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

[xmacrosx]

I just got a gtx 680 4gb. installed every HD mod I could find, lighting, ENB, etc...No studdering, runs smooth as silk. Was even surprised to start a new game with racemenu, multiple hair mods, warpaint, race, eye, etc... installed and was able to create a character without the game crashing (used to always have to go to a small cell and uninstall mods to go to showracemenu). Now granted I also have a lot of other high end hardware to help, but so far I'm happy with the card.

[Aminados]

If you can afford it SLI is a definate yes, If you get stuttering from SLI then you can always shut it off until a driver update fixes it as the driver would be at fault for most of the stuttering and not the games setup for using the hardware. But now the Nvidia drivers dont have any issues with Skyrim and any updates that may affect Skyrim would be performance increases.

 

Also with benchmarks non modded is the way to go, so the 660Ti would be a good card in SLI for the price The higher rez textures wont have a huge performance hit if the card doesnt have to swap texture memory back and forth from RAM to VRAM which a 4GB card most likely wont have an issue with(been tested for SPM already). As for the ENB you plan to use always ask for results from those that use it and get an average FPS drop then figure you will see around that.

I was actually thinking of getting 660ti SLI 2gb not 3gb witch is the most for a 660ti,still not sure if 2gb will be an issue at 1080p and yeah.. from the benchmarks I've seen sli doesnt look bad at all at least for the gtx 6xx.

I just got a gtx 680 4gb. installed every HD mod I could find, lighting, ENB, etc...No studdering, runs smooth as silk. Was even surprised to start a new game with racemenu, multiple hair mods, warpaint, race, eye, etc... installed and was able to create a character without the game crashing (used to always have to go to a small cell and uninstall mods to go to showracemenu). Now granted I also have a lot of other high end hardware to help, but so far I'm happy with the card.

what resolution are you using? how much vRam is the game using? what card did you have before? :biggrin: Edited February 24, 2013 by Aminados

[KaizerFaust]

GPU: EVGA GTX 680 Classified

 

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Series

 

Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX

 

8GB of Corsair Vengeance

 

I use a EVGA GTX 680 Classified with every high res mod I can find amongst other mods, 1920x1080 resolution, 40-50frames in the outside world, upgraded from a EVGA GTX 570(averaging 20-25FPS outside Whiterun/Riverwood).

 

Skyrim will use just over 3GB of the cards 4GB of memory.

 

No complaints other than mod crashes and no need for more than one GPU, I've been using K ENB and Sharpshooters ENB off and on, I really like K ENB, but even if I shut off the AntiAliasing/AnitropicFiltering in NVIDIA Control Panel and ingame it still says certain things are turned off.

[Pevey]

Here's my experience as a reference point:

 

2X EVGA Factory OC GTX 680s 4GB (SLI)

 

On the plus side:

No issues with microstuttering--never even heard of it until I saw this thread.

 

On the other side:

I had a problem with the video card in my HTPC, so I used of my 680s in that computer while I RMA'd the defective card. So, for a while, I was running SKyrim with just one 680. To be honest, I couldn't tell the difference. FPS was still ~60 everywhere. And I have a 30" monitor (2560 x 1600). I use a lot of graphics mods, but not so far as, say, the Texture Pack Combiner. Used that for a while, but a lot of the textures included seemed overdone, IMO. So I scaled it back a little.

[Aminados]

Thanks for the replies guys..... but yeah 660 ti sli should be more then enough, but I might go with the 3gb version instead the 2gb since a few people already told me they get over 2gb at 1080p, plus its "only" 45$ more per card for 1 more gb witch could very much save me from some trouble, but hey keep sharing some info I might change ideas :biggrin:

[jet4571]

Well first rule is always go for the card with the most RAM for the model you are looking at buying unless the cost differance becomes too much for your budget. This helps allot for stretching the upgrade time out when games add more and more higher def textures. You may start out having plenty of ram then the next year be at the recomended specs and a year later at the minimum with the card with less ram, but the card with more may last a year longer before it reaches minimum.

[Echoside]

[Processor] = i2700k 3.5gig [RAM] = 24 gig G.Skill Ripjaws 1600
[Video Card] = EVGA NVIDIA GTX 680 FTW 4GB Edition (Driver Ver.#: 314.07)
[Monitor] 24 inch Widescreen 1080p HD TV @ 1920x1080 via Straight HDMI (HDMI to HDMI cable)
[HDD] = Western Digital Black SATA III 2TB HDD 7200rpm (Game drive only, OS is on a separate SSD drive)

Tex Mods (Note: I did some personal mixing on some of these so there is some overlap.)

High Res DLC for baseline textures.
aMidianBorn Book of Silence

4K Alternative Rock and Mountains
Beards - High Resolution
Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack
Bellyaches HD Dragon Replacer Pack
Better Circlets HQ V1o1
BGM Glass and Elven Armour and Weapons (Just the glass tex.)
Brows - High Resolution
CBBE
Coverkhajiits/Coverwomen
Detailed Rugs
Enhanced Blood Textures
Enhanced HD Dragon Bones
Enhanced Lights and FX
Enhanced Night Skyrim - Enhanced Night Skyrim v04 Color Galaxy/High Stars
Footprints
HD Enhanced Terrain - 2048x2048
Hectrol CAVES DELUXE HighRes Retex - Hectrol CAVES DELUXE HighRes Retex 4K
Hectrol SPIDER WEBS Deluxe HighRes Retex - Hectrol_SPIDER_WEBS_Deluxe_HighRes_Retex
High Quality LODs - HQLODs - Meshes Hi-Res
High Res Face Maps for Men by Geonox - V 1_1
High Res Warpaint and Dirtmaps for Men - V1
HiRes Legible Road Signs - HiRes Road Signs Version 3 Worn Text
Immersive Contrast Boost - Immersive Contrast Boost
Iridum Eyes - Iridum Eyes Standalone Pack
MacKoms Real Skin for Men - MacKoms Real Skin for Men
Nightingale Prime HD - Nightingale Prime HD
Quality SnowFlakes V2 - Quality SnowFlakes V2
RCRN 3.6 (AE soon hopefully)
Real Ice ALL-IN-ONE - Real Ice_Classic Pack
Realistic Mushrooms - Mushroom retexture pack v1
Ruins Clutter Improved
Serious HD Retexture Skyrim - Serious HD Retexture LANDSCAPE 2048px FULL
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures - Skyrim HD v1_5 FULL + 1.6 Riften
Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Terrain Bump - Texture Pack - Terrain Bump 1_4b
Ultimate HD Fire Spells - Ultimate HD Fire Spells
Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - DawnGuard-UHDWTv4
Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - UHDWTv5
Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - Unique HD Shield Textures UHDSTv35
Unofficial High Resolution Patch
W.A.T.E.R. - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux
Winter Is Coming - Cloaks - WIC Cloaks Textures Large
XCE - Dawnguard
XCE - Scarface
XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement
Yuril Rings HQ

I can pretty much hold 50-60fps at Skyrim default ultra settings, but do to custom ini tweaking/NIVIDA inspector settings, I can get drops down around 40-45 fps. Usually end up using around 2.5-3gigs of VRAM and RAM.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Echoside

[Aminados]

Well first rule is always go for the card with the most RAM for the model you are looking at buying unless the cost differance becomes too much for your budget. This helps allot for stretching the upgrade time out when games add more and more higher def textures. You may start out having plenty of ram then the next year be at the recomended specs and a year later at the minimum with the card with less ram, but the card with more may last a year longer before it reaches minimum.

Well, I'm trying not to spend more then I need to :biggrin: Usually in future games, gpu's became a problem before the aditional vRam. I'm trying to save some money now because I don't think these cards are going to be able to handle games much longer after the ps4 launch, I'm guessing we going to need new hardware so better save money for a REAL upgrade there :biggrin: but I'm on a 7 year old laptop and I dont want to wait 1 year playing Half-life 2 and Farcry 1 etc....

 

[Processor] = i2700k 3.5gig [RAM] = 24 gig G.Skill Ripjaws 1600

[Video Card] = EVGA NVIDIA GTX 680 FTW 4GB Edition (Driver Ver.#: 314.07)

[Monitor] 24 inch Widescreen 1080p HD TV @ 1920x1080 via Straight HDMI (HDMI to HDMI cable)

[HDD] = Western Digital Black SATA III 2TB HDD 7200rpm (Game drive only, OS is on a separate SSD drive)

 

Tex Mods (Note: I did some personal mixing on some of these so there is some overlap.)

 

 

High Res DLC for baseline textures.

aMidianBorn Book of Silence

4K Alternative Rock and Mountains

Beards - High Resolution

Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack

Bellyaches HD Dragon Replacer Pack

Better Circlets HQ V1o1

BGM Glass and Elven Armour and Weapons (Just the glass tex.)

Brows - High Resolution

CBBE

Coverkhajiits/Coverwomen

Detailed Rugs

Enhanced Blood Textures

Enhanced HD Dragon Bones

Enhanced Lights and FX

Enhanced Night Skyrim - Enhanced Night Skyrim v04 Color Galaxy/High Stars

Footprints

HD Enhanced Terrain - 2048x2048

Hectrol CAVES DELUXE HighRes Retex - Hectrol CAVES DELUXE HighRes Retex 4K

Hectrol SPIDER WEBS Deluxe HighRes Retex - Hectrol_SPIDER_WEBS_Deluxe_HighRes_Retex

High Quality LODs - HQLODs - Meshes Hi-Res

High Res Face Maps for Men by Geonox - V 1_1

High Res Warpaint and Dirtmaps for Men - V1

HiRes Legible Road Signs - HiRes Road Signs Version 3 Worn Text

Immersive Contrast Boost - Immersive Contrast Boost

Iridum Eyes - Iridum Eyes Standalone Pack

MacKoms Real Skin for Men - MacKoms Real Skin for Men

Nightingale Prime HD - Nightingale Prime HD

Quality SnowFlakes V2 - Quality SnowFlakes V2

RCRN 3.6 (AE soon hopefully)

Real Ice ALL-IN-ONE - Real Ice_Classic Pack

Realistic Mushrooms - Mushroom retexture pack v1

Ruins Clutter Improved

Serious HD Retexture Skyrim - Serious HD Retexture LANDSCAPE 2048px FULL

Skyrim HD - 2K Textures - Skyrim HD v1_5 FULL + 1.6 Riften

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Terrain Bump - Texture Pack - Terrain Bump 1_4b

Ultimate HD Fire Spells - Ultimate HD Fire Spells

Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - DawnGuard-UHDWTv4

Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - UHDWTv5

Unique High Definition Textures - UHDT - Unique HD Shield Textures UHDSTv35

Unofficial High Resolution Patch

W.A.T.E.R. - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux

Winter Is Coming - Cloaks - WIC Cloaks Textures Large

XCE - Dawnguard

XCE - Scarface

XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement

Yuril Rings HQ

 

 

I can pretty much hold 50-60fps at Skyrim default ultra settings, but do to custom ini tweaking/NIVIDA inspector settings, I can get drops down around 40-45 fps. Usually end up using around 2.5-3gigs of VRAM and RAM.

Yeah 60 fps is what I need :biggrin: but dam, 2.5-3gigs? thats alot. I noticed you used some 4k mods witch I probably wont be using unless I have some more vram left, 2k should be nice :biggrin: Thanks for the shrare of info, really appreciate it. By the way don't you get slow texture loading or stuff like tree's "poping" in game with a 7200 hdd?

[Echoside]

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.

[ironbender800]

<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> </p>

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

<p> </p>

<p>My system is</p>

<p> </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> </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>

Edited February 25, 2013 by ironbender800