Advice for NVidia GeForce 9800GT

[graz73]

NVidia GeForce 9800GT

Win7 64 Bit

1680 x 1050 resolution.

 

 

I've been trying to get Skyrim to run more smoothly. When I ran it out of the box, the game suggested medium settings, unfortunately there was a horribly unplayable framerate.

 

I updated my drivers, and looked all over the nvidia and skyrim websites for further advice, tweaking all sorts of values..

I could play moderately well with nearly every setting set to low or "performance", but it was still kinda laggy, especially when entering new areas.

 

I play lots of other games very smoothly on this computer: Arkham City, Assassins Creed series, ME3, etc.

 

Any advice on settings that might make a big difference to get this working better?

Lower Resolution?

Any special advice in Win 7?

Any mods that might help? (I was using the FXAA emulater thing for example)

What about any suggested mods that might be fun but NOT slow it down any more?

 

THANKS!

[tanoman]

Isn't 9800 an old GPU? What's the rest of your rig?

[Brandy1123]

That is an older graphics card. hopefully its the 1GB version. that will help drastically.

 

Try not using anything that enhances graphics. That means no HD mods or environmental mods (ENB's). Also, turn off all grass and vegitation in the game set-up window. Turn off all anti aliasing and anisotrpic filtering in your graphic card setup. If you really want to use mods, try just using replacers mods that are not HD depth or quality.

[graz73]

Isn't 9800 an old GPU? What's the rest of your rig?

 

I've only got 512 in my graphics card, unfortunately.

 

I've finally gotten the game running pretty well though, after lots of tweaking.

[Georgiegril]

I have the same card as you, and I am able to get it running Skyrim smoothly with decent graphics, after some tweaking. Here are some things that you may want to consider. Depending on other variables (your processor, RAM, etc. these may or may not have the same effect).

 

1. Go to this site and make sure you have correctly updated your drivers. The standard way no longer works, but NVidia didn't really tell people. (It's in their readme, but we all know how that goes...) Incorrectly installed drivers can cause problems ranging from slower performance and poor 3D graphics to card-killing loss of temperature and clock control.

 

2. I disabled Bethesda's hi-res textures, and then improved visuals with the following mods:

WATER

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Some people swear by STEP, although I was pretty well set up before I saw it, and so I don't use it. I do know it has it's own website/forum, so it seems well supported.

If given the option with these or any other mod, I choose medium texture if possible, or the lower of two options.

I also use a lot of mods that improve textures of roads, rocks, clothing/armor/ appearance and weapons. There are so many out there I 'm sure it's just a matter of preference.

 

3. I read the following guides, which provide detailed explanations of how various changes to settings and prefs can affect both quality and performance.

GeForce Tweak Guide

RookieNoob's tweak guide

4. Settings adjustments I made (most of which came from what I learned at the above sites).

I have FXAA and AO disabled.

I have textures on high, everything else on medium or low.

I have most sliders on the medium/high range.

 

5. Some of the prefs.ini settings I use (DO NOT JUST CUT AND PASTE) this is only for your reference. Cut and pasting could result in your game being ruined, which would be sad. You need to make any changes like this one at a time, with incremental changes and checking in game to see how it affects your system. Again, many of these are based on what I read in the tweak guides. Also they are a matter of taste. For example, I am fine with sparse grass, less dense mist and less reflectivity, because they make my game smoother in places like Whiterun and around glaciers. I used my memory for other things, like increasing gridstoload and FOV (if you want to make changes to these read the Geforce guide carefully before attempting. I wouldn't recommend changing gridsloload unless you are willing to abandon your game and start over.)

 

 

[General]

fBrightLightColorB=1.0000

fBrightLightColorG=1.0000

fBrightLightColorR=1.0000

iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1

bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

fDefaultFOV=90

[imagespace]

bDoDepthOfField=0

iRadialBlurLevel=0

[Display]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=7

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=2000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=512

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=1024

iShadowSplitCount=2

iMaxAnisotropy=2

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=500.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=0.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600.0000

fGamma=1.1200

fDecalLOD2=1000.0000

fDecalLOD1=500.0000

fSpecularLODStartFade=770.0000

fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000

fLightLODStartFade=1850.0000

iTexMipMapMinimum=0

iTexMipMapSkip=0

iWaterMultiSamples=0

iMultiSample=2

iShadowMode=3

bTreesReceiveShadows=0

bDrawLandShadows=0

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1080

iSize W=1920

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000

iScreenShotIndex=32

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

bMainZPrepass=0

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=3

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=10

bFloatPointRenderTarget=0

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT "

bFXAAEnabled=0

iShadowMapResolution=512

fShadowBiasScale=0.5000

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iAdapter=0

iPresentInterval=1

iShadowFilter=3

bShadowsOnGrass=0

bTransparencyMultisampling=0

bDeferredShadows=1

bDrawShadows=1

[Grass]

b30GrassVS=1

fGrassStartFadeDistance=10500.0000

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=15000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]

bGamepadEnable=0

bCrosshairEnabled=1

fHUDOpacity=0.4500

bSaveOnPause=0

bSaveOnTravel=0

bSaveOnWait=0

bSaveOnRest=0

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=100000.0000

[GamePlay]

bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1

bShowQuestMarkers=1

iDifficulty=4

[interface]

bDialogueSubtitles=0

bGeneralSubtitles=0

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

bShowCompass=1

[Controls]

fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000

fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0300

bAlwaysRunByDefault=1

bInvertYValues=1

bGamePadRumble=0

bMouseAcceleration=1

bUseKinect=0

[Particles]

iMaxDesired=50

[saveGame]

fAutosaveEveryXMins=0.0000

[AudioMenu]

fAudioMasterVolume=0.7500

fVal7=1.0000

uID7=0

fVal6=1.0000

uID6=0

fVal5=1.0000

uID5=0

fVal4=1.0000

uID4=0

fVal3=0.5500

uID3=94881

fVal2=0.4500

uID2=466532

fVal1=0.7000

uID1=554685

fVal0=0.3500

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=12

[Decals]

uMaxDecals=60

bDecals=1

bSkinnedDecals=1

uMaxSkinDecals=20

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=15

[LOD]

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000

fLODFadeOutMultItems=11.5000

fLODFadeOutMultActors=12.4000

fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]

bEnableFileSelection=1

bShowAllResolutions=1

uLastAspectRatio=3

[blurShaderHDR]

bDoHighDynamicRange=0

[blurShader]

bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]

iWaterReflectHeight=256

iWaterReflectWidth=256

bUseWaterDisplacements=1

bUseWaterRefractions=1

bUseWaterReflections=1

bUseWaterDepth=1

 

 

 

6. If you are not doing so already, use something like EVGA precision or Riva Tuner to monitor your card's performance in game. I use Precision because I have an EVGA card. I'm not sure if it works with other manufacturer's Nvidia cards. I tried using NVidia Inspector, but I found the interface awkward. Our cards tend to run hot, so keeping the temperature as low as possible is important. I keep mine dust-free, and set my fan curve so that my fan runs more at lower temps. Also because my case sucks, I take the side off and use an auxiliary fan. (You may not need to do that.) If you find that you card's temps are high, even at idle, you may need to reapply the thermal paste. I also overclock my card just slightly, but if you are interested in doing something like that, do a lot of reading before attempting.

 

7. I find the best fps rate for me is 33. At 60 I had lags, but at 30 I had weird endless loading screens (thats to Kievkev for figuring this out!). I adjust this with precision, but there are also programs like Fraps that can do that for you.

 

8. There are some things you can change on the card driver software, as well, using NVidia's Control panel or NVidia Inspector. (Also covered some in the tweak guide links) Using NVidia Inspector for this increases your number of options for tweaking things like AA and AF. I read a lot about what worked for other people, but ultimately found it best to play around with the values until I found what that worked for me.

 

9. Finally, of course, make sure to close all background programs, disable auto updates and other unnecessary services/processes, defrag and clean out your cache.

 

Well I know that's a ton of stuff, I hope at least some of it helps!

[graz73]

Hi GeorgieGrill! Thanks for the detailed info! Here's a little feedback:

 

My processor is not quad-core as recommended, but above minimum specs. My ram is almost the recommended 4gig.

 

 

1. I currently have the latest NVidia driver. I'll try your EVGA site and try that one instead.

 

2. Disabling the downloadable hi-res textures helped my performance too.

 

I tried the WATER, Flora and a few other improvement mods, but suspected they were slowing things down, so disabled them. Maybe I'll give them another chance.

 

Some people swear by STEP, although I was pretty well set up before I saw it, and so I don't use it. I do know it has it's own website/forum, so it seems well supported.

If given the option with these or any other mod, I choose medium texture if possible, or the lower of two options.

I also use a lot of mods that improve textures of roads, rocks, clothing/armor/ appearance and weapons. There are so many out there I 'm sure it's just a matter of preference.

 

3. I read and used the GeForce Tweak Guide already. I'll try "RookieNoob's tweak guide" too.

 

4, 5, 6, etc. I'll check out those suggestions too!

 

Thanks Again!.

[Georgiegril]

No prob! Just to be clear, it is not the drivers themselves but the update procedure. You can still get your divers from NVidia, just follow the steps.