GTX 660 ti sli or GTX 670 sli for modded skyrim?

[Aminados]

Echoside, on 25 Feb 2013 - 18:36, said:

Most of the tree popping is farther out and I don't really notice it much unless I'm going down a slope and can see out into the distance, I extended the tree draw distance and amount of tree rendering in my ini to help a bit with that.

 

As for slow texture loading, not really. I mean if I'm playing for a few hours straight and change areas a lot and quickly(Fast travel, which I rarely use) I get some, I think the fact that it's on 6gig sata3 connection helps a bit. I had it on my OS's SSD drive but with all the mod changes and file changes I do with the game it doesn't really seem worth it(Extra unneeded SSD wear and tear). Although I'm not going to lie the game does run much smoother on SSD then HDD.

 

Having extra vram is why I use the 4k textures... I had a straight 2k texture setup to start and it only ate around 1.8gig to 2.5gig over 2-3 hours of straight playing. The biggest problems with 4k textures is Skyrim get's a bit testy with a lot of them. So I just got the major two, Mountain and Cave textures, considering how much of both you always see.

Dont think the max speed of your hdd is going to be increased, even if on sata III. Windows affects the life of your ssd way more then the mod changes and file changes you do, it's like a drop of water in the ocean, Windows is constantly writing and reading stuff even if it doesn't look like it, I wouldnt worry too much about that. Yeah 4k textures on mountains and caves seems to make sense. :cool:

ironbender800, on 25 Feb 2013 - 20:06, said:

<p>ONE gtx 670 should easily handle a heavily modded skyrim. Im currently playing with everything cranked up 36 mods including 2k textures and several others on a msi gtx 660 and it holds its own. A single 670 should be plenty or a 680. SLI would cost more and not be needed. Im playing at 720p tho but as i said i have all the anti aliasing and ambient occlussion settings cranked up and outside i average in the 40's. Ugrids at 7 as well all on a single 660.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>So id say one 670 is all you need.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>My system is</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>3570k at stock</p>

<p>ASrock extreme 4</p>

<p>12gb ram at 1600</p>

<p>MSI twin frozr gtx660 NON ti</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>36 mods installed and no crashes to desktop just the occasional loadingf screen that wont load. Seems to be an issue caused by certain saves.</p>

Well the guy on the video with 150 mods says he gets 45 fps avarage with a gtx 680 that ain't enough :biggrin: I want it smooth as silk(60 fps) :cool: 660 ti sli 2gb is only 45$ more then a gtx 680 and I get ALOT more performance according to the benchmark on the first page. Edited February 27, 2013 by Aminados

[Njorunn]

If you're out for VRAM it's better to have one 4GB card rather than two 2GB ones since you can't really calculate VRAM by simply combining it like that in SLI. A 4GB 670 OC;d is "better" than two 660 SLI - it's pretty much a "semi-castrated" 680.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Njorunn

[Echoside]

I said I get drops down to 45fps not 45fps on average(That would drive me up a wall). My main fps killers are water(forced high res with float point render), large exterior actor counts, and the rift.

 

I can name three places that with any heavily modded rig is going to noticed FPS drops.

 

Looking down at Whiterun from top of Dragonsreach's stairs during the day.

 

Looking down at Cinda Mines in Markarth from the bridge over the smithy during the day if your using any sort of water mod or ini tweaks.

 

Running through the forest of the Rift with higher then default tree rendering or tree shadows on.

 

As said above SLI ram doesn't add up it to a joint number unless eyefinity setup or something, just eases some of the processing load of one card.

 

Skyrim is limited greatly by it's 32-bit setting... I really wish Bethesda would of make an optional 64-bit download over an high res texpack or Hearthfires :P

[Aminados]

If you're out for VRAM it's better to have one 4GB card rather than two 2GB ones since you can't really calculate VRAM by simply combining it like that in SLI. A 4GB 670 OC;d is "better" than two 660 SLI - it's pretty much a "semi-castrated" 680.

I'm not out of vRam, I don't even have the cards yet, a 4gb 670 OC'd is not faster then 660 "ti" sli but it has more vRam, max vRam you can get on a 660 "ti" is 3gb, witch should be enough at 1080p.

 

I said I get drops down to 45fps not 45fps on average(That would drive me up a wall). My main fps killers are water(forced high res with float point render), large exterior actor counts, and the rift.

 

I can name three places that with any heavily modded rig is going to noticed FPS drops.

 

Looking down at Whiterun from top of Dragonsreach's stairs during the day.

 

Looking down at Cinda Mines in Markarth from the bridge over the smithy during the day if your using any sort of water mod or ini tweaks.

 

Running through the forest of the Rift with higher then default tree rendering or tree shadows on.

 

As said above SLI ram doesn't add up it to a joint number unless eyefinity setup or something, just eases some of the processing load of one card.

 

Skyrim is limited greatly by it's 32-bit setting... I really wish Bethesda would of make an optional 64-bit download over an high res texpack or Hearthfires :P

I meant the guy ON the video (1st page) has avarage 45fps with a gtx 680. As long as I can run through a forest, fight be in a city at 60fps its cool.

[Echoside]

 

If you're out for VRAM it's better to have one 4GB card rather than two 2GB ones since you can't really calculate VRAM by simply combining it like that in SLI. A 4GB 670 OC;d is "better" than two 660 SLI - it's pretty much a "semi-castrated" 680.

I'm not out of vRam, I don't even have the cards yet, a 4gb 670 OC'd is not faster then 660 "ti" sli but it has more vRam, max vRam you can get on a 660 "ti" is 3gb, witch should be enough at 1080p.

 

>I said I get drops down to 45fps not 45fps on average(That would drive me up a wall). My main fps killers are water(forced high res with float point render), large exterior actor counts, and the rift.

 

I can name three places that with any heavily modded rig is going to noticed FPS drops.

 

Looking down at Whiterun from top of Dragonsreach's stairs during the day.

 

Looking down at Cinda Mines in Markarth from the bridge over the smithy during the day if your using any sort of water mod or ini tweaks.

 

Running through the forest of the Rift with higher then default tree rendering or tree shadows on.

 

As said above SLI ram doesn't add up it to a joint number unless eyefinity setup or something, just eases some of the processing load of one card.

 

Skyrim is limited greatly by it's 32-bit setting... I really wish Bethesda would of make an optional 64-bit download over an high res texpack or Hearthfires :P

I meant the guy ON the video (1st page) has avarage 45fps with a gtx 680. As long as I can run through a forest, fight be in a city at 60fps its cool.

 

 

My bad. I thought you were mentioning me cause I was the quote right above and I got a 680. :P

[Sigurd44]

System:

Asus P8P67 Deluxe
i7 2600K (no overclocking yet)
2 x Asus Direct CU II 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM SLI (no overclocking yet)
16 GB DDR3 RAM
256 GB SSD Kingston HyperX
27'' monitor, playing on 2560 x 1440 native, 16:9 in full screen mod

no water cooling, just the default fans and a Thermaltake MK 1 casing

 

Grafic driver settings:

16x AF
SLI 16xQ (this means Nvidia's CSAA, which equals 16x MSAA)
SLI 16x TrSSAA (Tranparency Supersampling AA for alpha textures like leaves, plants etc.)
FXAA: Off
Texture Filtering: High Quality
Ambient Occlusion: On/Quality<br />
Vertical Sync: On<br />
Tripplebuffering: On<br />
 <br />
<strong>.ini tweaks:</strong><br />
 <br />
Only a few, I experimentated a lot with those, but at last I left the most on standard ultra settings.<br />
 <br />
The most remarkable: Tree/Mountain/Grass selfshadowing on, shadow resolution 4096, TreeLoad 75.000 (ultra default), some decal tweaks for my blood mod, the usual water settings you will find in any Skyrim ini tweak guide.<br />
 <br />
Besides that I tweaked every possible CPU multi usage through my .ini I could find by google. <br />
 <br />
I downgraded from uGridtoLoad 7/64 to 5/36 again (reason below). <br />
 <br />
<strong>Skyrim.ini:</strong><br />
 <br />
[General]<br />
sLanguage=ENGLISH<br />
uGridsToLoad=5<br />
uExterior Cell Buffer=36<br />
bMultiThreadMovement=<br />
bMTRendering=1<br />
bUseThreadedBlood=1<br />
bUseThreadedMorpher=1<br />
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1<br />
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1<br />
bUseThreadedTextures=1<br />
bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br />
bUseThreadedLOD=1<br />
bUseThreadedAI=1<br />
<br />
[Display]<br />
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=2000.0000<br />
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=1000.0000<br />
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0000<br />
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096<br />
bTransparencyMultisampling=1<br />
bAllowScreenshot=1<br />
iPresentInterval=0<br />
fDecalLifetime=512<br />
fDefaultWorldFOV=80<br />
fDefault1stPersonFOV=80<br />
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.000<br />
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.100<br />
<br />
[imagespace]<br />
bDoRadialBlur=1<br />
<br />
[Audio]<br />
bEnableAudio=1.0<br />
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0<br />
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0<br />
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0<br />
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0<br />
<br />
[Grass]<br />
bAllowLoadGrass=0<br />
bAllowCreateGrass=1<br />
bDrawShaderGrass=1<br />
iMinGrassSize=20<br />
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=6<br />
<br />
[GeneralWarnings]<br />
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.<br />
<br />
[Archive]<br />
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa<br />
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa<br />
<br />
[Combat]<br />
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0<br />
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0<br />
<br />
[Papyrus]<br />
fUpdateBudgetMS=1.2<br />
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2<br />
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0<br />
iMinMemoryPageSize=128<br />
iMaxMemoryPageSize=512<br />
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800<br />
bEnableLogging=0<br />
bEnableTrace=0<br />
bLoadDebugInformation=0<br />
bEnableProfiling=0<br />
<br />
[Water]<br />
bReflectLODObjects=1<br />
bReflectLODLand=1<br />
bReflectSky=1<br />
bReflectLODTrees=1<br />
<br />
[backgroundLoad]<br />
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1<br />
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1<br />
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1<br />
bBackgroundCellLoads=1<br />
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1<br />
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1<br />
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1<br />
<br />
[Animation]<br />
bMultiThreadBoneUpdate=1<br />
<br />
[HAVOK]<br />
iNumThreads=5<br />
<br />
[Decals]<br />
bDecalMultithreaded=1<br />
bForceAllDecals=1<br />
<br />
[interface]<br />
fSafeZoneX=15<br />
fSafeZoneY=15<br />
fSafeZoneXWide=15<br />
fSafeZoneYWide=15<br />
fBookOpenTime=200.0000<br />
<br />
[MapMenu]<br />
fMapWorldMaxHeight=150000.0000<br />
fMapWorldMinHeight=7000.0000<br />
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1<br />
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0<br />
fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.3700<br />
fMapWorldMaxPitch=400.0000<br />
fMapWorldYawRange=400.0000<br />
 <br />
<strong>SkyrimPrefs.ini:</strong><br />
 <br />
[General]<br />
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000<br />
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000<br />
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000<br />
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1<br />
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0<br />
fDefaultFOV=80<br />
bUseThreadedBlood=1<br />
bUseThreadedMorpher=1<br />
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1<br />
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1<br />
bUseThreadedTextures=1<br />
bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br />
bUseThreadedLOD=1<br />
bUseThreadedAI=1<br />
<br />
[imagespace]<br />
bDoDepthOfField=1<br />
iRadialBlurLevel=2<br />
bDoRadialBlur=1<br />
<br />
[Display]<br />
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3<br />
iShadowMaskQuarter=4<br />
iShadowMapResolution=4096<br />
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096<br />
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096<br />
iShadowSplitCount=2<br />
iShadowFilter=4<br />
iShadowMode=3<br />
fShadowBiasScale=0.15<br />
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000<br />
fShadowDistance=8000<br />
fSpecularLODStartFade=1500<br />
fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000<br />
fLightLODStartFade=3500<br />
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000<br />
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000<br />
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=1e+007<br />
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000<br />
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000<br />
fGamma=1.0000<br />
iTexMipMapMinimum=0<br />
iTexMipMapSkip=0<br />
iMaxAnisotropy=16<br />
iMultiSample=8<br />
iWaterMultiSamples=4<br />
bDrawShadows=1<br />
bTreesReceiveShadows=1<br />
bDrawLandShadows=1<br />
bActorSelfShadowing=1<br />
bEquippedTorchesCastShadows=1<br />
bUseSunbeams=1<br />
bFull Screen=1<br />
iSize H=1440<br />
iSize W=2560<br />
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000<br />
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000<br />
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000<br />
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000<br />
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=1e+007<br />
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=1e+007<br />
iScreenShotIndex=44<br />
bMainZPrepass=0<br />
bShadowMaskZPrePass=0<br />
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25<br />
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100<br />
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1<br />
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670"<br />
bFXAAEnabled=0<br />
iAdapter=0<br />
bTransparencyMultisampling=1<br />
bDeferredShadows=1<br />
iPresentInterval=0<br />
bShadowsOnGrass=1<br />
<br />
[Grass]<br />
b30GrassVS=0<br />
fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000<br />
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000.0000<br />
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000<br />
bDoTallGrassEffect=1<br />
bShadowsOnGrass=1<br />
bGrassPointLighting=1<br />
<br />
[MAIN]<br />
bGamepadEnable=1<br />
bCrosshairEnabled=1<br />
fHUDOpacity=1.0000<br />
bSaveOnPause=1<br />
bSaveOnTravel=1<br />
bSaveOnWait=1<br />
bSaveOnRest=1<br />
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000<br />
<br />
[GamePlay]<br />
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1<br />
bShowQuestMarkers=1<br />
iDifficulty=4<br />
<br />
[interface]<br />
bDialogueSubtitles=1<br />
bGeneralSubtitles=1<br />
bShowCompass=1<br />
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000<br />
<br />
[Controls]<br />
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000<br />
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0260<br />
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1<br />
bInvertYValues=0<br />
bGamePadRumble=1<br />
bMouseAcceleration=0<br />
bUseKinect=0<br />
<br />
[Particles]<br />
iMaxDesired=750<br />
<br />
[saveGame]<br />
fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000<br />
<br />
[AudioMenu]<br />
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000<br />
fVal7=1.0000<br />
uID7=0<br />
fVal6=1.0000<br />
uID6=0<br />
fVal5=1.0000<br />
uID5=0<br />
fVal4=1.0000<br />
uID4=0<br />
fVal3=1.0000<br />
uID3=94881<br />
fVal2=1.0000<br />
uID2=466532<br />
fVal1=1.0000<br />
uID1=554685<br />
fVal0=1.0000<br />
uID0=1007612<br />
<br />
[Clouds]<br />
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000<br />
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000<br />
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000<br />
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000<br />
<br />
[TerrainManager]<br />
fTreeLoadDistance=75000<br />
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000<br />
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000<br />
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000<br />
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5<br />
bShowLODInEditor=0<br />
<br />
[NavMesh]<br />
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000<br />
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000<br />
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500<br />
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000<br />
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500<br />
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000<br />
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000<br />
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500<br />
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000<br />
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000<br />
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000<br />
fEdgeThickness=10.0000<br />
fPointSize=2.5000<br />
bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br />
<br />
[Trees]<br />
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1<br />
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40<br />
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1<br />
bShadowMaskZPrePass=1<br />
bEnableTreeAnimations=1<br />
<br />
[Water]<br />
bUseWaterRefractions=1<br />
bUseWaterReflections=1<br />
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1<br />
bUseWaterDisplacements=1<br />
bUseWaterDepth=1<br />
iWaterReflectHeight=1024<br />
iWaterReflectWidth=1024<br />
fWadingWaterTextureRes=1024<br />
bReflectExplosions=1<br />
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1<br />
iWaterBlurAmount=4<br />
bUseWaterShader=1<br />
bUseWaterLOD=1<br />
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0<br />
bForceHighDetailReflections=1<br />
<br />
[Decals]<br />
bDecals=1<br />
bSkinnedDecals=1<br />
bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1<br />
bDecalMultithreaded=1<br />
bDecalOcclusionQuery=1<br />
uMaxDecals=1000<br />
uMaxSkinDecals=100<br />
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60<br />
<br />
[LOD]<br />
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15<br />
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15<br />
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15<br />
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000<br />
<br />
[Launcher]<br />
bEnableFileSelection=1<br />
bShowAllResolutions=1<br />
uLastAspectRatio=3<br />
<br />
[blurShaderHDR]<br />
bDoHighDynamicRange=1<br />
<br />
[blurShader]<br />
bUseBlurShader=0<br />
<br />
[backgroundLoad]<br />
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1<br />
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1<br />
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1<br />
bBackgroundCellLoads=1<br />
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1<br />
 <br />
 <br />
<strong>Mods: </strong><br />
 <br />
Any Texture mod you might think about from 2k resolution (Skyrim HD, SMIM, WATER etc.) over 4k resolution (CBBE body textures, SFO Aspen leaves, Real Snow etc.) up to 8k resolution (Benjamini318's rocks) + some script (EFF, Convenient Horses, some sex mods) and animation (FNIS and FNIS related) mods (NMM really needs an option to write all installed mods to a simple editor file for copy and paste...)<br />
 <br />
Add to that RCRNv36 as lighting, weather, immersion and FXAA injector mod (not using the FXAA at moment)<br />
 <br />
Why I set the above values is a neverending story of upgrading my rig step by step and experimentating a lot, but at first on topic:<br />
 <br />
<strong>SLI or not SLI:</strong><br />
 <br />
In the beginning I ran a 570 GTX, 1,2 GB VRAM and I played Skyrim as a bloody beginner in vanilla and was happy....then I found Nexus and mods...and installed and learnt about the file structure of Skyrim and installed more and learnt more about load orders lose file stuff and such...<br />
...and after a while I watched black body textures and pink trees and grasses.<br />
 <br />
Ok, I upgraded to one of the above Asus 670 GTX, 4 GB VRAM and I upgraded from 8 GB RAM to 16 GB RAM (I realised that not only VRAM was a problem, my normal RAM had max loads of up to 7,2 GB...) and I was happy again, 40 to 60 fps, depending on area.<br />
 <br />
I decided to upgrade my 24 '' monitor 1920 x 1080 to a 27 '' monitor 2560 x 1440 resolution my fps dropped to somewhere at 10 to 25 fps, BUT if you ever watched a mod loaded Skyrim in 2560 x 1440 and ultra grafic settings you are addicted within a heart beat and you will NEVER go back. <br />
 <br />
Ok, I had to upgrade again, buying a second 4 GB VRAM ASUS 670 GTX and my performance doubled, it really <strong>increased by 100%</strong>, 20 to 50 fps, depending on area (wood/grass areas on the one side and indoor areas with 50 fps on the other side). <br />
 <br />
<strong>On topic:</strong><br />
 <br />
At least for me and for Skyrim, SLI increased my performance by 100%<br />
 <br />
<strong>Points to think about:</strong><br />
 <br />
-the performance by 100% gain occured to Skyrim (because meanwhile this game supports SLI, I doubt that was the case in the beginning)<br />
-performance gain might vary for other games<br />
-a game has to support SLI, otherwise you won't watch an effect at all<br />
-If you want to play Skyrim as shiny as possible you want not only high grafic settings you want to install loads of texture mods and the later need VRAM, a lot of VRAM, mods suck VRAM like juice. So if you want to SLI you should look for cards with the higher VRAM version (most cards are sold in a 2GB and a 4GB version nowadays, get the 4GB one)<br />
 <br />
<strong>CONCLUSION:</strong><br />
 <br />
You should consider that SLI won't be supported by all games (the new ones usually do it) and you should consider, that cards with 4GB VRAM are very useful for a mod loaded Skyrim, but the VRAM won't bring anything to the table for other games, in most cases 2 GB are more than enough. So in the end it depends on your personal choice and your financial potential :-)<br />
 <br />
<strong>Continuing the story...</strong><br />
 <br />
Ok, I was happy with the above upgrades and decided to increase grafic driver settings even more to the (higher than ultra) values posted above.<br />
 <br />
Now I learnt more about AA and what types there are and what they do. So, the last time I experimentated with FXAA as standalone AA and FXAA in combination with normal AA (MSAA/CSAA) and TrSSAA. The comparison was - at least for me - obvious. If you have the rig to run ultra and higher values of "normal" MSAA/CSAA and you are able to run TrSSAA on a high value, there is no need to blur your screen with FXAA, not even in combination. At least in Skyrim (might be different for other games) high MSAA and high TrSSAA beats the blury FXAA by miles. Even RCRNv36 which should inject a high quality FXAA doesn't beat my "true" AA settings above (maybe personal taste, FXAA <-> MSAA is a neverending "war", but at least in Skyrim I think the FXAA blur effect is really remarkable and disturbing).<br />
 <br />
At moment I am experimentating with MSAA and TrSSAA "enhanced" and "forced" sttings in the panel, finding out which one is better.<br />
 <br />
With those settings I made a trade to keep my Skyrim actually playable (and not only good for screenshots).<br />
 <br />
As I raised my grafic settings to the above values, I downgraded uGridtoLoad 7/64 to 5/36 again. I tried overclocking too (to keep uGridtoLoad 7/64), but got heat problems with my default cooling. The one of my two grafic cards heats up to almost 70°C, which is the throttle down limit (you don't want), overclocking wasn't an option though. After I installed Dragonborn DLC I had to downgrade uGridtoLoad anyways (no idea what that DLC and its high rez pack actually did, but it sucked performance).<br />
 <br />
Now I am  at 20 to 50 fps again, enjoying a stunning and still playable Skyrim.<br />
 <br />
<strong>Next task:</strong><br />
 <br />
Getting rid of RCRNv36 as an FXAA injector (I do not need) and lighting/immersion pack and experimentating with several standalone weather and lighting and immersion mods and maybe trying an ENB. I guess if you are able to handle the above grafic settings stand alones make more sense.</p>

 

...and what to the hell is this damned coding bug here on Nexus Forums...sorry guys, no motivation to change that again...

[Echoside]

From what I understand of that mess... :P It sounds like you might be getting some processor throttling from your shadow settings. Have you tried dropping them down to 2048 res? Cause I couldn't play 2d games at 20 FPS, heck dropping into the 40s range bugs me enough as it is. Also, Skyrim is 32bit meaning ram wise around 3.5gig you'll start getting memory crashes.

 

Also the new RCRN AE is in beta and has a whole lot more ENB like features now if you wanna check it out.

[Sigurd44]

From what I understand of that mess... :P It sounds like you might be getting some processor throttling from your shadow settings. Have you tried dropping them down to 2048 res? Cause I couldn't play 2d games at 20 FPS, heck dropping into the 40s range bugs me enough as it is. Also, Skyrim is 32bit meaning ram wise around 3.5gig you'll start getting memory crashes.

 

Also the new RCRN AE is in beta and has a whole lot more ENB like features now if you wanna check it out.

 

20 fps is only my absolute minimum value in dense woods with lots of grass and maybe 3 to 4 followers with 4k body textures around, average is 30 to 40 fps and that's ok. 30 to 40 fps with AF 16 x, MSAA 16 x, TrSSAA 16 x (all FXAA off) on a 2560 x 1440 screen is acceptable I guess :-) Skyrim isn't an egoshooter where you want to have every frame you can get, Skyrim has to shine and look well :-)

 

Yeah, I asked on the RCRNv36 boards and I learnt that I should run Skyrim only with the usual MSAA/TrSSAA and ONLY the RCRnv36 FXAA (so Skyrim FXAA off and Nvidia FXAA off). RCRNv36 FXAA is really nice and well done. it does not blur, it just antialiases in addition to MSAA/TrSSA and does not negate the MSAA/TrSSAA effect that happened before the post process injection. It does deliver a sort of shimmer on metallic textures like weapons and blades, but I have to say I like it.

 

I will wait for the new RCRN version. I read a lot of CoT and stand alone mods and as far as I know they all have their bugs and an update problem. Some aren't even upgraded for Hearthfire, not to speak about Dragonborn. So I am not in hurry.

 

I would welcome some ENB like features, especially more easy saturation and lighting type changes and maybe some nice presets already, I hated the Imaginator prcocedure.

[ironbender800]

 

From what I understand of that mess... :P It sounds like you might be getting some processor throttling from your shadow settings. Have you tried dropping them down to 2048 res? Cause I couldn't play 2d games at 20 FPS, heck dropping into the 40s range bugs me enough as it is. Also, Skyrim is 32bit meaning ram wise around 3.5gig you'll start getting memory crashes.

 

Also the new RCRN AE is in beta and has a whole lot more ENB like features now if you wanna check it out.

 

20 fps is only my absolute minimum value in dense woods with lots of grass and maybe 3 to 4 followers with 4k body textures around, average is 30 to 40 fps and that's ok. 30 to 40 fps with AF 16 x, MSAA 16 x, TrSSAA 16 x (all FXAA off) on a 2560 x 1440 screen is acceptable I guess :-) Skyrim isn't an egoshooter where you want to have every frame you can get, Skyrim has to shine and look well :-)

 

Yeah, I asked on the RCRNv36 boards and I learnt that I should run Skyrim only with the usual MSAA/TrSSAA and ONLY the RCRnv36 FXAA (so Skyrim FXAA off and Nvidia FXAA off). RCRNv36 FXAA is really nice and well done. it does not blur, it just antialiases in addition to MSAA/TrSSA and does not negate the MSAA/TrSSAA effect that happened before the post process injection. It does deliver a sort of shimmer on metallic textures like weapons and blades, but I have to say I like it.

 

I will wait for the new RCRN version. I read a lot of CoT and stand alone mods and as far as I know they all have their bugs and an update problem. Some aren't even upgraded for Hearthfire, not to speak about Dragonborn. So I am not in hurry.

 

I would welcome some ENB like features, especially more easy saturation and lighting type changes and maybe some nice presets already, I hated the Imaginator prcocedure.

Sweet setup. Im playing on a gtx 660 at 720p with all the texture mods i could find, realistic lighting, etc etc but at half the resolution. I have all the graphics driver settings cranked up too. Followed the GEforce tweak guide.

 

I get occasional stutter here and there but nothing crazy. Outside with all the mods and settings cranked up as high as possible im avraging 35-50, in the citys most of the time im locked at 60 with drops to 50 in certain areas. Riverwoods the exception there im 40 to 50.

 

Will probably go SLI here soon down the road rather than buying a more powerful single GPU. I have to upgrade my power supply tho. :( only 500 watts at the moment. corsair unit been great but wont be quite enough for SLI

[SeraVerte]

Came here wondering about this too.

I bought a Gigabyte 670 2gb half a year ago and OC-ed to 1200Mhz just to play modded Skyrim.

However, after using a performance heavy (K-enb) enb and high res texture packs (optimized) the card is starting to show its limits. (avg of 30-40fps)

 

OP: have you considered getting two 7970s? At 3Gb that seems to be the sweet spot, especially if you're going for tons of HD texture mods.

Edited March 1, 2013 by SeraVerte