couple of stability mods). I would suspect my RAM usage would go up if I was running 2k textures and far more content. Don't know how much that could be, but before on windows 10 I was able to load a save with a 99% filled Legacy of the Dragonborn museum, with 2k textures, and my comp was able to handle it. I could even enter the armory, which is infamous for causing a performance hit due to the sheer number of objects that can be in that room.

Looking at my processors, maybe I do need a bit more. I'm also not too happy about half my RAM being taken up just running MO. A bit more would surely be a good idea. Skyrim may not be able to use more than 4gb, but I still need some left over for other programs! I'm literally just BARELY able to run Skyrim here! So yeah, the ram upgrade is a must, along with a new processor. Sadly, the thing won't show me my gpu or vram. Wish I could see that too. Oh well.

edit: On second thought, perhaps changing what modding program I use may be a good idea. I mean, MO is using half my available ram as-is. NMM didn't need to be open for me to run Skyrim, and I would assume Vortex is the same. So perhaps vortex would give me better performance. I've never used it though because it installs stuff directly into your Skyrim folder, which causes all sorts of problems and was the main issue with NMM! Besides, l like having multiple profiles that I can freely switch between without having to install stuff. Still, perhaps MO is eating up too much performance. I guess that should be obvious, given that it's using some sort of trickery to make Skyrim think a bunch of stuff is in its data folder when its not. In fact, it may be more responsible for that spike in RAM and processing power than Skyrim itself! So yeah, maybe MO actually isn't the best mod manager. Guess I'll be looking into vortex after I'm done with this playthrough.

Edited January 29, 2024 by InDarkestNight

[InDarkestNight]

Oh and further more, this could explain the problems I was having with s#*! Edition! I couldn't get the thing stable no matter what I did. LE was always more stable than s#*! Edition. Now, I think I can see why; I only had 4 gb to spare for running the game. s#*! Edition, having no memory limit (well, practically anyway, technically it would be several thousand terabytes of RAM), the thing was constantly going over the limit of what I had left. LE, having a limit of 4gb couldn't do that. s#*! Edition was overflowing into the RAM MO was using! And I would assume all my 4k parallax textures were NOT helping with that!

So, I finally have an explanation for why s#*! Edition is less stable on my system than LE. Guess once I install this RAM, this thing will be able to handle s#*! Edition at least better than it did before. Still, I am NOT willing to play the game with all that disgusting revolting pure evil AE garbage in there. I did re-download the game right before the update hit, so I would always have a copy of it. Of course, I've since lost it now; if I were to reinstall s#*! edition I would have to accept the current update. I will genuinely be happy the day bethesda goes under, and their IPs either get taken over by another more reasonable company or best case scenario; THEY BECOME ABANDONWARE. Imagine that, a free Skyrim that will never ever be updated again. It would be a new golden age for this game. Heck, people could possibly even get the source code, opening the flood gates in terms of what mods can be done. Of course, its highly unlikely that would happen given how profitable Skyrim is. Who wouldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it? We are allowed to dream though, aren't we?

[zixi]

8 hours ago, 7531Leonidas said:

It requires Microsoft.net

You can run a version of .net for Ubuntu. There are instructions on MS site for Ubuntu installation. If you install MO2 then it ought to grab .net in any case. The .net thing for Ubuntu was built for Linux - I think there was some kind of joint venture if I remember correctly... maybe a more Linux savvy person will correct me if I'm wrong. My memory isn't what it used to be for what seems like trivia now.  So don't take my word for it. The bit about MS pointing to instructions is right though - I've used them. 

I would get the system stable before playing about with stuff though... Playing about with loadsa stuff all at once is a bit too exciting even for me... 

InDarkestNight - I hope it all goes well!

[RomanR]

"Would that even really be worth it? The i7 7700 is going for $184.50 on amazon right now. My website though says its would only be a 25% improvement over what I currently have:"

Why I should answer something which was already answered by yourself?

" Also, playing it safe and saving money isn't being 'stubborn'."

You simply got stingy. Besides if there's a problem, you can return all within 14 days and get money back (at least in my country as standard customer protection when buying something through e-shop).

"You still haven't answered half my questions, which is really getting on my nerves."

Problem was identified and optimal solution suggested from my view already. It's not my fault you decided other way and even with this I recommended most powerfull CPU types available for your chipset at least. Will 25% improvement be enough? It can, but don't expect miracles, honestly.