PC build for Oldrim with extensive mods? Please help.

[yorkgrass]

Hi, I hope someone may help me with upgrading my pc specifically for Skyrim LE.

My current build

CPU: i5 4690k OC to 4.5

RAM: 32G

GPU: GTX1080 8G

Monitor: 27 not even 2K

Skyrim: 200+ mods

 

So you might have seen the issue here, GPU is more than enough. But my CPU is struggling, half of the time is fully loaded, and the game stutters when it does.

So I'm thinking of getting a current CPU, of course all my MB and RAM will have to be changed. But since Skyrim is very old, I understand that best CPUs might be not fully utilised by oldrim. So if I go for a 12 core CPU and it makes no different from i7 6700k, I would definately go for the latter.

So my 1st question is I'm not sure how many cores that skyrim can actually use?

2nd question is that my CPU is OC to 4.5 stable, if I got a 12 core but the speed is 4.0, will it acutally be worse?

Any suggestions are welcome, Thank you in advance, but I will not switch to SSE for a very long time, so not that suggestion please.

 

 

 

[NovusIntempest]

So my 1st question is I'm not sure how many cores that skyrim can actually use?

Skyrim is based on the Creation Engine, so a CPU with 2 cores will handle the game as fine as any CPU with 4 or more cores. Why? Skyrim doesn't have strong multi-threading abilities. For instance, Far Cry 3 is properly multi-threaded and AMD gets a boost because of it. The engine is basically an improved version of Oblivion's which had a horrible engine.

 

2nd question is that my CPU is OC to 4.5 stable, if I got a 12 core but the speed is 4.0, will it acutally be worse?

Well... why buying a 12 core CPU, if you actually doesn't know what it will be affect? More Cores in Skyrim is actually just meaning that you can run more background progs (streaming, downloads etc) without affecting the game.

 

So... what you are looking for is a CPU with high Single Thread Performance. In fact of that Skyrim is now over 6 Years old and actually Games are based on Quad or even Six Cores which greatly supports multi/hyper-threading too (what btw your actually CPU don't can, it don't owns that Technology)... welp i think you already know what i am going to say. Yep. Just simply get actually CPU for Gaming, like the i7 8700K. Its the best overall solution you can get.

 

Well... as side of hardware upgrading there are other ways too to get performance upgrades for a modded Skyrim. Like .ini Tweaks which may affect Game physics and Scripts. If you play with so much mods i highly recommend to use the TESVEditor as esp/esm cleaner.

 

But my CPU is struggling, half of the time is fully loaded, and the game stutters when it does.

Wel 1st, watch your cpu temps, it could be that the cpu thermal throttle will cause that, if it gets so hot (and the function is activated/to low adjusted in the Bios)

The 2nd: If you run many physics and lightning mods check for compatible problems (especially for the right overwrite order). You will not get around it to do it by step by step (yeye we all love it)

The 3rd: Damn its late here.. ignore those gramma fails and if you got some questions left just ask then, hope i could help a bit.

 

Edit: What i forgot to say... if your're interested in tweaking your Skyrim, you should read and try out this mod

Edited May 5, 2018 by NovusIntempest

[DarkRudra]

Yeah, I don't think the build of your PC is a problem really. It depends somewhat on what mods you're using. I mean, saying 200+ mods means very little if 70% of them just add a single random armor to the game, you know? The best thing you can do at this point is tweak out the game with better memory management from skse.ini, ENBoost, and Crash Fixes as covered on the link NovusIntempest provided, if you haven't already done so. That might reduce the load on your CPU for you.