Noteworthy performance tips?

[Toncey]

I have an extremely bottlenecked system that needs an upgrade. I KNOW THIS; so don't repeat to me 100 times. To the problem at hand: Are there any ways to improve performance (ie. reduce cpu usage, optimize functions, etc)

 

My rig is:

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @ 2.73 GHz

Galaxy GT 640 @1171/1000

4GB DDR2 667Mhz

1280x1024 and 1366x768 Monitors

Win7 64

 

I uninstalled my previous installation and benchmarked Skyrim on high with the HiRes DLC and benchmarked with Skyirm Performance Monitor:

 

I achieve an average of 39 fps but it is not very playable in Whiterun/Riften or when fighting 15-20 npcs.

 

[Lord Garon]

It sorta depends on your priorities. I played on a machine less capable than yours for a LONG time. My priority was "playability"; reduced lag and stutter, responsiveness, things like that. I didn't care about how it "looked", but I notice you benchmarked WITH the HighRes DLC, so appearance seems to be a higher priority for you.

 

Some of the following may, or may not, help:

 

1. It looks like you have v-sync off (from the FPS spikes). That won't increase minimum FPS and may cause physics issues indoors. I would leave it on.

2. Some graphics functions can be performed faster by your video card than by Skyrim. Try turning AA and AF OFF in-game (Skyrim launcher-->Options) and enable minimal settings in your video card control panel. Or, try the opposite. Just make sure you don't have BOTH game and video card settings on.

3. Shadows are a CPU hog; set them to the lowest setting you can live with (Launcher-->Options). Actually, set every option as low as you can and only crank up the ones you really can't live without. Some of the settings have little visual impact, but big performance demands.

4. Normally, Fullscreen is faster, but some systems like Windowed mode. Try both and see if one is more responsive than the other.

5. Draw distances (Launcher-->Options-->Advanced) will affect FPS. Crank them all the way down, test in-game, and slowly move each one up till it meets your standards.

6. Make sure your Windows Power Control settings are on Performance, not a power saving mode.

7. Try your benchmark without the HighRes packs enabled and see if the performance gain is worth the detail loss.

8. Make sure you've done all the "usual" stuff; limit running services and background tasks, exempt Skyrim (tesv.exe) from Anti-Virus checks, latest drivers, etc.

 

I eventually wound up playing in 800x600, but I don't think you need to go that far. The problem is that an un-modded game is affected primarily by graphics settings. The basic idea is to crank everything down (select Low Quality preset, get rid of eye-candy mods), then only raise the settings (or add mods) which you feel are really important.

 

EDIT: For a struggling machine, probably no one setting change will make a big difference, but several small changes will add up. There are a couple ini settings which may help; try this Nvidia guide for an explanation of what the settings do. (Warning! Don't change the [PAPYRUS] block settings. They should know better.)

Edited January 26, 2014 by Lord Garon

[titoman]

Try to mess up with shadow and grass density settings in ini file. From what I found they are major fps killer. And yes being said you have high-re dlc installed, I wouldn't do that if the performance is not good enough I the first place. If you really care about how your game looks, I suggest you to try this enb out:

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15425/?

 

Don't be scared that this is an enb. This one kills almost 0 fps, I notice no difference in performance on several different specs. And it looks really nice as well :p

[RatcatcherOfKvatch]

I'll give another plug to HiAlgoBoost. The new hotkeys that let you choke down the pixel density when you really need the frames lets me use less-aggressive settings while just walking around enjoying the scenery, but in a card-crusher like Illinata's Deep -- or in combat with vampires and guards and civilians all running around where you really need to be sure of your aim -- going full-choke is a great option to have.

They've also changed the algorithm so that larger mouse movements get lower pixel density than fine adjustments, so if you're carefully picking through a shelf full of stuff you don't get the constant fuzzing and de-fuzzing of previous versions.

[DONKENFAP]

I good idea with low power systems is to cap the FPS to 30 like consoles do. This gives you a steady and stable frame-rate instead of the constant up and down spikes. Otherwise just lower the graphics settings, it's not a graphically amazing game, you aren't missing out on much.

 

If you have a gamepad (and don't have PC cretin-itis) an easy performance boost is to drop the resolution to 1280 x 720 and sit back roughly 6 to 7 feet away from your monitor\TV and just play it like a console. Because you are sitting back so far the resolution becomes less important and you will not notice the jagged pixels, the lower resolution can be a huge boost to frame-rate. On the other hand if you are a PC snob then all you can do is just get a better system.

[CaffeinatedOrange]

Shadows are actually handled by the GPU. /cough

 

You noted you had two screens, so play on just one if you haven't done that already.

 

Grass On Steroids is a good mod to use for an FPS boost outdoors in general.

 

HiAlgoBoost and Switch are both good programs to try. Switch would probably be the best thing for you since your FPS is fine except in large battles.