Will my PC need some performance mods to survive what I'm going to

[Shotokanguy]

FX 8120

8 GB RAM

GTX 550 Ti

 

I'm going to be putting a lot of mods on this thing, I can tell. Half of them might by tiny things, but there are big things like RCRN, an ENB, flora mods, lots of texture mods, stuff like HD fire, it goes on and on.

 

Bethesda games don't run super smooth in vanilla form. I have a hard time believing that my game will run smoothly fully modded, but I haven't gotten everything installed at once yet to find out. But if there are some performance mods out there that I could use, I'd appreciate the recommendation.

 

I was looking at things like HiAlgoBoost and ATTK Power Loader, but apparently the former is for less powerful computers and the other one is gone.

[BrotherBob]

I'm no expert with computer specs, but I'd imagine that there is no downside to using the latter performance enhancing mod. The former (HiAlgoBoost) really annoyed me because it wasn't compatible with some ENBs, at least from my experience; I may have just been configuring it improperly, however. ATTK Power Loader is all I use. Since it is gone from the Nexus, I wonder if it would be OK for me to PM you the file? Any moderators want to ring in?

[mellophonist]

I think you should be good Ram wise, however if your going to running several environmental overhaul and texture mods, I'd definitely recommend upgrading to a better graphics card, especially if yours doesn't have dedicated video ram. I tended to hover around the 100-150 mod mark with my single 660 Ti with 2 gigs dedicated Vram and I generally had few problems. Keep in mind I was running several 4k texture mods at any given time as well as numerous other Hi Res mods. After getting my second 660 Ti (Now having 4 gigs dedicated Vram) I run over 200 mods at 60 fps 90% of the time. Now, keeping such a large load order is nothing to snuff at, as far as making sure load order is correct, all mods are cleaned, etc. But seeing Skyrim in 4k glory is well worth it.

[Shotokanguy]

Yeah, I had a feeling...only 1 gig of VRAM on the 550.

 

I'll have to think about whether I really want to spend the money, but two 550s at once should have me covered, right? From what little research I did, it seems like that's a good amount of power.

[Jeir]

My specs:

i5 2500 @ 3.3Ghz, GTX 550 Ti 1GB, 8GB RAM.

 

Retex/remesh mods:

SMIM.

Skyrim HD - 2K Textures Lite.

Skyrim Ultra Texture Pack.

Skyrim Flora Overhaul (v179e version with the extra plants and things).

WATER.

Book of Silence.

Hvergelmir's Armour Retexture/Shields Retexture.

Clothing Texture Overhaul.

Better Males/CBBE.

ApachiiSkyHair.

Project ENB, Realistic preset with SSAO.

 

Last I checked FPS (before I swapped some SMIM and Skyrim 2K things for lower-res/poly versions, and went from Ultra to High textures), I had 50-ish inside, 40-ish in the Whiterun plains, and around 25-35 at the lowest in heavily forested areas. I only have the Project Optimisation mod. =) Really, just try things until it gets too much for your system.

Edited May 18, 2013 by Jeir

[Shotokanguy]

I forgot to mention, I'm running this at only 1440x900. The NVIDIA site doesn't even list that resolution for their comparisons. I guess it's kind of small these days.

 

Can anyone say how much of a performance impact this could have?

[thebeast505]

I think you should be good Ram wise, however if your going to running several environmental overhaul and texture mods, I'd definitely recommend upgrading to a better graphics card, especially if yours doesn't have dedicated video ram. I tended to hover around the 100-150 mod mark with my single 660 Ti with 2 gigs dedicated Vram and I generally had few problems. Keep in mind I was running several 4k texture mods at any given time as well as numerous other Hi Res mods. After getting my second 660 Ti (Now having 4 gigs dedicated Vram) I run over 200 mods at 60 fps 90% of the time. Now, keeping such a large load order is nothing to snuff at, as far as making sure load order is correct, all mods are cleaned, etc. But seeing Skyrim in 4k glory is well worth it.

Actually putting those 2 660 ti's 2gb in sli does NOT stack the VRAM.

The cards do not share the VRAM and you still only have 2gb total. The performance boost your seeing is mainly from the fact that you have 2 660s.

[mellophonist]

Actually putting those 2 660 ti's 2gb in sli does NOT stack the VRAM.

The cards do not share the VRAM and you still only have 2gb total. The performance boost your seeing is mainly from the fact that you have 2 660s.

 

Ah did not realize that but still I technically have 4 gigs of video ram (two 2 gigs) whether I use them or not in game is really irrelevant.

[mellophonist]

Yeah, I had a feeling...only 1 gig of VRAM on the 550.

 

I'll have to think about whether I really want to spend the money, but two 550s at once should have me covered, right? From what little research I did, it seems like that's a good amount of power.

Two 550's should give you a pretty big boost, but I think buying one 660 will out perform the two 550's. (someone correct me if I am wrong in that.)

[thebeast505]

 

 

Actually putting those 2 660 ti's 2gb in sli does NOT stack the VRAM.

The cards do not share the VRAM and you still only have 2gb total. The performance boost your seeing is mainly from the fact that you have 2 660s.

 

Ah did not realize that but still I technically have 4 gigs of video ram (two 2 gigs) whether I use them or not in game is really irrelevant.

Yeah technically you have 4gigs but the cards can only use 2 max. So it confusing some people when you say 4 :)

And yes I agree that the gtx 660 will be way better then the current 550