Skyrim ENB Performance Guide Tweaked as much as I can

[toxsickcity]

Hi,

 

I play with ENB on my O'Cheapo Seiki 4K display, Wanted to Share some findings to try and get ENB Playable!

 

I also go to the extreme and create a Custom Resolution with REGEDIT, and create 3500x1800 and makes my game play in a black border.. not so bad.. a 1 inch border.. and makes my FPS go from 28FPS to 35 FPS on my Radeon R9 290 4GB

 

Without ENB i get 48fps-65fps on 3840x2160 skyrim Ultra INI settings.

 

when ENB is ON! REAL VISIONS FULL QUALITY A,

I get down to 15-18FPS

 

I have spent a lot of time and found that editing the following items in ENB Settings (SHIFT-ENTER) & the skyrimprefs.ini in Documents/my Games/Skyrim folder of your computer

 

try the following for better performance and MINIMAL impact of graphical Quality.. You will get a pretty good performance boost.

 

search for these in skyrimprefs.ini

bDoDepthOfField=1-->0

fShadowDistance=8000.0000 -->4000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024-->512

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048-->1024

iShadowSplitCount=4-->1

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=3000.0000-->1500.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=2600.0000-->1300.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000-->1000000.0000 (1 zero removed)

bShadowMaskZPrepass=1-->0

iShadowMapResolution=2048-->1024

 

Those settings were best impact when modified.. you can take my settings which are after (-->)

or try lowering even more..

 

in ENB itself.. try the following to gain performance even more then the INI tweaks...)

 

in SSAO, Untick Enable complex

in Skylighting, change filter quality to low

in shadow, turn use bilateral to off.

reflections, change filter quality to low.

reflections, untick enable exterior..

water, shadow quality to low

 

I found these settings improved performance the most with minimal impact on quality...

all other settings can be left HIGH.. as I perfer to keep quality and I found these settings didnt alter issues too much

 

lastly.. I did something extreme.. makes graphics look a little out of whack but liveable and gives best FPS Gain.. you can change to your prefs...

 

in Engine settings of ENB (Shift Enter)

ForceAnisotropicFiltering=true

MaxAnisotropy=16-->2

ForceLodBias=false-->true

LodBias=0-->-0.7 (Minus 0.7)

AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=false

EnableVSync=false

VSyncSkipNumFrames=0

 

The Idea here is (removing anisotropy) which was giving me 4-5fps gains

when enabling Negative LOD and forcing ansio... to 2 gave in my opinions great results visually..

 

After all the bullshitting around.. I had where standing on bridge in RiverRun looking at water wheel.. into distance..

Was 15.9-17 FPS, now.. I get 26-28FPS

 

NOW NOTE... My screen is 4K and at this resolution the game LOOKS VERY SPECIAL even after the changes I made.. So truly the changes were minimal in my opinions and I will run around a little more to see if I can see any bad graphics.. but my little run around yesterday looks fine..

remember 2160 vs 1080 I'm unsure of results for your system... but this works well for me.

 

 

YUK!!! ENB OFF!

 

ENB Started Full Settings (16FPS)

 

ENB Changed Settings as Above (28FPS)

[toxsickcity]

I have a new option for performance

 

Editing the Depth of field settings in the FX file.

 

 

Details to come soon.. and I will give you results..

[Morra]

Using Anisotropic Filtering throw ENB it's not a good thing, it eats a lot of performance, better forcing it throw CCC (Catalyst Control Center) you will have much better results.

[toxsickcity]

Interesting, I will have to give that a look..

But I thought that ENB cannot work properly when system Anisotropic is enabled for the game?!

 

thats why I like the Neg bias/low aniso give me pretty good results.

 

like a said, I will see the difference..

 

I do a heap of modding on a different system, it's using a 750TI.

and I notice that 1080p gives me around the 28ish fps on that card..

lastly, There is the quality of Depth of field.. in the FX file.. I have a document about editing that..

 

 

ALSO.. has anyone recently upgraded from a R9 290/290X to a 970/980 GTX??

 

I am interested in your thoughts about performance increases or decreases.. especially @ 4K

alot of people say enb is better with nvidia.. but 750ti vs my 290 dont compare.. I am not talking of the performance factor either... there is something I like about the R9.

[Morra]

Interesting, I will have to give that a look..

But I thought that ENB cannot work properly when system Anisotropic is enabled for the game?!

You don't use the game's option for AF you override it throw CCC (Catalyst Control Center) that's different.

Here the link how to do it. It performances much better without losing the quality.

[Fuzaki]

Hmmm...can someone further confirm this?

 

This guide (and the corresponding section in the STEP Guide) assumes that users will not be running ENB graphics (ENBoost, yes, but not the graphics extension of ENB --at least not during initial setup of STEP). If ENB graphics extension will be used after verifying a functional setup, AMD profiles settings and global settings should not invoke ANY of the settings described here. Simply let the application handle everything, as driver-based settings will conflict with ENB. That means: don't set any profile for TESV.exe and set the global settings to "Application-Controlled"!

 

Regarding the above:

 

ENBoost-ONLY users (NOT ENB graphics users!) should NOT use AF in enblocal.ini (set ForceAnisotropicFiltering to 'false'). For some reason it is more costly than setting AF via CCC and there is no difference in the effect.

[Morra]

Why do you misled people? Where does it says:

 

will not be running ENB graphics (ENBoost, yes, but not the graphics extension of ENB --at least not during initial setup of STEP)

It says this:

 

The graphics software should only be forcing max Anisotropic Filtering (AF) (and Supersampling Anti-Aliasing (SSAA) for higher-end cards). All other settings should be left to the Skyrim configuration and ENBoost configurations (see above).

He has a High End card so do I. I tested it and it works as it should. The quality is the same, fps gain is minimal but you have it.

[toxsickcity]

I will give it a go on both my 290 and 750 ti and see whats going on..

[AreeSoothsayer]

I run a GeForce GTX 465, underclocked for stability, would I be able to run ENB with it?

[DurtyNelly]

 

ALSO.. has anyone recently upgraded from a R9 290/290X to a 970/980 GTX??

 

I am interested in your thoughts about performance increases or decreases.. especially @ 4K

alot of people say enb is better with nvidia.. but 750ti vs my 290 dont compare.. I am not talking of the performance factor either... there is something I like about the R9.

 

I recently upgraded from an R9 280x to a GTX970. I don't play on 4k, sorry.  But, the difference, not only performance-wise but in quality, is kind of amazing. I used to have mad z-fighting with my 280x and no matter what I did, it just would not go away. The distant mountains in the Whiterun tundra used to flash like a damn disco ball. With my 970 I have zero z-fighting. None.

 

I was able to add many texture mods and a pretty intense ENB. I was also able to add a landscape overhaul for the first time. 

 

I'm running 264 mods. 150 of them are plugins, so I have a lot of textures.  I use Grim and Somber Hircine and get a flat 60 indoors and average 45 - 55 outside, depending on where I am. If I'm looking at one of JK's village mods it goes down to 38 or so, but that's just JK's mods.   If I use the Extreme Quality version of Hircine I get 45 - 47 inside and about 30 - 37 outside, but it's smooth as a baby's butt. 

 

I also run UGrids 7. 

 

For me, it was an awesome upgrade. I my 970.  

[D_ManXX2]

Are you guys talking about nvidia 970 ?? i am still on 560 TI how is the performance compared to 560 TI ?

[Killing Joke]

Are you guys talking about nvidia 970 ?? i am still on 560 TI how is the performance compared to 560 TI ?

To be honest, the gap is so huge it doesn't even compare.

[toxsickcity]

 

Are you guys talking about nvidia 970 ?? i am still on 560 TI how is the performance compared to 560 TI ?

To be honest, the gap is so huge it doesn't even compare.

 

HAHAHAHA

 

 

Yea, kind of is.. I would recommend this way of buying for any friend and i guess your all my friends hahaha

 

this works even if you live in OZ...

 

I was Very luck to order my R9 290 4GB in december for $229 US which came out to $280 posted AU$

 

using CAMEL CAMEL CAMEL... google that..

set a price alert on maybe 5 or so video cards you want and wait a week or 2 they change price every day...

 

then when price is at your alert point your notified and goto amazon to buy it......

 

 

 

 

ANYWAYS for anyone using old tech.. a R9 280X is very powerful and so is a R9 290... you can pick up a290 for very good $$$ these days...

 

if you willing to wait 1-3 months more a new gen series will come out and it will push 980gtx 290X down so much...

well maybe not the 290X but the

 

285X / 290 / 970 will be as cheap as chips...

WHY?

 

because when new gen stuff comes out old stuff stop selling and for some reason the old GEN Full spec.. 980GTX and 290X will stay expensive... so go 1 model down!!

 

 

Like my sig says..

I am waiting for NEXT GEN to BRUTE FORCE ENB above 30FPS @ 4K :)

[TheDude2014]

Hehe, gtx 970 beats the r9 290  through almost every game benchmark people have thrown at it. Dont believe me? check it out urself. Not just one site has agreed either, alot of them have and if u look at specs u could easily see that gtx 970 has more power then the r9 290 and about same price to boot. Now heres interesting thing the 290x is in a headlock the gtx 970 in pure performance. Coudnt imagine what the 290x would look like next to the gtx 980. (sorry about blabbering on i guess i like vsing graphic cards, gets me all excited)

 

Anyways nice guide on gaining fps by tweaking enb series. TY !!