m3dicat3d

Good point, thanks!

Thanks, I'm starting to get that same impression myself as I do more digging, and Game mode in the Fall CU doenst seem to be much at initial glance. Guess I will try it at the 4Gb limit and simply hope for the best. Now I'm wondering if I should install a drive with win 7 on it for oldrim specifically. Anyhow, thanks again!

Okay, after I posted I kept doing some more reading, and I did come across something. Evidently, with Win 10, there is the 4Gb vram limit. I just built a new rig, and put win 10 on for the first time, was using 7 on the old rig, and from what I've read in the past, this could be the issue. I am still reading, and also DL'ing the Creator's Update (not sure is gaming mode is live yet or not, or even if it addresses the vram limit issue, but I'm going to give it a try. Sorry for the extra post, couldn't find the edit button :(

So I have seen this asked when I searched under the sticky posts, but I couldn't find the answer I was specifically looking for. So hopefully this is okay to ask (and I do apologize if the answer is somewhere I didn't check). My system has a GTX1080 and 16Gb of DDR4 3000 RAM. When I run memory tool i get the reported 4096/11860 (can't recall the DX 11 number exactly). There was an older manual way I read about some time ago about adding card ram and system ram, then subtracting something like 2k to get a value for the enblocal.ini file. If I do that, I'd be somewhere in the low 20,000 - 22,000. So when I see lower numbers, I wonder why the difference? My question is specifically: Do I just use the reported number, or is something *amiss* for lack of a better word? Thanks!

Gracias, and thanks again for all the replies :)

whoops... YMMV? unfamiliar with that one, and also, and crime_syndicate, thanks for the heads up on the SweetFX preset, it's not ENB (like it says) but boy does it look great after I configured it!

Awesome, thanks for all the replies! That's why when I've questions about hardware for Skyrim and modding, this is my default stop when I can't find the answer myself. I'll give the I can't believe it's ENB 2 a try on my current hardware and see what happens (looks like that page linked Hidalgo (sp?) and ENB Boost to help with performance on that, never tried either of those though I've heard about them, so I may see what happens there. I VERY much appreciate the hardware input. The last thing I want to do is spend the money on an upgrade that really isn't much of an upgrade, and from everything I've heard, a more powerful single GPU is better than say, taking another 670 GTX and putting in SLI (correct if I'm wrong about this). The 3GB did catch my eye, but seeing as the VRAM cap seems to be at 3.1 (I believe it hasn't been surpass-"able" yet) and I believe the BUS is still larger than the 256 on my current card (assuming that should help some). Again, great and thoughtful replies, I thank you again :)

Hope this is the right place to ask this, I asked some hardware questions about a year ago over here and received some excellent advice. I thought I'd ask again as this is a data driven and very well informed community. To get right to it, I have a GTX 670 4GB FTW surrently, with a modest OC on it. I may have some disposable income before long to upgrade that card so I can push my game even further with adding an ENB, the high res textures mods, etc. Been trying to do some searching, and I'm having quite a hard time finding any info on how much better something like a 770 or 780 3 GB card compares to a 670 when it comes to actual performance gains in a heavily modded Skyrim. I've run ENB's and the high res texture mods before, but ultimately opted for performance versus eye candy and went with med res texture packs and immersive saturation boost instead of an ENB to keep my frames between 45-60 fps. I would love to have the best of performance AND the eye candy, but I also don't want to spend money on an upgrade that might not show any real performance boost. Since the question of current hardware is relevant, here are my specs (thanks for the suggestions a year ago btw :) ) i5 3570K OC to 4.2 Z77 MSI MPOWER MB 8 GB DDR 3-SDRAM Dual Channel Corsair Win 7 Home Prem 64 Samsung 840 PRO SSD (for my Skyrim install) WD 1TB Black HDD 750W Corsair PSU It may not even be a new GPU I need to updrade to , but perhaps something else? Any thoughts are welcome, and thanks!

Not that I know a damn thing about the specifics, but I'm wondering about what michaelrw just mentioned above. When I'm watching the monitor (thanks to gopher and STEP for the heads up at Nexus, I DL'd the performance monitor today to check out my own CTDs of late - it happens at 3.1 as well) right before I head to an interior space, I noticed that memory usage seems to stack (interior space starts at what exterior was at and then climbs until a CTD). Just chiming in that I had been wondering if something of that nature was contributing, michaelrw basically just articulated it for me.

Thanks again so much Techangel85... I really appreciate your informative and helpful replies :)

A quick follow up here if I may... A).... I noticed it was asked, but I couldn't seem to find a direct response for this here, but in the case of the extra setting Texture Filtering - Driver Controlled LOD Bias in Nvidia Inspector, since the text does not address this, should I leave this on the default setting of "On"? B).... Also, when setting up the initial configs in the game launcher, we set the AA to 4 samples from the text, then in the Inspector settings we adjust the settings according to the text, but then the note here confuses me a little... "Note: Any ENBSeries version after v0.119 no longer has support for hardware AA. So if you're planing on using an ENB which uses a version newer than v0.119 please turn AA off here in the drivers. The ENBSeries v0.139 and above now offers edge antialiasing which is similar to MSAA, but with more blur. For a better AA solution with ENB, use SMAA Injector." To turn AA off in the drivers, where specifically do I do this? Via Inspector, Nvidia control panel, etc? C).... Also with respect to Anisotropic filtering mode... "Anisotropic filtering is a texture filtering technique that improves clarity of textures when those textures are viewed at an angle such as when walking down a path or viewing water from the shore. It is recommended to force AF through the drivers. When doing this, turn off anisotropic filtering on the launcher. The recommended setting to force anisotropic filtering is "User-defined / Off". How do I force AF through the drivers? Seems like the above question in that I'm unaware of where/how to do this via the drivers. D)... Under the common settings, Inspector has a setting for "Vertical Sync Smooth AFR Behavior" but the text doesn't address this. Should I leave to default setting of "Off"? E).... I DL'd and install the SMAA files (and renamed the .dll appropriately). To get SMAA to work, I seem to have seen that making the following edits under "SkyrimPrefs.ini" will enable SMAA to do its thing... iMultiSample=0 bTransparencyMultisampling=0 (I DON'T have this in my .ini for some reason, is this bad?) Is there anything else I need to do for this? Thanks so very very much for the guide and the STEP project overall, I'd be absolutely lost without it. I hope I'm not sounding too noobish with my questions, these are just the things I noticed when using the guide, and just want to get it right from the get go :)

Thanks again :)

Thanks techangel85, I happened across that page about 5 min after I posted of course... :P "Extract the folder to your desired location and in the d3d9 folder (do not use the files from the d9d10 folder!!!) rename "d3d9.dll" to "d3d9_smaa.dll". Now copy the following files into your Skyrim root directory: â– d3d9_smaa.dll â– injector.ini â– SMAA.h â– SMAA.fx" Okay, so I know I read that right, get the files from the d3d9 folder within the archive file, rename the .dll file, and simply copy/paste them into the same folder as the TESV folder, right? Which means even though I have a DX 10 folder in the Skyrim folder, just play like it's not even there? Sorry to be dense, just want to do it right.

Wanted to ask this in a new thread as I read something about the other thread being hijacked and slotted for splitting, etc. Going through the STEP guide right now, and following all the steps to the letter, but when it comes to SMAA, I'm having one heck of a time trying to locate any info on how to install/enable it etc. From google searching and looking at the nvidia optimization guide, etc, I see that it is a series of 4 files (.dll .ini .h .fx files) and that I'm supposed to isntall them in my Skyrim's .exe folder. Is there something I'm missing? So far I have only read about installing it in the folder, that it should only be installed for DX9, yet my Steam Skyrim folder also has a DX10 folder? Alright, so I'm confused. Is there somewhere that has a more step by step guide or thread on how to install/ready your game for SMAA? Thanks so much :)

I'm actually looking at the Rosewill R5 and it seems to be an excellent case. I love the dust filters (not sure about the top filter on the upper exhaust though) and may take some of the savings to get a couple extra fans for the side with some filters. Curious about what you think of that one (it was listed several times on reddit's Logical Increments-thanks again for that link btw) Also looking at the Rosewill BlackHawk too. Seems there's a bit of an issue concerning cable management space and something about the fan connectors not being the right type? (not sure what the poster meant exactly). Looks like an overall good case too with the prioce only being $15 more.

Thank you SOOOO much for the link... amazingly helpful info, and yeah, think I'll be swapping out the case for the Corsair Vengeance Mid As far as the PSU, yeah, a bit of overkill for the current config, but just wanting it for future SLI/CF options should I want that down the road w/o having to worry about a new PSU on top of a new GPU. Thanks again :)

OK, after going through a bit more searching and refining over the past month, here is the build I'm ready to order a week from now https://pcpartpicker.com/p/JGXp I wanted to post this here to see if anyone can see if there would be any compatability issues that I can't right now. Every thing seems like it will play nice, but since I received so much excellent input here by an informed community already, I wanted to check one last time and ask for your expertise. This build will obviously go beyond 1k and pretty much top me out at the upper end of my price range, but luckily I've been putting in extra hours and saving up for the difference and I feel that this configuration will get me off the ground with plenty of room to grow. The help here at STEP, the user base, and the guides/wikis that are posted have proved nothing short of priceless to me and I just really want to say thank you one more time for all of it. This IS the best place I have received info from hands down... I don't know what I'd do for my goals with my PC/Skyrim without STEP... really :)

Thank you, and as far as the read only ini (I know this sounds stupid, trust me) but you simply mean to right click the ini and set to read only in properties right? just to be sure there's nothing else I'm missing here

hello all... I'm posting in a few boards across the web, but I wanted to post this here first as the STEP community has hands down been the absolute BEST at answering any questions I've had prior about hardware, etc. Thanks so much for being so awesome yet again, ahead of time :) ... Is there any way to DL Skyrim mods from Steam Workshop so that you can have those mod files on your hard disk and then install them with the mod software of your choice (Wrye, Mod Organizer, TES5Edit, etc.) versus Steam? I'd like to use the Mod Oragnizer software mentioned on STEP (in conjunction with BOSS), but looking at the "proprietary-esque" nature of how some mod types (like quest mods) are hosted more favorably on one site (like "HOT" quest mods being more represented on Steam vs Nexus) instead of another, I haven't been able to come across a method yet that would allow me to DL those mods from Steam so that I could use the mod manager software of choice to install/manage them. When I modded Oblivion I used OBMM, Wrye, and BOSS and though the learning curve was steeper, I loved not being tethered to NMM(or doing manual installs) for modding purposes and the freedom was awesome. I DON'T want to use Steam or NMM in the case of Skyrim either these days. so like Nexus offers a manual DL of the files hosted on their site, does anyone know of a way to do the same for Steam hosted files so I can use them off my HDD instead? Thanks

I deleted this, took up too much room and was of dubious use to anyone...

Thanks Tarek1337, I'm about 5-6weeks out from placing the order for everything, so this gives me time to change my mind a billion times between now and then, but the input is still useful, and it's hands down the best reply I've recieved regarding bus info of anywhere I've posted to date :) This place is so awesome, thanks again...

A quick following up regarding GPU bus if I can... What kind of appreciable difference (if any) would a GPU bus of 256 for an Nvidia vs. 384 for a Radeon make when running an install on the order of extreme STEP. I notice from the hardware aggregate that most users have nvidia GPUs, so I am assuming not much, if any, but I also know what can happen when one assumes (old Benny Hill fans anyone?). I've kind of been flip flopping over the GPU like a politician in election mode honestly, and hopefully this isn't a nit-picky focus concerning the bus. Thanks again

I think my jaw hit the floor just now... I actually can't believe you took the time to get that query together for a total stranger, and it's hands down the coolest thing I think anyone's ever done for me on any boards, for any thing, period :) I can't thank you enough z929669 for the effort you put into that. WAY better than being flamed lol! Again, thanks so much, I simply cannot state that enough, really (and to anyone/everyone else who had anything to do with, my gratitude as well naturally.) Tarek1337, thanks for your recommendations, I will absolutely take them under advisement. Thanks again so much, this is some really excellent info and the fact that there is so much to work off of now and it was presented in so little time just blows me away. This was definitely the right place to stop by for advice :)

Forgive my ignorance here, but creating a link to look at these systems "in aggregate" (I *think* I know what you mean kind of) sounds fantastic, but in any case I think I get the overall gist of what you mean, and any link you can provide to give me a look at these systems would be greatly, greatly appreciated :)

I hope this ins't an inappropriate post or the inappropriate place to post this... From looking around the forum, I chose this as the best place to get the answers I was looking for... If this needs to moved, please tell me and I will see that it is done. I am (and have been) looking for advice on a build config for my first home built PC, targeted largely at running a heavily modded Skyrim that can perform in a manner that STEP is centered around. I have looked on other boards for this info and after continued searching in addition to the replies I've received at those boards, I was lucky enough to come across STEP, and I sincerely hope that the experience of this community in particular will be the best yet for me. Before I get into what I have arrived at so far for my config options, let me get this out of the way first as I feel presenting this info first will be of help to anyone reading this: My goal for this is two-fold: 1) build a rig I can play a well modded skyrim on with ultra settings and reasonably set MSAA, AA, AF, etc settings enabled where I can have good performing fps with texture, flora, lighting, weather, and other similar types of mods enabled. 2) I want to use this system as a launching point for future upgrades so that I have some wiggle room as software accomplishments begin to render my current hardware "obsolete." In other words, I want to be able to upgrade this rig with as few part swaps as possible when upgrading becomes necessary (instead of having to buy a new rig like many who own pre-fab big name manufacturer rigs have to because they don't have upgradability with their rigs). -I'll be using Win 7 Home Prem, I WON'T be using triple monitor, 3D, or a 120Hz refresh display for this initial build (and may not ever to be honest). I will likely keep resolutions at 1920x1080 on my SONY Bravia 32" (24Hz, 1080p) for my monitor (unless this is a bad idea). -I DO want the ability to OC with this initial build, though I will definitely be waiting a while til I know more about it and am comfortable with it. -Liquid cooling is a bit much for me as I'm still a novice with these things, so I'm opting for air cooling for now, while leaving the option open for down the road, much like OCing Finally, I would like to keep this at around 1k for cost, but I do have some wiggle room up to 1.5k if need be, but I'd REALLY like to keep costs down as much as I can. At this point and time, I think I have something that will realistically clock in around 1.25k for cost. Here is what I've been able to narrow down thus far with input from other boards: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/DCme I haven't listed a GPU b/c I', still unsure of the video card, but have sort of narrowed it down b/t the Nvidia 670 GTX 4Gb or the Radeon 7970 3Gb, non-reference cards. As far as the GPU goes, I have read in several places (including the STEP hardware guide) that VRAM does in fact make a difference in the case of a heavily modded Skyrim. I have been flamed (big surprise I know) on one board by those who claim 2Gb is the absolute highest VRAM anyone will ever need (barring the displays I listed above that I will not be using for this build) for gaming period. I've also  read in many other places of users who do in fact exceed 2Gb of VRAM for their modded Skyrim installs (with numbers in the range of 2.2 to 2.8Gb, and in one case, 3.2GB, and that user wanted to push to envelope even further - for references' sake, this was with a 670 GTX 4Gb card for those numbers). I seem to have read the same on the STEP hardware guide, which I have linked at other boards for my most credible resource on the VRAM question (I hope this wasn't faulted on my part, I just figure an entire team devoted to a well modded Skyrim experience would know what they're talking about, and unless I hear different here, I'll just go with that in confidence). To be clear, I'm not looking to break my own bank account with this build. I was a PC gamer about 10 years ago, and fiscal realities being what they were, had to opt for console gaming after that. Now that I have an opportunity to get back into PC gaming (and Skyrim and the modding community have been the biggest impetus behind me taking my tax return to finally build my own rig) I want to do this right, with the best info that I can gather. So if I have to exceed 1k, but still keep the build under 1.5k to achieve this goal, then I am willing to gather the parts needed to accomplish the goals I have for this build. I just want to know, more than anything else, which components will get that objective accomplished without being flamed or being subjected to anything else that doesn't work towards that goal. And this is the absolute best place I can think to ask for that advice. My thanks to all of you well ahead of time :)