What graphics mods would you recommend for a GTX 1080 SLI gaming rig?

[Fixadent]

I'm building a new enthusiast gaming PC with two-way SLI GTX 1080, a Core i7 7700K, and 16GB DDR4 RAM.

 

Obviously this is overkill for the base game, so what ENB and graphics mods do you think I should use to make full use of all that horsepower?

Edited April 3, 2017 by Fixadent

[WhiskeyRiver2]

The only proper answer here is "whatever you like the looks of most", since horsepower obviously isn't a concern (though 16 gigs of RAM may be a hair low if you ram in a bunch of loose files rather than having everything packed into .ba2 archives). Now get off your virtual/metaphorical arse and do some searching.

 

That said, I do have a list of stuff that I run. Copy-pasting from a ~2 week old Reddit thread because to hell with re-typing all that.

 

For general textures, the two go-to packages are the Vivid Fallout series (either the 1K or Best Choice packages, since you mentioned that the rig in question is weaksauce), or FlaconOil's HD Retexture package (available in 4K, 2K or 1K res, in this case I'd recommend the 1K package). I just recently installed FlaconOil's stuff on top of Vivid Fallout, and holy s#*!, the game is beautiful now - and since I went with Flacon's 1K package and Vivid's Best Choice, I actually gained FPS/stability to boot, so yay.

 

FlaconOil's stuff: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3747/?

 

The Vivid Fallout series (I'm running everything but Vivid Trees and his PA frame retex): http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8742/? < There's Vivid Trees, from there just check the author's profile to find the rest.

 

For specific stuff, you can check out Valius' HD retexture package - it's only available in 2K or 4K though IIRC, so it may cause a performance hit.

Valius' package: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/318/?

 

There's also Jester's Better Destroyed Vehicles, another personal favorite. The changes are mostly small, but once you notice 'em you'll wonder how Bethesda made the vanilla textures so damn ugly.

Jester's stuff: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1002/? Again, check his profile for his other work.

 

There's also a gravel retexture I run as well - Gravel Redone 4K, though I use the 2K version, and it's also available in 1K for potato rigs. It looks so much better than vanilla that it's just embarrassing for Bethesda (or at least it should be >.>)

Gravel Redone: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17461/?

 

In a similar vein as the gravel, there's Delightful Ivy. Couple different colors to choose from, and they're all the same resolution as the vanilla texture, so there's zero performance impact at all. Seriously, this alone is a night-and-day difference.

 

Delightful Ivy: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10436/? Personally, I prefer the Olive Green, it goes beautifully with my environment mods.

 

For weather mods, the two go-to are either Vivid Weathers or True Storms. Personally I prefer Vivid Weathers, but feel free to try both (just not at the same time, for obvious reasons).

Vivid Weathers: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15466/?

True Storms: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4472/?

 

I'd also recommend Darker Nights as well - www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/191 I run Setting 1, which makes going out at night without some sort of NVGs outright suicidal. Here's the NVG mod I use: www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15318 The four different levels come in very handy, can adjust 'em on the fly so you don't go blind.

 

Environmental stuff, there's a fair few options out there. Here's my favorites.

 

ReGrowth overhaul - www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9656 Still not entirely sold on 9.7, but it seems to be a bit more performance-friendly than 9.4 was. Fair warning, you'll want to remove the "bUseCombinedObjects=0" line from ReGrowth.ini - you'll lose out on a lot of the new trees, but since that line is a known performance killer it's a worthy trade IMHO.

 

My go-to grass mod is Grasslands: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11267/? - install this and Delightful Ivy on top of ReGrowth, and you'll have my current setup. If you're worried about performance, then grab the performance version, otherwise go all-out. For some reason grass tends to be a big performance hit though, so you may want to experiment with the density and render distance.

 

On that note - If you want to make tweaking the game's graphics easy as hell, use BethINI: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4875/? I swear by this little miracle of code, and I'll never not recommend it, because it's just that damn useful.

 

Since making that post, I've also added ELFX: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13596/? and replaced some of ReGrowth's tree textures with stuff from this: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/847/? for better interior lighting (literal night-and-day difference) and a slightly better look for foliage without as much of a performance hit respectively.

[Fixadent]

Wow! That's a lot of information!

 

Thank you!