need fps tips...but for a shitty CPU bottlenecking gpu

[Guest Vendayn]

So. OK I have a huge modded game, no not removing one mod. Don't suggest it. I'd rather have bad fps. And an epic game.

 

So...had a geforce 260gtx...bought a geforce 760gtx. I got literally a 2 or 3 fps increase.

 

I turn off enb...I literally get 0 fps increase...no joke.

 

I lower resolution to 800x600...maybe 1 or 2 fps increase.

 

 

Obviously my crappy i5 3.3ghz CPU is a heavy bottleneck.

 

The CPU is the crappiest 25 dollar lowest end i5 you can get.

 

You say upgrade...not with 300 dollars in the bank and almost bankrupt and homeless. CPU not a problem, but I'd need new ram, power supply, motherboard and might as well upgrade GPU again. Its getting artifacts in games and breaking anyway. Its starting to die. All my hardware wouldn't be compatible with new i7s.

 

My CPU is obviously causing damage, but can't afford it.

 

But anyway to increase performance in skyrim for bad CPU?

 

All tweaks, mods are GPU oriented...but my GPU is fine even if CPU is making it slowly die (it did to my old 200 too. Didn't know)

 

But anyway. Why do all mods focus on the GPU side? Anything or anything I can do for CPU side?

 

Cause literally lowest graphics, lowest resolutoon, enb off...1-3 fps increase.

 

Geforce 760gtx 2gb factory overclocked

Crappiest i5 CPU ever 3.3ghz worth 20-25 dollars if that

8gb ddr3 ram

No ssd (can't afford it)

Windows 7 64bit

[Guest Vendayn]

Also. I have 1-2k textures, no dlcs high resolution. Nothing too fancy there.

 

I think the CPU part is I added a lot of life to skyrim...cause its way too empty otherwise. I'd rather live with shitty fps than remove the mods adding patrols, monsters and more wildlife. It feels so gamey and like a lame empty worldconsole without them. They add more than most or all other mods I have.

 

So do I just live with crappy fps? Like I said, my CPU is crappiest ever and a massive GPU bottleneck. But I'd have to replace whole PC for a modern CPU. Way out of my budget...of 300...can't upgrade for a long time.

 

Already do enbboost, skse thing...but no fps increase. A bit more stable, but its a CPU problem. And nothing I do increases fps. So maybe I'm missing setting(s) somewhere.

 

(Edit) CPU is worth probably 25 today. It was 75 or 100 something when I got it...like 7 or more years ago. Its ancient trash. No idea what it is, forgot..its a shitty one.

[Guest Vendayn]

Also. I'm on a phone so its hard to edit...messes up formatting.

 

But I was on mostly vanilla skyrim when upgrading my GPU...and 1-3 fps increase...yup...vanilla skyrim is actually only 30-40 fps instead of 20-25 fps...

 

Vanilla...lowest res and graphics...

 

Can play other high end games. But skyrim is always been bad fps. I know its more CPU than GPU game though.

[Killikrates~2014]

You should check out the STEP 2.2.9 guide and compare it to your current mod list, might get some ideas on performance and stability there.

 

More important, check out the STEP DDSopt guide and optimize your textures. This should reduce your total VRAM usage, which means less overflow to RAM, which should result in better fps.

 

There's a lot of good performance advice on the STEP forum, so if you have more time than money at the moment, it might be worth reading through and trying some of the optimization techniques.

[zzz72w3r]

It is very unlikely that your CPU is the bottleneck.

 

What resolution were you running before and at what fps?  If you were already at a fps cap and you ran the same setup with 260 and 760 then you won't see a fps increase.  Lowering the res won't show the improvement either.  Try running higher graphic set up or slap on an ENB to see if there is a difference.

[zzz72w3r]

Also. I'm on a phone so its hard to edit...messes up formatting.

 

But I was on mostly vanilla skyrim when upgrading my GPU...and 1-3 fps increase...yup...vanilla skyrim is actually only 30-40 fps instead of 20-25 fps...

 

Vanilla...lowest res and graphics...

 

Can play other high end games. But skyrim is always been bad fps. I know its more CPU than GPU game thoug

 

 

No way your CPU (assuming it's working) will cap your vanilla Skyrim at 30-40 fps with a 760.  

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/skyrim-performance-benchmark,review-32318-9.html

[Guest Vendayn]

But what is causing the super low fps?

 

Cause even without mods its super low. In vanilla+unofficial patches and that's it...with same system it was 30-40. Upgraded GPU and still same fps range.

 

Heavily modded skyrim, intensive kenb pure light (ssao+dof off)...literally drops only 10 fps or so...not joking or lying. I get 20-25 fps. Do get drops to 15. But barely decrease from vanilla that got drops to 25.

 

With such a small difference...and GPU being a massive upgrade...why so low fps? Vanilla INI files BTW.

[Dubhorizon]

Have you overclocked the CPU or GPU (more than factory)?  What is your shadow resolution settings in the ini? Have you cleaned your PC lately?  Have you optimised VideoMemorySizeMb in the enblocal ini? Have you defragged your HDD?

 

I'd suggest you dowgrade all shadows to 1024 (but don't forget to set fshadowbiasscale to 0.2500 and ishadowmaskquarter to 1) . Water to 512 (makes very slight difference). Get a perfermance friendly ENB and throw the post process effects by zeroking (that will make your ENb look like the full version with much less fps cost).

[zzz72w3r]

Also. I have 1-2k textures, no dlcs high resolution. Nothing too fancy there.

 

I think the CPU part is I added a lot of life to skyrim...cause its way too empty otherwise. I'd rather live with shitty fps than remove the mods adding patrols, monsters and more wildlife. It feels so gamey and like a lame empty worldconsole without them. They add more than most or all other mods I have.

 

So do I just live with crappy fps? Like I said, my CPU is crappiest ever and a massive GPU bottleneck. But I'd have to replace whole PC for a modern CPU. Way out of my budget...of 300...can't upgrade for a long time.

 

 

 

It's not your CPU    You likely have script overload, which unfortunately it's a Skyrim engine limitation.  I have a much faster CPU and I still need to budget my script heavy mod installations.  You can get a i7 and it still won't help much.

 

EDIT: plenty of add-life-to-Skyrim mod authors are aware of this issue and have released mods script free.  Use those instead and it should help.

 

[Guest Vendayn]

On a brand new hard drive and fresh windows install (reinstalled because that's what I do once a year). Hard drive is fine. My old one was fine too, but I got a bigger HDD.

 

No INI tweaks at all. Most make game worth.

 

Doesn't matter what shadow res or game resolution is...lowest settings possible...maybe 1 fps change. Even setting it to 800x600...both completely vanilla and modded.

[Guest Vendayn]

But even vanilla skyrim runs kinda shitty. Only 10-15 decrease from my heavy mod list and vanilla.

 

30-40 fps in vanilla with only unofficial. 20-25 with my mods. Both drop 10 fps in areas (vanilla and modded)

[zzz72w3r]

Something else is wrong and I am pretty sure it's not CPU.

 

Are other games capped at 30-40 fps?

[gvman3670]

How many background programs are running while you're playing?

[Justoutthere]

Got to agree with above comments, I am running Skyrim on a Phenom 2.6K with 4Gb ram and a GT220 (2gb). 

 

True I only get 30FPS max and I deliberately avoid script heavy mods but your kit is so far above what I am running that I cannot believe for one second it is your hardware giving you problems.

 

IMHO most likely culprit is scripts, they are well known for giving exactly this kind of issue

[D_ManXX2]

Did you update your video drivers to latest version ?? try opening your videocard config settings and see if the skyrim is configured correctly.

 

Also one part you could check is the background programs running and your pc is not set in power saving mode. When windows 7 64 bit is installed it will make power=saving adaptive it should make it full power mode not power saving mode witch will make your pc run slower then it should.

[Ashkandii]

i've never had a 260gtx but i imagine its very low end yes?

i don't know, i never heard of a gtx 260 lol, i only started pc gaming in 2008. let me be.

but if you have a gtx 760 then you should be gettin 50fps AVG with your settings

but i'd imagine its your hardware being like over-used. im not a tech guy but only way i could reccommend a fps increase

is just fresh new parts. because your cpu could be warn out and other things

so i'd suggest for best cheapest preformance part you could get

is cheap ass asus like $60 motherboard.

since you use a Geforce cheap isent much of an option so a cheap i5 4core

a 600W PSU like $50-60 i think im European so i dont know these prices

and like 8gb ram should do it

looking at like a $250-300 dollars there.

but obviously i'd suggest a new CPU if its $25 lol.

but like yourself im not much rich and ive actually been saving for a month now for a 270x then my build is complete.

[Killikrates~2014]

To determine if scripts are having a negative impact, Convenient Horses includes a script latency checker in its MCM. If you show a latency above 75ms, you may have an issue and might consider reducing the number of scripted mods you are using.

[Guest Vendayn]

I will try that. But when I had vanilla I had no script mods. Just uop mods.

 

Could there be other issues? Background programs are minimal.

[Uriel]

Have you checked your temperatures? Maybe trottling occurs on your CPU?

I would suggest to try running some kind of a 3DMark*, find out your system's score. Then go to the Futuremark's results database and find a similar system there. Compare the results.

If results are close, it's, most likely, not your hardware. Something about Skyrim.

 

Your CPU is not that bad. I'm running my R290 on i5 2500k@4.0Ghz. It definitely limits that 290, but not that much.

 

 

 

[Guest Vendayn]

My CPU is actually a ...one of the old ones before the I CPUs. Don't even remember what they were called now lol. But it was added/modded (by a crappy noname company) or whatever to an icpu series...it's crappier then it sounds.

 

It might be an i3 (did those exist?) to i5...but think company used older.

 

I will do horse one first...I want the mod anyway. Then go through other things you guys suggest.

[Guest]

Vendayn, I'm not PR-ing Somber. But, can you try this out?

Download Somber 2 Antique and replace whatever ENB you have now.

See if your fps improves. Post the result back here.

Your problem sounds like what I had before. (but I am using AMD)

Sorry if my English confuses you.

[Guest Vendayn]

Its actually not an enb problem. I turned kenb off and no fps increase at all...which is weird cause its intensive. Ssao and dof are set to off. Still though the enb doesn't lower fps that I noticed. Can't do ssao and dof is annoying.

[Guest]

...Welp if that's so...Try driver remover from 3dguru, then reinstall your nVidia driver.

There is no way a CPU can bottleneck your VGA that much.

[Guest Vendayn]

I can try that again. I just updated drivers the other day (after removing old ones, same program)

 

Could it be a GPU issue? I get artifacts in skyrim, oblivion and that is it.

 

Mount and blade warband has high fps (60)...slows down in huge battles (500 battle size). But vanilla 150 battle size is perfectly fine

 

However supreme commander forged alliance gets 20-35 fps in bigger battles.

 

Crysis 1 heavily graphics modded gets 60 fps (I always cap it)

 

Hm..spore is 60 fps but not intensive

 

Metro (both) max graphics are 60 fps

 

But witcher 2 is 30-45 fps

 

And...think that is all my most intensive games I have.

 

(Edit: it drops to 30, but better average fps modded) Oblivion gets 30-50 fps BTW with fcom super pack thing. 60 fps unmodded

 

Only oblivion/skyrim get artifacts (no other game I have)... Vanilla that is...not just modded (edit: seems modded makes it happen more... But can't fully tell)

 

All max graphics (skyrim being only one I tried setting lowest) and witcher 2 without that special graphics enabled (too fps intensive)

[Guest]

I can try that again. I just updated drivers the other day (after removing old ones, same program)

 

Could it be a GPU issue? I get artifacts in skyrim, oblivion and that is it.

 

Mount and blade warband has high fps (60)...slows down in huge battles (500 battle size). But vanilla 150 battle size is perfectly fine

 

However supreme commander forged alliance gets 20-35 fps in bigger battles.

 

Crysis 1 heavily graphics modded gets 60 fps (I always cap it)

 

Hm..spore is 60 fps but not intensive

 

Metro (both) max graphics are 60 fps

 

But witcher 2 is 30-45 fps

 

And...think that is all my most intensive games I have.

 

(Edit: it drops to 30, but better average fps modded) Oblivion gets 30-50 fps BTW with fcom super pack thing. 60 fps unmodded

 

Only oblivion/skyrim get artifacts (no other game I have)... Vanilla that is...not just modded (edit: seems modded makes it happen more... But can't fully tell)

 

All max graphics (skyrim being only one I tried setting lowest) and witcher 2 without that special graphics enabled (too fps intensive)

As far as I know Skyrim was made with consoles in mind, so it depends on your CPU a lot (That explains why Crysis caps at 60 fps on your system). I think it's the same case for Oblivion. But, honestly, getting 1-2 fps is simply not possible.

About the artifact issues, is it something like everything is black? (not purple textures, just plain black) And, your game slowens down significantly? (cursor takes forever to move an inch), or something like that?