Low performance when playing skyrim (with mods)

[Austinlele]

First time poster, I'm hoping this is a good place for this. I've done a fair bit of research and tweaking but haven't found a satisfying answer..

 

So my "problem" is what I personally perceive to be a mid-high end PC producing less than expected FPS for a modded Skyrim. I would love if someone knowledgeable on the subject could put in their 2 cents on whether or not this is normal. I use an ENB (new vivid weathers mod and enb preset) and have around 80 other various mods at the moment.

 

Specs:

AMD 8320 @ 4.1 Ghz << i have a feeling this may be part of the issue

EVGA GTX 980 ti @ 1136(core) and 1760(memory)

16 GB DDR3 @ 1600

HDD

Windows 10

Game runs at 1080P

 

So I can't seem to uncap the frame limiter in the ini files (iPresentInterval = 0 produces no results) to get an overall average but my FPS vary wildly. I am experiencing dips below 40 fps just outside of riverwood and in other 'high asset' areas. I seem to get close to 60 in general outside but it likes to bounce around 50 to 60+ fps causing vsync to turn on and off a lot. interiors are a solid 60+ fps though. My goal and expectation is for this setup to get me a solid 60+ FPS with no stutter or tearing everywhere. Hopefully I'm not crazy in that regard ;)

 

I can provide much more detailed information but wanted to see if anyone is up for a discussion on this.

 

Thank you everyone!

[Amethystumn]

Windows 10 could also be the problem. I'm building a PC at the moment and I'm going back to Windows 7... so much better. I read somewhere that Windows 10 just likes to eat memory for no particular reason and I feel like Windows 8.1 does the same thing.

 

*Edit you should post your mods and in their load order if you can. That would also help. There are some things mods can do that are not good for your pc and depending on pc specs some mods will probably impact on your performance.

 

2-4k Textures are demanding on your computer's memory

Script Heavy Mods ( Such as Frostfall, Wet and Cold, Real Shelter, Enchanced Blood )

Edited March 22, 2016 by Amethystumn

[CthulhuCthulhu]

Well, you could always try the Video Control panel for Nvidia, this is really strange since my RIG is weaker than yours (GTX 780ti, 6 GB Ram) and I get 120fps always, even in the most demanding of areas, despite RealVision ENB, and 2k Textures. Turn Triple Buffering and Vsync ON, I had performance increase when I tried it. But leave Skyrim's own VSync on by default, turning it off may lead to physics bugs, or problems with the game's schedule and time on which NPCs and quests rely on. Edited March 22, 2016 by CthulhuCthulhu

[CthulhuCthulhu]

I have a feeling that you may be bottlenecked by your CPU, if so refer to the numerous stability guides for Skyrim, and since you have ENB, try the newest ENBoost Boris just released earlier this year, it really helps with stutters and CTDs due to numbered script extensive mods. This really confuses me since my processor is just about on par with yours even lower at a base of 4.0-4.4 Ghz. Or you could overclock the processor, either this by itself, a combination of the above, or all of them should give you guaranteed increase of performance. But my OS is Win7 though, and its perfect, might try that too. Edited March 22, 2016 by CthulhuCthulhu

[Austinlele]

Windows 10 could also be the problem. I'm building a PC at the moment and I'm going back to Windows 7... so much better. I read somewhere that Windows 10 just likes to eat memory for no particular reason and I feel like Windows 8.1 does the same thing.

 

*Edit you should post your mods and in their load order if you can.

 

2-4k Textures are demanding on your computer's memory

Script Heavy Mods ( Such as Frostfall, Wet and Cold, Real Shelter, Enchanced Blood )

 

Windows 10 is probably a bigger drain than I think, but the system should have more than enough RAM and CPU core threads to handle the OS ( i hope :tongue: but not sure )

 

I will include my mod list in an attachment on this post in a moment!

 

I have what i think is a decent, yet not huge amount of texture mods that equal or exceed 2K resolution. The funny thing about that is my VRAM usage stays well below 3,000 MB and the card has twice that amount of memory. Could it be the memory clock can't keep up?? Or perhaps the CPU isn't feeding the GPU fast enough.

 

I do believe I have a healthy amount of script heavy mods, see attached for the full list.

 

Well, you could always try the Video Control panel for Nvidia, this is really strange since my RIG is weaker than yours (GTX 780ti, 6 GB Ram) and I get 120fps always, even in the most demanding of areas, despite RealVision ENB, and 2k Textures. Turn Triple Buffering and Vsync ON, I had performance increase when I tried it. But leave Skyrim's own VSync on by default, turning it off may lead to physics bugs, or problems with the game's schedule and time on which NPCs and quests rely on.

 

Thank you for the tip! Currently I have nvidia V-Sync set to adaptive for "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, TESV.exe" in the control panel. I will need to enable triple buffering. Does running the SKSE launcher from steam still use the TESV.exe? I don't quite get how that all works with steam, skse, the skyrim launcher, and the skyrim.exe

 

Skyrim's V-Sync has been on as well, I mentioned trying to turn it off only to get a better idea of where my FPS were at. That didn't work out so I turned the setting back on immediately.

 

I have a feeling that you may be bottlenecked by your CPU, if so refer to the numerous stability guides for Skyrim, and since you have ENB, try the newest ENBoost Boris just released earlier this year, it really helps with stutters and CTDs due to numbered script extensive mods. This really confuses me since my processor is just about on par with yours even lower at a base of 4.0-4.4 Ghz. Or you could overclock the processor, either this by itself, a combination of the above, or all of them should give you guaranteed increase of performance. But my OS is Win7 though, and its perfect, might try that too.

 

I feel this as well. I checked the CPU usage while in-game and noticed that the usage never exceeded 30%. That includes Windows and other background processes. I do realize that Skyrim can at most use 4 cores and not all of those cores will run at a perfect ~100%, but I'm not sure why Skyrim wouldn't have it closer to 50% usage for an 8 core CPU. I have overclocked this processor to nearly as high as i can get it stable at stock volts. I'm sure an i5 or an i7 would boost the performance, yet i also feel that the overclocked 8320 shouldn't hold the system back as much as it is.... Maybe more research is needed.

 

I have gone through with about half of the tweaks mentioned in that stability guide. Haven't messed with Wyre Bash or some of the more odd tweaks. Maybe worth a shot though. I haven't experienced a CTD since starting a new save, crossing my fingers on that. Used to get them all the time. I do get stutters and tearing as well (which is odd). Triple buffer may help.

 

I am using ENB version 3.05, or whatever the latest version called for by vivid weathers ENB is ha. I have changed some enb ini settings that supposedly help but haven't downloaded a specific enb boost file.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Austinlele

[Amethystumn]

If you're not using it already you should also install LOOT and keep it up to date, really helps out with sorting mods : ) I also cleaned all of the DLC and the Skyrim Update with Tes5Edit. Bethesda did not clean those( I don't know or think that they attempted to) but it's pretty easy to clean them and there are awesome guides out there with picture instructions.

[Austinlele]

If you're not using it already you should also install LOOT and keep it up to date, really helps out with sorting mods : ) I also cleaned all of the DLC and the Skyrim Update with Tes5Edit. Bethesda did not clean those( I don't know or think that they attempted to) but it's pretty easy to clean them and there are awesome guides out there with picture instructions.

 

Done and done haha, I have LOOT run after I install or uninstall new mods. I also make sure everything is cleaned up with Tes5Edit. Both should be up to date. I can also post ini files which i have changed.

 

Screenshots that detail Usages and FPS:

 

Riverwood:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/477752250543780689/AAD3F61A53329EC8D65BA1958A84D0738173CD37/

 

Whiterun:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/477752250543780432/3D3E6F2866C157F654AF397323870D545A881A71/

 

Some Forest:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/477752250543779618/17E949292D41CEA9C508103E354022DB2DC27BE2/

 

(sorry it's hard to see the OSD overlay)

Edited March 22, 2016 by Austinlele

[CthulhuCthulhu]

You could manually set the Control Panel to override the Exe. That SKSE runs, just run Skyrim with SKSE then it'll appear on the list in the "Add application" or whatever it's called, in the Video Panel of course. Oh, and I swear ENBoost is a must-have, it really helps separate GPU and CPU consumption for more efficient methods, it boosted my framerates a LOT, removed stuttering, and eliminated CTDs, even with a crap ton of mods. It's also lightweight and configurable through the ENB menu (I believe). Edited March 22, 2016 by CthulhuCthulhu

[Austinlele]

You could manually set the Control Panel to override the Exe. That SKSE runs, just run Skyrim with SKSE then it'll appear on the list in the "Add application" or whatever it's called, in the Video Panel of course.

I have skse_loader.exe and skse_steam_boot.exe as well as skyrim_launcher.exe and tesv.exe added to the control panel. I guess I can simply change the settings for all 4 of them to make sure the settings stick. Thanks!

 

So any more ideas why I would be getting such low FPS? Seems to be a definite hit in cities.. I have the mod list attached to my 2nd post. (it's short a few texture mods)

[CthulhuCthulhu]

Edited the post above yours, make sure to read it and try it out, ENBoost is your best shot in CPU-intensive areas. Edited March 22, 2016 by CthulhuCthulhu