Heavy Mod Use - How to actually make Skyrim use my hardware?

[Guest SemiPr0]

I tend to max out around 3GB and then Skyrim keels over and dies I can't seem to keep it stable running full tilt which is unfortunate because my specs are pretty much well above the required amounts to deal with it.

 

Specs:

Operating System
            MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
        CPU
            Intel Core i7 960  @ 3.20GHz    28 °C
            Bloomfield 45nm Technology
        RAM
            16.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (8-8-8-20)
        Motherboard
            ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6X58-E PRO (LGA1366)    24 °C
        Graphics
            PX2710MW (1920x1080@60Hz)
            NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
            NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
        Hard Drives
            488GB Seagate ST3500320AS ATA Device (SATA)    30 °C
        Optical Drives
            LITE-ON COMBO SHC-48S7K ATA Device
        Audio
            Realtek High Definition Audio

 

Load Order:

 

 

GameMode=Skyrim

Skyrim.esm=1
Update.esm=1
Dawnguard.esm=1
HearthFires.esm=1
Dragonborn.esm=1
ApachiiHair.esm=1
ApachiiHairFemales.esm=1
ApachiiHairMales.esm=1
ClimatesOfTamriel.esm=1
SexLab.esm=1
MagicDuelReborn.esm=1
SPIKE.esm=1
HighResTexturePack01.esp=1
HighResTexturePack02.esp=1
HighResTexturePack03.esp=1
Brawl Bugs CE.esp=1
FixedEyeAdaption.esp=1
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp=1
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp=1
Chesko_Frostfall.esp=1
RevampedExteriorFog.esp=1
ClimatesOfTamriel-Sound.esp=1
Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp=1
Further Dark Dungeons for ENB.esp=1
StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp=1
StaticMeshImprovementMod-DragonbornTernFix.esp=1
TradeBarter.esp=1
Chesko_WearableLantern.esp=1
CrossbowsRevamped.esp=1
DaedricCrownCraftable.esp=1
DragonCrownCraftable.esp=1
DragonPlateCrownCraftable.esp=1
EbonyCrownCraftable.esp=1
ElvenCrownCraftable.esp=1
ExpandedJewelryCrafting.esp=1
GlassCrownCraftable.esp=1
NS_HuntingGroundsOutfit.esp=1
LegendarySmithingUpgrades.esp=1
UnlimitedBookshelves.esp=1
Lost Art of the Blacksmith.esp=1
More Craftables.esp=1
Pupetteer Master.esp=1
RealShelter.esp=1
Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp=1
Grass_On_Steroids_SFO-SHORT.esp=1
ValsCraftingMeltdownAlpha.esp=1
Convenient Horses.esp=1
AutomaticItemStorage.esp=1
SkyUI.esp=1
aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp=1
ArmoredCircletsQuickFox.esp=1
AsharaDimonizedDress.esp=1
Cloaks.esp=1
1nivWICCloaks.esp=1
1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch.esp=1
Craftable Arrows.esp=1
Craftable Artifacts.esp=1
Dread Knight Weapon Set.esp=1
Elewin Jewelry.esp=1
FJ_TsunArmor.esp=1
Ghosu - Weapon Pack 1.esp=1
HBetterBows.esp=1
hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp=1
Insanity's Steel Bow.esp=1
LadyKdCirclets.esp=1
LustmordVampireArmor.esp=1
Magicka Sabers.esp=1
TravelRobes.esp=1
Krev The Skinner's Mantle by Hothtrooper44.esp=1
AesirArmor.esp=1
LightAncientNordArmor.esp=1
A Perfect Assasin.esp=1
Aetherium Gladiator Armor by Rikushai.esp=1
Remodeled Armor - Underwear.esp=1
PrvtI_HeavyArmory.esp=1
Reaper's Dread Arrow at Forge.esp=1
Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer.esp=1
Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer - Dawnguard.esp=1
skyforgedShields.esp=1
Unique Uniques.esp=1
zzlovelyfeather.esp=1
BAMM.esp=1
RegnPiercings.esp=1
Angelika's Amulets.esp=1
HarvestFeathers.esp=1
flaho_shi_eagles_nest_ENG.esp=1
The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp=1
SNSDPoser1.esp=1
Skyrim Pose Collection.esp=1
zzEstrus.esp=1
Estrus Chaurus.esp=1
SexLabMatchMaker.esp=1
SexAddict.esp=1
360WalkandRunPlus-RunBackwardSpeedAdjust.esp=1
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp=1
Headtracking.esp=1
Immersive Weapons.esp=1
More Salt Please.esp=1
NPCsMoveatPlayerSpeed.esp=1
Proper Aiming.esp=1
Realistic werewolf speed.esp=1
dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp=1
dD-Dragonborn-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp=1
Long lost smelters by Hyralux.esp=1
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp=1
ELFXEnhancer.esp=1
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp=1
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp=1
ClimatesOfTamriel-Interiors-Warm.esp=1
ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-Level-1.esp=1
RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp=1
RND_USKP-Patch.esp=1
WerewolfPerksExpanded_1.6.esp=1
Balanced_Magic.esp=1
Balanced_Magic_Dawnguard.esp=1
MagicDuelReborn - Shouts.esp=1
DeadlyCombat.esp=1
DeadlyCombat_NoArmorChanges.esp=1
Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp=1
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition.esp=1
ABT - Faster Bolts Improved +100%.esp=1
ABT - Faster Arrows Improved +100%.esp=1
ABT - Increased Bolts Damage (Vanilla) +100%.esp=1
ABT - Increased Progressive Damage (with Nord Hero Arrow) +100%.esp=1
Dual Flurry for all.esp=1
Guardian Stones Class Overlap.esp=1
MorePerksPerLevel.esp=1
Sit Anywhere.esp=1
SGHairPack04.esp=1
SGHairPack03.esp=1
SGHairPack01.esp=1
SGHairPack05.esp=1
SGHairPack06.esp=1
SGHairPack02.esp=1
_zzCCCHairs.esp=1
TheEyesOfBeauty.esp=1
Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp=1
UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul.esp=1
UFO - Dawnguard AddOn.esp=1
UFO - Heartfire AddOn.esp=1
My Home Is Your Home.esp=1
Spousetocustomhome.esp=1
CharacterMakingExtender.esp=1
EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp=1
Timescale5.esp=1
Purewaters.esp=1
PurewatersDG.esp=1
PurewatersDB.esp=1
RND_PureWaters-Patch.esp=1
SKSE Hotkeys.esp=1
WetandCold.esp=1

 

 

Skyrim.ini:

 

 

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
bLoadLooseFiles=1
bRunHighLevelProcess=1
uGridsToLoad=7
uExterior Cell Buffer=64
uInterior Cell Buffer=32
fMasterFilePreLoadMB=128.0000
iPreloadSizeLimit=268435456
bUseThreadedMorpher=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1
bMultiThreadMovement=1
bDisableAllGore=0
bTrackAllDeaths=1
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=0
sLocalSavePath=Saves\
bBorderRegionsEnabled=1
iNumHWThreads=4
[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
bAllowScreenshot=1
iPresentInterval=1
fDefaultWorldFOV=67
fDefault1stPersonFOV=67
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.25
fSunUpdateThreshold=1
bActorSelfShadowing=1
bAllow30Shaders=1
bAllow20HairShader=1
bDo30VFog=1
bDoTallGrassEffect=1
bDoTexturePass=1
bDoSpecularPass=1
bDoDiffusePass=1
bDoAmbientPass=1
bUseRefractionShader=1
bUse Shaders=1
bUseSunbeams=1
fDecalLifetime=30.0000
[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0
[Grass]
bAllowLoadGrass=0
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bDrawShaderGrass=1
iMinGrassSize=100
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexture=6
[GeneralWarnings]
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.
[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, Update.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Hearthfires.bsa
sArchiveList=ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated!.bsa,
[Actor]
fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000
[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0
f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7
f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7
[Water]
bReflectExplosions=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1
[VATS]
fVATSCastingAfterKillDelay=1.2000
uVATSRangedPercentSneak=100
uVATSRangedPercentGlobal=100
bVATSIgnoreProjectileTest=0
bVATSAllowNoKill=0
bVATSMultipleCombatants=1
bVATSForceRanged=1
[Trees]
bForceFullDetail=0
bEnableTreeAnimations=1
[TerrainManager]
bKeepLowDetailTerrain=0
bDisplayCloudLOD=1
sIntroSequence=BGS_LOGO.BIK
[Papyrus]
fUpdateBudgetMS=800.0
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=800.0
iMinMemoryPageSize=256
iMaxMemoryPageSize=512
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=153600
[HAVOK]
iNumThreads=2
[imagespace]
bDoRadialBlur=0
[backgroundLoad]
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
[Decals]
bDecalMultithreaded=1
bForceAllDecals=1
[budgetCaps]
uActorMemoryBudgetCap=20971520
uLoadedAreaNonActorMemoryBudgetCap=371195904
uWaterMemoryInterior=20971520
uTextureMemoryInterior=20971520
uGeometryMemoryInterior=20971520
uWaterMemory=10485760
uTextureMemory=20971520
uGeometryMemory=10485760

 

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

 

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
fDefaultFOV=67
bUseThreadedMorpher=1
bUseThreadedMeshes=1
bUseThreadedTextures=1
bUseThreadedBlood=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseThreadedLOD=1
[imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=4000
fShadowDistance=8000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=3
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=14000
fGamma=1.04
fDecalLOD2=1500
fDecalLOD1=1000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000
fShadowLODStartFade=200
fLightLODStartFade=3500
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=2
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bShadowsOnGrass=0
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=21000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=28000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=153
bShadowMaskZPrepass=1
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 "
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15
iShadowMaskQuarter=5
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=4
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDeferredShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
bActorSelfShadowing=1
bUseSunbeams=1
bSimpleLighting=0
bEquippedTorchesCastShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=0
bAllowLoadGrass=0
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bDrawShaderGrass=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=21000.0000
bGrassPointLighting=1
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=0.45
bSaveOnPause=0
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=0
bSaveOnRest=0
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=3
[interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.026
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=0
bMouseAcceleration=1
bUseKinect=0
fMouseHeadingYScale=0.85
fMouseHeadingXScale=0.02
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[saveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=30
bDisableAutoSave=0
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=1610649302
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4500
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=1.0000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5
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=80
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
bEnableTreeAnimations=1
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[blurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[blurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=2048
iWaterReflectWidth=2048
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1
bForceHighDetailReflections=1
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
iWaterBlurAmount=2
bUseWaterShader=1
bUseWaterLOD=1
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=1

 

 

 

I've got just about every graphic option cranked plus ENB running, SMIM, Skyrim 2k + the high res DLC's, SFO, Pure Waters, CoT, ELFX, all of Cabal120's retextures and just about every good armor mod of any note for CBBE. I use SMCO for texture optimization (though I sometimes manually work textures in CS4 myself depending on the texture) and to be honest I just don't quite understand the problem here.

 

Theres 16GB of RAM on the motherboard, I get that Skyrim will never exceed 4GB of it but it seems like 3GB is where the real ceiling is because any time I load up my game with all my options cranked out I end up with a 2.5GB footprint at load and the game keels over entirely and freezes or CTD's at approximately 3.0GB.

 

The only things I can really think of here is that I'm potentially bottlenecking at my hard drive and need to upgrade that to an SSD or, potentially the 256bit memory bus on the GTX 560 cards just cannot process the texture and mesh information fast enough and eventually everything dies.

 

Anyways my performance is rather good, all cranked up, it just doesn't allow me to play for very long. I use ugrids=7 because I loathe the mesh pop in distance on ugrids=5, its absolutely immersion breaking.

 

Anyways I know this is a problem a lot of people face but I'm just trying to get an idea of what I could potentially do to run a stable game at ugrids=7  with 154 active plugins and around 25 more graphics and model enhancements installed.

 

TLDR: please help me keep my Skyrim pretty, but make it stop crashing. Tall order...I know.

[Demonhunter]

From what i understand, (which is admittedly not very much) If you run a lot script based mods it tends to make the pc work a lot harder hence burning out the memory and such. don't quote me on this, but i run 73 mods all up. but only have two mods with scripts. i hardly ever have crashes probably all up about 5 or 6 over the span of 1 yr. So if you have a heap of those maybe reduce it? Sorry if this was no help at all.

 

 

[Guest SemiPr0]

Its not unhelpful its just slightly unfortunate that a lot of my good mods are script intensive. Frostfall is fantastic but very script intensive. Theres Dance of Death, Magic Duel Reborn, Convenient Horses, Duel Wield Parrying, More Hotkeys Please, Wet And Cold, Real Shelter...all of these being functionality or immersion mods I can more or less not do without at this point. Theres also the per-requisite LLab's mods, SexLab, SexAddicts, Estrus Charus and so on and so forth. 

 

I'll try a save load with a removal of most of this stuff and see if it drops my memory footprint a bit. My stability is absolutely horrible for my computer specs, thats for sure.

[Demonhunter]

Good luck. and its always the best things that cause the most havoc. 

[Veladarius]

I run a lot of script heavy mods as well but most of the issues I had was with the textures. With so many mods that re-texture items many of these are not the same type of file or have other inconsistencies that make it harder for the game to handle. I used the Optimizer Textures program http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801/? to convert them to the same format and I resized the patterns to 8x8 and this reduced the crashes I was having as well as sped things up a bit. I don't have near the system you do (i5 2500k, AMD 7850 2gb, 32gb ram) but this helped me quite a bit.

[ghosen]

well for one thing...   you haven't maxed your available script memory

 

fUpdateBudgetMS=100
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=300
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000
iMinMemoryPageSize=256
iMaxMemoryPageSize=1024
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2147483647
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
bEnableProfiling=0

 

in stuff like skyUI turn off any scripts you don't need (for example skyUI checks for its menu files, Wet and Cold can be configured to use less scripts at some loss of function  *turn off anything you don't want)    also make sure you've cleaned your esm and esp files with TES5edit.

[ghosen]

Also for skyrimprefs  turn mouse acceleration off,  ugrids is potentially a big problem so you may want to take that out and look for mods that fix the distance problem in other ways.

[Rayblue]

For mucho mods, seems that you should try out Nitpick.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19556/?

 

Alternately, there's Mod Organizer:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1334/?

[Guest SemiPr0]

I did actually have to back it down to ugrids=5 which is just a crying shame on my hardware. I'm replacing my 560's with 680's though they're currently enroute to my house so that may help to a certain degree, least I hope so.

 

And yeah I haven't maxed my script memory because when I do SkyUI specifically states that the defaults are what the values need to stay at. I'll try your suggestion though and seem how it works out.

 

And I have no idea why mouse acceleration is on....probably something I checked in Skyconfig without thinking about it. I rather doubt it does much good in Skyrim.

[Guest SemiPr0]

Also for skyrimprefs  turn mouse acceleration off,  ugrids is potentially a big problem so you may want to take that out and look for mods that fix the distance problem in other ways.

 

Are there any other mods that can actually do this, the effective understanding that I have is that everything outside the 6 grid box of ugrids=5 (5+1 the player is in) isn't actually loaded and thus can't be forced to load because its technically "outside of the box" and nothing from outside can be rendered to the inside.

 

I'm unaware of any mods that allow you to decrease the mesh pop-in severity that occurs at ugrids=5, and ugrids=7 seems to be the best setting for overall loaded visual transitions....its just unstable as all hell using mods (its probably pretty solid running base game though.)

[K99]

With that many mods, textures and scripts, bottlenecking your HD is a definite possibility. SSDs make wonders, you definitely should consider one. The 680 was probably a wise move too.

 

For the mesh pop-in, if you don't have one yet you should consider a DOF mod, like Dynavision:

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12525/

 

It won't fix it, but it should make it less noticeable.

[lordofthedread]

I personally dont like DOF, I even disable it in most of the ENB I use, my skyrim all modded with 2K textures is running at about 40fps with ENB, 60 without and I have only a single Radeon HD 6850.

 

If your Skyrim is unstable it is probably because of conflicting mods, bad load order or unclean mods.

 

Thus said it was reported many times that Skyrim has trouble with SLI or Crossfire so maybe a more powerful single graphic card will do better than 2 smaller ones.

 

Also Skyrim sucks at managing memory, I personally use a small program called CleanMem and it helped me a lot on memory usage while playing Skyrim

[Guest SemiPr0]

I'm currently testing under a single 680 and the fan isn't even spinning up. I ran from Riften to Lakeview Manor without a hitch and that was with full ultra graphic settings and the Project ENB with just SSAO and the SweetFX Injector.

 

I have not though, yet...increased my ugrids back to 7...but I am going to give it a shot.

 

I think it just may have been the SLI configuration and the fact that the 560's only had 2GB GDDR5, whereas this 680 has 4GB, and since the second 560 was never more than a PhysX processor it didn't really matter that it had 2GB more memory on it because the first card wasn't shunting any memory load to it.

 

So we'll see what happens when I crank my ugrids back up. So far though on ugrids=5 theres no hiccups at all.

[lordofthedread]

I'm currently testing under a single 680 and the fan isn't even spinning up. I ran from Riften to Lakeview Manor without a hitch and that was with full ultra graphic settings and the Project ENB with just SSAO and the SweetFX Injector.

 

I have not though, yet...increased my ugrids back to 7...but I am going to give it a shot.

 

I think it just may have been the SLI configuration and the fact that the 560's only had 2GB GDDR5, whereas this 680 has 4GB, and since the second 560 was never more than a PhysX processor it didn't really matter that it had 2GB more memory on it because the first card wasn't shunting any memory load to it.

 

So we'll see what happens when I crank my ugrids back up. So far though on ugrids=5 theres no hiccups at all.

 

No games yet, no matter how much HD textures you put in will use 4GB of video memory, 2GB is plenty enough even if you used only 4K textures replacers.

[Guest SemiPr0]

Well thats all I can really think of in the overall difference. I mean of course the 680 is far more powerful and I think it has a faster memory bus than the 560 but to be honest I really expected more out of the 560 but it just could not hack ugrids=7 with a Skyrim install modded for heavy graphic fidelity.

 

The 680 isn't even breaching 60C on high load areas in ugrids=5, I'll be testing increasing my ugrids again at some point today to see how it works out.

[lordofthedread]

It is indeed a bandwith problem and not a memory problem, even a simple 560Ti will perform way better than a 560.

 

You cant really compare your 680 with a 560, yours is a high end graphic card and the 560 is a low-mid range one, and there is also a generation jump.

 

For me the 560 was not a very good deal to start with, the 560Ti was way better and the price difference not that huge.

 

 

 

 

[pds123]

I've found out the hard way by having a beasty rig but been crippled by script heavy mods. This is the only guide I've found that works for me and even then I still get the odd ctd :

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32363//?

Nothing anyone can do to get past this limit unless bethesda release a 64bit exe which they won't.

There's a good topic on STEP about the 3.1gb crash but draws the same conclusions as everyone else. Messing with your papyrus settings doesn't seem to help and it's best to keep them at default no matter what anyone else will tell you. If you're trying to stop the ram use then telling papyrus to use more is counter productive.