Limiting factor: GPU or CPU?

[SirNibbits]

I recently decided to try heavily modding Skyrim using the guide found at http://www.skyrim-beautification-project.com/index.htm

I downloaded all of the mods listed in black, green and blue (as recommended for a system with 2 GB dedicated video ram) and installed everything correctly, load order and clean up etc.

As I expected for my current system, the game is unplayably laggy in the outside world and has some minor troubles indoors as well. I know my graphics card needs to be updated (AMD Radeon R9 200 Series), but is my CPU up to the task (Ryzen 1600)? Thanks in advance.

 

[Novem99]

The CPU is sufficient. But 2GB VRAM for a heavily modded Skyrim is not enough.

[Dusty4life]

Nothing wrong with the CPU. You can run a heavily modded Skyrim on the older FX AMD models (which are significantly weaker than the Ryzen 1600) with very high fps. A 2gb graphics card is the bare minimum you should have to run a decently modded skyrim (2k mods etc). I have an fx-6300 and an MSI R9 280x 3gb and have 2k everything and quite a few script heavy mods and ENBs and I get 20 fps in riften and the steps of whiterun but 35-50 fps everywhere else for themost part.

 

You also have to take into consideration the other components of your machine. What power supply unit do you have? A weak or poorly made power supply can hinder your gaming experience greatly. The same with a stock mother board. It all adds up. Getting the most out of your processor and g-card needs decent hardware elsewhere. I am assuming you have at-least 4gb ram? Ideally you'll want 8. Not a big thing for skyrim, but more recent games will require 8gb ram to run smooth.

 

google 'PC part picker' and go through that site. Has pretty much every pc component you can buy with reviews and the best places to buy them.

[SirNibbits]

To list the other components:

 

GIGABYTE GA-AB350-GAMING 3 Motherboard

16 GB DDR4 RAM

Forgot the exact power supply, but I know its more than sufficient for my components.

 

When I'm outside in towns etc, the game freezes for seconds at a time with flickering lighting in addition to the sub 10fps when temporarily unfrozen. Is there a way to confirm for sure that its the VRAM and not some sort of issue with a mod(s)? I'm fairly new to modding and I'm not quite sure how to troubleshoot.

[Dusty4life]

There is always going to be issues with mods and modding. Especially in Skyrim. Just the way it is. The aim of the game is to make it as stable as it can be. skyrim is a ported game, you see. It is terribly ported and made, too. Look at this reddit thread for monitoring your systems processes and the like https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/4ttpcy/program_to_use_for_monitoring_skyrims_resource/ use one of the tools to monitor your game, etc. That will atleast tell you if it is a hardware problem. But with that mother board, processor and ram, you really ought to get a better graphics card. 3gb minimum to comfortably play a heavily modded 2k game, though 6gb-8gb would be better if one can afford it.

 

if the game is freezing it is probably a script lag. the game uses papyrus which was even old and outdated by the time the game originally was released. Like trying to drive a sports car with a prius engine. Though, you can try something., go to the skyrim.ini located in your 'my documents' series of folders and add this to the papyrus section:

 

fUpdateBudgetMS=2.4

fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=2.4

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800

iMinMemoryPageSize=256

iMaxMemoryPageSize=512

 

You don't really want to tweak these settings beyond what I have posted. Can make the game really screwy if you go too far. But, if it is a scripting problem, those settings may help.