Skyrim performance boost

[Werne]

EDIT: This is now obsolete, as explained in post #14.

 

For those who still want to read it, it's in the spoiler but BBCode kinda messed up the way it looks.

 

 

Well, getting Skyrim to work at a playable framerate was a pain for me since my computer is old as hell. When I started the vanilla game for the first time I had a maximum of 17 fps, sometimes even slowing down to 5fps, mostly in crypts (like Bleak Falls Barrow) and especially in the Mages College in Winterhold, but the loading times were the worse, it took 2-5 mins to load when you switch from an interior to an exterior cell. The game also ocasionally crashed and before the crash there would be missing textures, transparent objects and NPC's (ex: kids without heads, only mouth floating in the air), wolves especially liked becoming transparent. Anyway, two weeks after I've got the game I started to play around with my SkyrimPrefs.ini file and I started downloading all performance mods I could to squese every last bit of performance I could get out of this junk I call a computer.

Right now I have a stabile game running at 35-50 fps in exterior, 30-35 in interior cells, it rarely drops below 25 fps (only when there's a bunch of mages casting spells at me). And there is no crashing, freezing, transparent stuff, loading forever, etc.

BASIC STUFF

1. Put steam to offline mode when playing.

It will give somewhat of a boost, for me it reduced stuttering and loading times a bit.

2. Edit your SkyrimPrefs.ini file.

Here's an example of my ini (it's set for a SyncMaster 1440x900 widescreen monitor):

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=0
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=0
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=2000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=1
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600.0000
fGamma=0.7600
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=200.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=200.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=2
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=1
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=800
iSize W=1280
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=0
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=0
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="ENB"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=512
fShadowBiasScale=0.5000
iShadowMaskQuarter=3
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=0.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=0
bSaveOnTravel=0
bSaveOnWait=0
bSaveOnRest=0
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=0
[interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=1
bGeneralSubtitles=1
fMouseCursorSpeed=0.5000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0160
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=0
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[saveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=60.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=12500.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=75000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=25000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=15000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=0.4000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=0
bDecals=0
bSkinnedDecals=0
uMaxSkinDecals=0
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=0
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=1.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=1.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=2.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=0
uLastAspectRatio=4
[blurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=0
[blurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

3. Get TESV Acceleration Layer (you'll need the Skyrim Script Extender to use this).

On it's own this file will not give a very good boost, but combined with the following mods/tools and the ini edits above, it will provide a nice little boost.

4. Get AntiFREEZE Performance patch 9 ENBSeries.

This file helps a lot by reducing stuttering and freezing.

5. Get Game Booster 3.

This handy little tool will kill most useless background processes and programs that can cause your game to lag and further increases performance (for me it shuts down Fraps and kills more than 20 unnecessary background processes). I recommend using this program to everyone who wants to squese more out of their comp.

6. Get FPS Background Booster.

This thing will slightly reduce loading time and will boost FPS by 1-3 frames. The downside is that it doesn't give much of a framerate boost for older computers though for some it could push it to stabile 30 FPS. The upside however is that it can be used to boost any game if you wish so. It affects processor so if your graphics card is what's screwing with you, you won't gain much in terms of performance.

7. No Snows.

This is a mod that can boost framerate in areas where there's snowfall. It makes your game look less pretty but for someone whose computer will catch fire while there's snow in Skyrim (like me), it's pretty much irrelevant.

8. Turn off autosaves.

They were causing transparent stuff an crashes for me, they are also known for corrupting saves in older Bethesda games (FO3 in my case). Turn them off, it will save you from a lot of headaches.

MORE ADVANCED STUFF

1. Overclocking (in spoiler).

WARNING: Overclocking your graphics card and processor can seriously damage your hardware. Inform yourself first if you decide to attempt this.

With that being said, overclocking is a way to make your computer perform outside the factory limitations. It's like tuning an engine for better speed. It's not harmless though, it can seriously damage your hardware and/or cause problems in PC performance. But if done correctly, it can give one hell of a boost to your PC, not just for games but for everything else.

If you want to attempt it, here's some info about that.

First of all, in order to safely overclock your GPU/CPU you'll need a few programs:

CPUID - CPU-Z - A program that shows informations about your CPU, like core speed, bus speed, core voltage, etc. It's good to familiarize yourself with these values first so you know what happens when you make changes.

CPUID Hardware Monitor - Monitors temperatures, voltages and fan speeds of all components inside your case. This one is a must-have program, even if you don't overclock.

MSI Afterburner and MSI Kombustor - For raising GPU frequencies and stress testing. I prefer RivaTuner for tweaking frequencies though.

RivaTuner - For overclocking graphics card frequencies. Still need Afterburner/Kombustor for stress testing.

Prime95 - For CPU stress testing.

Now some informations about overclocking different things:

GPU Core Clock - By tweaking this you get much better performance if using Anti-Aliasing and Anistrophic filtering. It gives a boost to your framerate even if you don't use them. If you raise it too high and start a stress test (on an ATI card), your screen will turn gray and you'll have to restart your computer.

GPU Memory Clock - It regulates the speed of your VRAM memory bus. By raising it higher your textures will load faster and therefore your game will lag less. If you raise it too high and start a stress test (on an ATI card), your screen will go gray for a few moments and your graphics card driver will crash.

CPU Frequency - To avoid confusion and stuff, you do not gain anything by raising CPU frequency itself, you increase the bus speed in BIOS to make your processor faster. Bus speed is the speed of comunication between your motherboard and CPU. If you raise it too high and start a stress test, your computer will crash and restart.

All these components can protect them selves from damage but it's not fool-proof, screw up and they will die.

Also, I won't explain how to overclock, you got info about that all over the internet. Go, search, read.

2. Cleaning up your hard drive

You all know what a hard drive is, right? If you don't, you don't deserve to own a blender, not to mention a computer. Anyway, data stored on a HDD gets corrupted over time, unless it's a SSD which is something else entirely. That makes your computer slower because it takes more time to read data, that can also slow games down to a crawl, even Super Mario.

To solve that there are a few things you can do:

Start CHKDSK (if you have windows, which presume you do). It can fix file system errors.

Defragment your hard drive. Data on a hard drive gets broken up into pieces due to the way it works. This cleans that up and fixes corrupted files.

Run anti-malware software (I recommend Malwarebytes). Malicious software can slow down your computer and your anti-virus can't always catch it all. That's why you can start up Malwarebytes or something and fix that too. It doesn't hurt to do it every now and then, you know.

Also, I suggest leaving about 10% of your hard drive empty. Mine is 313GB Hitachi HDT721032SLA360 (C:160GB, D:138GB) and I always leave at least 30GB free (C:16GB, D:14GB).

3. Clean case

If your PC is full of dust your components will overheat and your computer will be slower. So, open up the case and clean it, I do it every 6 months. You know how to use a screwdriver, right?

And that's it, with these things I get a much better performance. It might not work for others though but in my opinion, if you have low fps on minimal settings like me, it's worth a try.

I forgot to say, keep your computer in good condition, that's the most important thing. Without that, it's all crap.

My computer specs (it's under "minimal requirements" for Skyrim):

Operating System
MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz, overclocked to 2.75GHz

Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5KPL-AM IN/ROEM/SI

Graphics Card
512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350, overclocked from 600/450 to 713/554

RAM - 2GB

 

 

Edited February 23, 2013 by Werne

[Rennn]

You may also want to look at these three mods:

 

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4323

Much better looking lighting without any framerate hit. In fact, a few people say it improves their framerate.

 

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1852

I use this one. It's more of a matter of personal preference (I use it to get rid of spoilers), but apparently it also shaves a couple seconds off load times. Back up your game before you install it though, as a couple people have reported torch glitches. I haven't had any myself.

 

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34

A simple limiter that can help reduce framerate jumpiness. It won't improve your frames per second, but it can stop it from jumping around so much if you cap it for a value slightly below what you usually get. I keep it at 30, because usually I'm between 30 and 60 depending on where I am, and capping it at 30 gets rid of stutter entirely for me. You may want to cap it at 20 or 25 or something, so that your fps is more constant. It's another personal preference thing. I'm not sure how to actually change the number, but it's supposed to be easy. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

You should also be able to set mouse acceleration to 0 in the skyrimprefs.ini to decrease mouse lag.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Rennn

[sorrowlaugh]

Slightly off point, but I'm guessing all skyrim prefs.ini edits have no affect with the latest Skyrim patch. True or false.

If so, do any of these mods posted on this page edit the skyrim.ini/skyrimprefs.ini.

Edited December 7, 2012 by sorrowlaugh

[FiftyTifty]

If you have an AMD card, get Ati Tray Tools. The texture and mipmap settings allow for some serious FPS gains.

[Werne]

Slightly off point, but I'm guessing all skyrim prefs.ini edits have no affect with the latest Skyrim patch. True or false.

If so, do any of these mods posted on this page edit the skyrim.ini/skyrimprefs.ini.

Ini edits still work, at least for me.

And no, none of these mods/programs edit the inis.

 

If you have an AMD card, get Ati Tray Tools. The texture and mipmap settings allow for some serious FPS gains.

Might try that, so far I only used CCC.

I'll also update my first post with some things I learned in the meantime.

I would've done it sooner but I forgot I made this thread http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/biggrin.gif

Edited December 9, 2012 by Werne

[upal]

Dear Werne,

 

please help me to understand overclocking. my system information are below :

 

System Information

------------------

Operating System: Windows 8 Pro with Media Center 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200)

System Manufacturer: Intel

System Model: DG41WV

BIOS: BIOS Date: 01/07/09 15:28:41 Ver: 08.00.10

Processor: Intel® Pentium® Dual CPU E2200 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz

Memory: 2048MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 2044MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.1)

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Chip type: DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Display Memory: 1784 MB

Dedicated Memory: 1019 MB

Shared Memory: 765 MB

Current Mode: 1280 x 720 (32 bit) (59Hz)

Monitor Name: SyncMaster 740NW

Monitor Model: SyncMaster

Native Mode: 1280 x 720(p) (59.855Hz)

 

please give me some direction or suggest me how to optimize it without making some serious damage.

Edited February 10, 2013 by upal

[Werne]

@upal I can explain you some basic things about overclocking because going into details would take a long time.

 

First, processor, you overclock the processor by changing the bus speed through BIOS, mine was 200 with a 11x multiplier, I changed it to 251 x 11 which in turn changed it from 2.20GHz to 2.76GHz, your CPU is quite similar so you could achieve a similar result. I can't go into details on the process of overclocking because every board has different BIOS setup so you'll need to find it yourself. Start by raising it to 233 which is a nice, stabile frequency, and raise it slowly (by 3 like 233, 236, 239, you get the picture) and stress test after each change.

 

Do not change the multiplier or CPU's frequency directly, just the bus speed. Stress test with Prime95 to ensure that your system is stabile and monitor CPU temperature with CPU-Z or Hardware Monitor. If it goes over 69 degrees (no joke), it's not good, shouldn't go over if the fans are good though.

 

Second, graphics card, original clock on Radeon HD 4350 is 600/400 which is pretty low compared to today's craphics cards, the 4300/4500 card isn't made for gaming so it sucks. Anyway, I raised my frequencies to 713/554 (GPU clock/Memory clock) but not every card is the same. So, use RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner to tweak it and start with 625/450, raise GPU frequency by 5 until the point where it starts glitching out then lower by 15, repeat the same for memory clock afterwards. Stress test with MSI Kombustor and if your temperature goes over 95 degrees, it's not good. Afterburner is easier to use than RivaTuner but I prefer Riva.

 

Don't touch the voltages on anything unless you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing or you really want to set your PC on fire. And that's about it, do some research on your components and try it out (well, that's how I did it).

Edited February 11, 2013 by Werne

[seanxx]

Werne, My dad has a VERY similar pc, he asked me the other day if it was possible to play Skyrim.

I assume you have all the game settings on Low right ? Because my father lives in another country and isnt super tech literate so i cant do all these tweaks for him. The defrag/clean case/ offline steam etc should be all doable but im not sure he would be able to do all the overclocking stuff.

[Werne]

@seanxx On my PC, Skyrim ran at 20-30 FPS without overclocking the graphics card/CPU, it was set to low texture quality and everything else was either low/very low or off. While my PC will run Fallout 3/NV on high it runs Skyrim rather poorly. :(

 

By only putting steam to offline and doing the regular maintenance (defrag, cleaning the case, etc.) you won't get much out of it. Without tweaking the ini or getting any of the performance plugins/tools, Skyrim will run at 10-15 fps outdoors and 5-10 fps indoors, give or take a few frames.

 

The first problem is that the graphics card is designed for watching movies/pics and playing older games. On 4350 you can't use anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering, not even on older games like Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Also, FO3, FONV and Oblivion require the same ammount of tweaking as Skyrim to get a smooth gameplay.

 

And the biggest problem with Skyrim are the CPU and RAM. E4500 is a rather good processor for someone who doesn't play games and as you know, DDR2 is made obsolete by DDR3 (and DDR4 which should come out this year). With Skyrim I got to a point where lowering or raising video settings wouldn't make any difference when it comes to fps since the game didn't lag because of the graphics card.

 

BTW, since you said your father isn't "super tech literate", I suspect that he probably doesn't know how to tweak the ini which is very important in order to achieve a playable framerate. So if he decides to get Skyrim, he could use the Skyrim configurator, it does the same thing through a easy-to-use UI and screenshot previews. It's much easier than editing SkyrimPrefs.ini with Notepad. :thumbsup:

[upal]

Thanks buddy.I'm trying now using ur method.Hope it work 4 a better skyrim with dragonborn.