Tips/Advice/Instructions for someone doing a dual boot for first time

[mrsmexythebeast]

As the title suggests, I plan on making a dual boot system with my laptop (ASUS GL502VS), mainly for the purpose of bypassing the 4GB VRAM limit on DX9 applications (Skyrim). I've never done this before and while I figured I can just find a guide to installing a dual boot, I was wondering if anyone had some words of wisdom or answers to a couple questions because I am honestly and completely clueless.

I plan to use Windows 10 as my main operating system as it was pre-installed onto my laptop when I bought it and occupies the main SSD. I've ordered an external SSD (USB 3.1 type C) to install Windows 7 and Skyrim onto. These are my main questions:

Will an external SSD, even though it's connected via USB 3.1 type C (which is supposedly very fast) slow my game down? I've heard that USB 3.1 has speeds that can compete with internal SATA, but I know little more than this.

How will I go about moving Skyrim over onto my external SSD? I'm guessing it won't function properly to simply drag and drop Skyrim and all of my mods (I use Mod Organizer) onto the SSD and hope that it will work? What will I have to do to make Skyrim and Mod Organizer function properly?

Am I able to run only Skyrim off of my external SSD while running other Steam games off of my internal SSD, or will I have to install everything Steam-related onto my external drive?

Despite Windows 10 being pre-installed on my internal SSD (I have no registration key or anything for it), is it possible to install it on my external SSD instead and install Windows 7 on my internal SSD?

In addition to this, if you have any tips or advice based on the information you've read above, sharing it would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

[Guest deleted2630050]

I hate to break it to you. But you're not going to bypass the 4GB VRAM limit by using Windows 7. The problem is that DX9 games are on an archaic 32-bit platform, which means 4GB cap no matter what. The only benefit of running these games on 7 as oppose to 10 is slightly better performance (Which may not even be noticeable)

 

The other potential problem is what CPU you might have in your laptop. If it's a 7th gen Intel Kaby Lake, you might not be able to get 7 to work at all. I can't say for sure though.

 

You can still put games on this external SSD without it having to be a boot drive. Being a USB 3.1, I don't think you'll run into any botlenecks.

Edited July 4, 2017 by GoliathUnit13074

[mrsmexythebeast]

It's good to know that the SSD likely won't be a bottleneck, thank you. I'm using Skylake, hopefully this doesn't affect anything.

 

I appreciate your post, but I'm a bit confused. I understand 32-bit applications having a 4GB RAM limit, but if what you say is true, what about all the users reporting that switching over to Windows 7 from Windows 10 allowed them to use the full amount of VRAM that their GPUs hold?

[iXenite]

It's good to know that the SSD likely won't be a bottleneck, thank you. I'm using Skylake, hopefully this doesn't affect anything.

 

I appreciate your post, but I'm a bit confused. I understand 32-bit applications having a 4GB RAM limit, but if what you say is true, what about all the users reporting that switching over to Windows 7 from Windows 10 allowed them to use the full amount of VRAM that their GPUs hold?

 

They're probably referring to whatever it is ENB does that lets them access their extra VRAM for things outside of the game. Like resolution and stuff. I'm not an expert on this, but I'm pretty sure that's what those people are talking about.