zorminster

So this thought just occurred to me... i've got skyrim running from an SSD, but i've got mod organizer on a typical HDD... am I shooting myself in the foot performance wise? Â I don't really ever hear the drive spinning up or anything but i thought it's worth asking

Okay thanks! That's really what i was thinking on the mod manager but i wanted to be sure. I've not taken much time to 100% understand what files are being modified or how. I think I understand what you are saying about the texture optimization and it makes good sense to simply create an optimized version of each mod to install in order. Creating one big archive makes for a bigger mess if i ever want to uninstall or change those specific textures i suppose. Thanks for this info! I'll give a shot and see what i'm workin with.

I'm not finished installing all of the step mods I intend to use, but I am down to the sounds and gameplay sections so I'm through with almost all textures at this point.  Thus far, i've been logging my FPS only and 'feeling' if it's smooth over 15-30 minutes of play each time i went testing (every few mods or every section).  Somewhere between the start of the animations section and the end of clutter section, I began noting pronounced slow down when coming out of a load screen (so i assume cell loading).  I went on and ran a proper benchmark run with GPU-Z and fraps and every indication is i've fully consumed my vRam.  I guess specs are now relevant so: i5-2500k @ 4500 MHZ 16 GB PC3-12800 (800 mhz) @ 9/9/9/24/2T GTX 460 SE, 1GB ((Overclock through precision X to GPU 800 MHz, Mem 1710 MHz, Shader 1600 MHz-- stable, though i'm not sure i don't have headroom on the memory.  Pretty sure my GPU starting causing issues if i went over 800)) SSD on Sata 3 Running @ 1980 x 1020 Step installation has followed performance / baseline - I've not selected any textures over 1024 when given the option.  Mod organizer has been used for all installations, boss run before any test, Tes5E cleaning on mods when they appear in the list (unless noted in STEP instructions), and then skse launched. I've forced antialiasing and ambient occlusion off via NVIDIA inspector profile for driver control.  I've done this with the intent of using SMAA and an ENB for post. Of immediate note: im pretty i went with the hybrid option on HDDLC Optimized  which leads to question #1: If i want to avoid DDSopt (because it introduces another chance for me to screw it all up), and instead want to go back and try lower res options on various mods...can I simply right click the mod and utilize the "Reinstall Mod" option to change which options i've used? Or will that cause issues with subsequently installed mods?  ((For clarity:  Can i reinstall to select new options for mod 3 without causing issues for mod 7, which further modifies the same textures of mod 3?  Or do i need to remove and reinstall mod 7 after reinstalling mod 3 with new options?)) And question #2: Can i go ahead and do my DDSopt at this point or do i need to complete installing all mods before starting texture optimization?  Seems like it'd be okay for me to go ahead and do it now but i want to be sure.   Reasons to do it now include making uninstallation / reinstallation of mods easier, or helping me decide to limit further mod installation. Thanks guys! Quick edit: Added resolutions to specs and.... I have two monitors, but the second is set to duplicate the first. Am I using up system resources that could be better used running the game or is the effect negligible? What about if i changed to extend desktop but did not extend the game to any larger resolution (IE: second screen for web browsing)