AlyssaAwoo Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 Hi all ? I've been playing with modded Skyrim for a while now and have always had issues with fps somewhere. I asked someone about it and he said my specs are more than enough to run most modern games. However I don't know if that really applies to modded Skyrim SE, so I'd like a second opinion. I'm playing Skyrim SE with high-ultra settings on 1440p resolution, have 2-4k texture mods installed, a mid-high level ENB, more than a handful of script mods and also things related to body physics. I also usually have Discord running amongst other things in the background. Hardware: Intel i7 9700k RTX 2070 Super 8G VRAM Dual 8GB RAM (16GB) 1TB HDD for the Skyrim Install Coolmaster 600W PSU I cannot reach 60 fps with this hardware and it will usually linger at around 40-50. Could someone tell me where the issue is ? Am running out of VRAM or RAM ? I don't think my Skyrim even looks impressive in any way. It looks fairly alright with a lot of room for improvement, and it's already struggling to run at 60fps. Could it be that I'm simply running out of RAM due to my 40% memory usage even without Skyrim open ? The person I asked about this sort of stuff told me this shouldn't be a problem, though I'm starting to doubt it. However I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'd appreciate some help from someone who really knows what's up.
Gameplayer Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 Well without knowing off hand exactly what the RAM speeds are and the speed of your HDD, the easiest answer is get SSD. However, that might not be the case but overall a decent SSD would be a good upgrade for your system in general for everything you do and likely other games you play besides Skyrim. You might check around to see about SSD what you actually want though is just enough storage space on the SSD and you want fastest read/write speeds for a low price. Might actually be doable but remember fast and loads of space comes with a heavier price tag. IF you can fit a second storage drive its easy enough to have Steam put a specific game there, and a 250Gb will be plenty for a modded Skyrim... Thing is you might want to check your RAM speeds with something like CPUz and you could share some stats besides like your GHz of the CPU, how many cores its got and more stuff besides. CPUz is free too. Other than that well I would have to look up the stats on your parts and well like I said CPUz makes that easier and you can test it yourself. Why check the RAM, well its entirely possible you have 800 speed RAM sticks in there thats why, and CPUz will tell you about that in mere minutes, the part, the manufacturer, its rank, channels, speeds, latency and ect. Tells you about your CPU, Video Card, and a lot of other parts specifics in regards to your rating. SOO, we use CPUz, get it to tell you what you have and its stats, If you see your at say, 1600 speed for your RAM well that is fairly believable and decent enough but you could go with something faster like 2400 speed for I think your DDR4 RAM....If of course the motherboard and the CPU support that speed it should but I dont know that off hand. Worst case scenario, it is entirely possible that you bought an off the shelf computer with 16GB DDR with 800 speed RAM in there aka bottom of the barrel DDR RAM....DDR3 can pump out 2400 speed before clocking it higher with OC. Most of the off shelf builds use cheapest RAM possible and its a possibility that complete replacement of your RAM will give most benefit. DDR4, can go way higher speeds than the DDR3's and you can easily pick up 1600/2400 but its pricy at 3200 and so on.
bnub345 Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 The biggest impact by far is the ENB, it's extremely frame hungry. I can run SE at a stable 144 fps with the ENB turned off, but only get around 45-55 in exterior cells with it on. You can play around with the ENB menu in game (shift enter by default) and tweak some of the settings. Some of the biggest fps drains are ambient occlusion (SSAO) and depth of field (DoF), try lowering the settings or turning those off and see how it looks. Your anti-alias settings might also have an impact, but the configuration is different for different ENBs.
AlyssaAwoo Posted June 19, 2022 Author Posted June 19, 2022 8 minutes ago, Gameplayer said: Well without knowing off hand exactly what the RAM speeds are and the speed of your HDD, the easiest answer is get SSD. However, that might not be the case but overall a decent SSD would be a good upgrade for your system in general for everything you do and likely other games you play besides Skyrim. You might check around to see about SSD what you actually want though is just enough storage space on the SSD and you want fastest read/write speeds for a low price. Might actually be doable but remember fast and loads of space comes with a heavier price tag. IF you can fit a second storage drive its easy enough to have Steam put a specific game there, and a 250Gb will be plenty for a modded Skyrim... Thing is you might want to check your RAM speeds with something like CPUz and you could share some stats besides like your GHz of the CPU, how many cores its got and more stuff besides. CPUz is free too. Other than that well I would have to look up the stats on your parts and well like I said CPUz makes that easier and you can test it yourself. Why check the RAM, well its entirely possible you have 800 speed RAM sticks in there thats why, and CPUz will tell you about that in mere minutes, the part, the manufacturer, its rank, channels, speeds, latency and ect. Tells you about your CPU, Video Card, and a lot of other parts specifics in regards to your rating. Thanks for the thorough answer! I've actually been considering an SSD for a while now, but didn't think it makes that much of a difference. I'll be looking into it soon then. In terms of cores and GHz my 9700k has 8 cores and a base 3.60GHz, but up to 4.90GHz. My DDR4 RAM speed is 3200MHz and my latency CL16.
Gameplayer Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 20 minutes ago, AkiKay said: Thanks for the thorough answer! I've actually been considering an SSD for a while now, but didn't think it makes that much of a difference. I'll be looking into it soon then. In terms of cores and GHz my 9700k has 8 cores and a base 3.60GHz, but up to 4.90GHz. My DDR4 RAM speed is 3200MHz and my latency CL16. Sounds great, I would still test it on CPUz, because rather than reading labels it tells me if I am actually getting what I think that I should. I dont think if those stats hold up that you would want to worry about your CPU, RAM, and Graphics Card then. Best bet would likely be to get an SSD slotted in there for specifically gaming on, might be able to get something really fast for under 50 dollars but remember its going to be small drive.
Gameplayer Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 I have put a lot of thought into how to get more out of Skyrim, The trouble is that Skyrim is still using only 2 threads of the CPU, I think your I7 should be ideal for handling that, Your RAM speeds sound great, Good GPU, maybe its possible you might squeeze a little more out of an SSD but I dont think it will be as much as you would like. I think if I can find a way to force Skyrim to use more threads well all the hardware we have been throwing at it will be a mote point since if we go play on Fallout 4 which uses more threads it gives really good frame rates in comparison with same exact system. Not found that solution just yet. However at your point, might want to start really getting picky about choice of mods, 4K texture packs for example are not helping your FPS and worse if these are loose files not in BA2 archieve format, in fact if loose that is more reason to want a pricier SSD for playing Skyrim on. Optimizing with "Cathedral Optimizer" may be your best bet to get some more frames depending on what you actually use on your mods list. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23316 I know its a third party app, looks scary at first but just follow the video, its actually pretty quick to package up a lot of mods pretty fast. Making the texture packs smaller should help out on the low end FPS making it smoother and less noticable. To be honest, picking 2K over the 4K version is well the easiest optimization option in your shows right now.
AlyssaAwoo Posted June 19, 2022 Author Posted June 19, 2022 28 minutes ago, Gameplayer said: I have put a lot of thought into how to get more out of Skyrim, The trouble is that Skyrim is still using only 2 threads of the CPU, I think your I7 should be ideal for handling that, Your RAM speeds sound great, Good GPU, maybe its possible you might squeeze a little more out of an SSD but I dont think it will be as much as you would like. I think if I can find a way to force Skyrim to use more threads well all the hardware we have been throwing at it will be a mote point since if we go play on Fallout 4 which uses more threads it gives really good frame rates in comparison with same exact system. Not found that solution just yet. However at your point, might want to start really getting picky about choice of mods, 4K texture packs for example are not helping your FPS and worse if these are loose files not in BA2 archieve format, in fact if loose that is more reason to want a pricier SSD for playing Skyrim on. Optimizing with "Cathedral Optimizer" may be your best bet to get some more frames depending on what you actually use on your mods list. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23316 I know its a third party app, looks scary at first but just follow the video, its actually pretty quick to package up a lot of mods pretty fast. Making the texture packs smaller should help out on the low end FPS making it smoother and less noticable. To be honest, picking 2K over the 4K version is well the easiest optimization option in your shows right now. Thanks for all the help! I'll try to get an SSD in the following days. These are all of the graphics/assets mods I have, in case that helps. I usually take the 2k over the 4k, since I don't see much of a difference. Spoiler
Gameplayer Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 42 minutes ago, AkiKay said: Thanks for all the help! I'll try to get an SSD in the following days. These are all of the graphics/assets mods I have, in case that helps. I usually take the 2k over the 4k, since I don't see much of a difference. Hide contents With something like SMIM you actually do want to package that into a BA2 format should have noticable gain in just stable performance on that one alone by itself, on lower end systems its removal is significant performance booster. There should be some videos about properly packing it up for use. Noble Skyrim, well obviously we would want to ask about it over on Cath Optimizer comments section, almost positive they would know what to do to get that packed and working properly...No brainer because that also is effecting everything in the game world all the textures everywhere you look. Between packing up those two might stabilize your frames so they dont bounce around so much.
Gameplayer Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 Alright next up, Open up SkyrimSE its main folder, should be in Steam\Steamapps.....Over there in the folders. Under the SkyrimSE folder we want to find your ENBlocal.ini And specifically we want the ENBseries.ini <------ 1st lets have a look inside the ENBlocal.ini that came with your ENB preset. Now the following line may or may not be in there its ok if its not, [MEMORY] ForceVideoMemorySize=false VideoMemorySizeMb=12000 Notice "VideoMemorySizeMb=....." That is the line we are looking for it may not be there you dont need to add it if its not there but you can check with the place you downloaded your preset if you are worried about it. What we want to know is how much of your RAM you assigned for your ENBpreset to actually use. Understand it first uses VRAM and then it can also use the DDR RAM (does not matter DDR2/3/4 dont matter but of course better speed is better) Others reading this who dont have fast RAM might want to just put the VRAM number since GDR5 is way faster anyway than RAM, may be worth while for some to attempt that even at 1600/2400 speed RAM just to do a test. So what we want is to make sure if that line is there that it reads at least as much Video Ram as you have because if its lower than that you just kneecapped your performance. You can and likely should play with higher amounts than just VRAM, so figure out VRAM+available RAM and try to leave enough free for background programs like Windows maybe a web browser if you have a bad habiit of listening to shows, music... Anyway most important about the above if its there make sure your actual number is correct to your actual VRAM most of these presets come with a number and they will only match one set of video cards so ....a lot of people that dont bother checking are kneecapped right there. ENBseries.ini CRTL-F for FIND, In the field type "Quality" Hit next, almost all ENB is set up for maxium prettyness and using every available DirectX feature in the list, which amounts to massive losses on FPS! -2 <-=---Although a negative number this is max setting, change all the numbers to "2" a positive 2 for lowest setting possible. Also I would suggest setting DOF to false because you already have in game DOF as it is. Could feasibly pick up quite a bit of FPS right there while at the same time keeping a decent enough look to the overall game from your preset.
AlyssaAwoo Posted June 19, 2022 Author Posted June 19, 2022 41 minutes ago, Gameplayer said: Alright next up, Open up SkyrimSE its main folder, should be in Steam\Steamapps.....Over there in the folders. Under the SkyrimSE folder we want to find your ENBlocal.ini And specifically we want the ENBseries.ini <------ 1st lets have a look inside the ENBlocal.ini that came with your ENB preset. Now the following line may or may not be in there its ok if its not, [MEMORY] ForceVideoMemorySize=false VideoMemorySizeMb=12000 Notice "VideoMemorySizeMb=....." That is the line we are looking for it may not be there you dont need to add it if its not there but you can check with the place you downloaded your preset if you are worried about it. What we want to know is how much of your RAM you assigned for your ENBpreset to actually use. Understand it first uses VRAM and then it can also use the DDR RAM (does not matter DDR2/3/4 dont matter but of course better speed is better) Others reading this who dont have fast RAM might want to just put the VRAM number since GDR5 is way faster anyway than RAM, may be worth while for some to attempt that even at 1600/2400 speed RAM just to do a test. So what we want is to make sure if that line is there that it reads at least as much Video Ram as you have because if its lower than that you just kneecapped your performance. You can and likely should play with higher amounts than just VRAM, so figure out VRAM+available RAM and try to leave enough free for background programs like Windows maybe a web browser if you have a bad habiit of listening to shows, music... Anyway most important about the above if its there make sure your actual number is correct to your actual VRAM most of these presets come with a number and they will only match one set of video cards so ....a lot of people that dont bother checking are kneecapped right there. ENBseries.ini CRTL-F for FIND, In the field type "Quality" Hit next, almost all ENB is set up for maxium prettyness and using every available DirectX feature in the list, which amounts to massive losses on FPS! -2 <-=---Although a negative number this is max setting, change all the numbers to "2" a positive 2 for lowest setting possible. Also I would suggest setting DOF to false because you already have in game DOF as it is. Could feasibly pick up quite a bit of FPS right there while at the same time keeping a decent enough look to the overall game from your preset. Once again, thank you! I'll look into that next. I remember that sort of ini tweaking back when I played with LE, though I never bothered much since it didn't seem to have a huge impact back then. I'll give it a shot though. Same with the .bsa stuff.
Gameplayer Posted June 28, 2022 Posted June 28, 2022 On 6/19/2022 at 2:21 PM, AkiKay said: Hi all ? I've been playing with modded Skyrim for a while now and have always had issues with fps somewhere. I asked someone about it and he said my specs are more than enough to run most modern games. However I don't know if that really applies to modded Skyrim SE, so I'd like a second opinion. I'm playing Skyrim SE with high-ultra settings on 1440p resolution, have 2-4k texture mods installed, a mid-high level ENB, more than a handful of script mods and also things related to body physics. I also usually have Discord running amongst other things in the background. Hardware: Intel i7 9700k RTX 2070 Super 8G VRAM Dual 8GB RAM (16GB) 1TB HDD for the Skyrim Install Coolmaster 600W PSU I cannot reach 60 fps with this hardware and it will usually linger at around 40-50. Could someone tell me where the issue is ? Am running out of VRAM or RAM ? I don't think my Skyrim even looks impressive in any way. It looks fairly alright with a lot of room for improvement, and it's already struggling to run at 60fps. Could it be that I'm simply running out of RAM due to my 40% memory usage even without Skyrim open ? The person I asked about this sort of stuff told me this shouldn't be a problem, though I'm starting to doubt it. However I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'd appreciate some help from someone who really knows what's up. I have recently put an enormous amount of thought, effort, cash, and time into figuring out a heck of lot about how to maximize the FPS in gaming. I have figured out that a Solid State Drive will net about 1-2 FPS in non-modded games. I expect it will net 1-3 FPS in modded games. I have also spent a lot on RAM, My findings are as follows, RAM is the cheapest and most effective use of your dollars to increase your FPS in all games. 16 gigs is not enough RAM to fully leverage RAM against gaming since about ~2012. give a little chart, Win10 3.5-8 Gigs of RAM used, Steam 0.7-4 Gigs of RAM used, Games since 2012, 3.0-16 Gigs of RAM used To get a game to fully use 16 Gigs of RAM, we must have a high enough total RAM pool and that number is 32 Gigs of RAM. Once you give the game full 16Gigs expect double digit FPS return, aka 10 or 20 more FPS. Reports on DDR3200 RAM for Fo4 with similar set up was something like 25FPS gain, but remember that video over on YT likely did not mention you needed 32Gig's to fully leverage RAM for your games,, for some reason they spit out 16 is all you need without considering all the scaling programs eating memory in background. At 24 Gigs of RAM games will use ~14 Gigs of RAM and you will have about ~2 Gigs for background programs. At 32 Gigs of RAM you should have about ~10 Gigs of RAM left over to handle background programs which is super nice and useful for third party enhancement apps aka ENB. A 4x8Gb pack of DDR4 32G kit runs about 50-200 bucks on NewEgg, depends on speed and CL timings...You want highest speed and lowest CL value (CL is latency how many nano seconds to change a task) DDR4 non-performance 3200 speed comes in around ~30 CL, you can get these at about half that now at affordable pricing. I suggest if your MOBO and CPU can handle it to purchase big meaty 2x16 Gb sticks and call it good, aim for high speed and low CL number. After having ordered several sets of RAM myself and testing it all out, I had double digit gains on my old PC, and I have sent out for a new RAM set for about 120 bucks to see if having the top of what my PC allows will net me more FPS and stability. Did a full write up on RAM over at Steam is eating your memory Thread in Tech support. I hope this reaches you in timely fashion.
AlyssaAwoo Posted June 28, 2022 Author Posted June 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Gameplayer said: I have recently put an enormous amount of thought, effort, cash, and time into figuring out a heck of lot about how to maximize the FPS in gaming. I have figured out that a Solid State Drive will net about 1-2 FPS in non-modded games. I expect it will net 1-3 FPS in modded games. I have also spent a lot on RAM, My findings are as follows, RAM is the cheapest and most effective use of your dollars to increase your FPS in all games. 16 gigs is not enough RAM to fully leverage RAM against gaming since about ~2012. give a little chart, Win10 3.5-8 Gigs of RAM used, Steam 0.7-4 Gigs of RAM used, Games since 2012, 3.0-16 Gigs of RAM used To get a game to fully use 16 Gigs of RAM, we must have a high enough total RAM pool and that number is 32 Gigs of RAM. Once you give the game full 16Gigs expect double digit FPS return, aka 10 or 20 more FPS. Reports on DDR3200 RAM for Fo4 with similar set up was something like 25FPS gain, but remember that video over on YT likely did not mention you needed 32Gig's to fully leverage RAM for your games,, for some reason they spit out 16 is all you need without considering all the scaling programs eating memory in background. At 24 Gigs of RAM games will use ~14 Gigs of RAM and you will have about ~2 Gigs for background programs. At 32 Gigs of RAM you should have about ~10 Gigs of RAM left over to handle background programs which is super nice and useful for third party enhancement apps aka ENB. A 4x8Gb pack of DDR4 32G kit runs about 50-200 bucks on NewEgg, depends on speed and CL timings...You want highest speed and lowest CL value (CL is latency how many nano seconds to change a task) DDR4 non-performance 3200 speed comes in around ~30 CL, you can get these at about half that now at affordable pricing. I suggest if your MOBO and CPU can handle it to purchase big meaty 2x16 Gb sticks and call it good, aim for high speed and low CL number. After having ordered several sets of RAM myself and testing it all out, I had double digit gains on my old PC, and I have sent out for a new RAM set for about 120 bucks to see if having the top of what my PC allows will net me more FPS and stability. Did a full write up on RAM over at Steam is eating your memory Thread in Tech support. I hope this reaches you in timely fashion. Before I made this post I actually considered getting more RAM. Made this post to see if others think the same. I also got my SSD now! Samsung 980 Pro 1TB and I'm mostly at around 60 now. Still not always 60, but mostly like 54-60. Definetly helped, especially since now I can use some other mods that would've killed my fps. I may look into more RAM soon.
Gameplayer Posted June 28, 2022 Posted June 28, 2022 4 minutes ago, AkiKay said: Before I made this post I actually considered getting more RAM. Made this post to see if others think the same. I also got my SSD now! Samsung 980 Pro 1TB and I'm mostly at around 60 now. Still not always 60, but mostly like 54-60. Definetly helped, especially since now I can use some other mods that would've killed my fps. I may look into more RAM soon. Awesome! Glad you got gains, yes I was worried. Yes a RAM upgrade to full 32 will give your your computer a lot of omph to leverage against those FPS numbers.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.