Performance Issues .. benchmark results at ultra high resolution

[DocHammoc]

For my second (or third) time down the rabbit hole with SRLE I want to make some proper choices ahead of time.   I always seem to be bumping up against the playability threshold of 20 FPS after fully modded.  I benchmark using FRAPS and AIDA64 the opening ride into Helgen.

 

I currently have a core I7 (4 core) and Nvidia 680 (2 gig VRAM), and 6 gig system ram.  And here is the kicker .. three 30" monitors in surround.  At 8130x1600 (bezel corrected) I got 40 FPS baseline no mods.  Before I had three 30" monitors I had two 20's and one 30 in PLP mode .. and could run 5372x1622 with SoftTH (never mind the weird bezel and pixel size corrected resolution).  Here is a short list of my benchmarks ...

2560x1600, no mod base line ............... 60 FPS (limited by vsync)
2560x1600, STEP 2.2.9 ..................... 47 FPS
5372x1622, STEP 2.2.9 ..................... 16 FPS

5372x1622, no mod base line ............... 27 FPS (playable but only at average frame rates)
2686x811, no mod base line (1/4 pixels) ... 78 FPS (still filled three screens in PLP and looks great!)
3683x1112, no mod base line ............... 68 FPS (same number of pixels as 2560x1600)
3683x1112, STEP 2.2.9 ..................... 46 FPS (reasonable)

2686x811, SRLE ............................ 29 FPS (tolerable, barely .. stutters bad at times)
2686x811, SRLE (with DynDOLOD at Med)...... 30 FPS 

8130x1600, no mod base line ............... 40 FPS (first benchmark in Nvidia Surround .. yeah!)
4065x800, no mod base line ................ 56 FPS (going to need plenty of headroom)

I have VRAM usage too.  Fully modded 1600 to over 1800mb (pretty much the max on a 2GB card).  But the memory patch is doing it's job and not crashing anymore.  Unmodded something like 1000 - 1300mb.  Resolution is a factor but not as much as all the HD textures!

 

So my task now is to predict what my performance will be and make some choices ahead of time so I don't have to backtrack too much.  Ini Tweaks are easy enough but re-optimizing textures, etc seems to cause more trouble than it helps.  I've had too many issues with textures flickering in and out, black landscapes and such.  I can tolerate pretty low FPS .. as another factor is I'm updgrading to a six core CPU, 24 GB system memory and a nextgen video card (Pascal) when it comes out. 

 

I've combed the forum looking for performance and this is what I came up with ...

* Try setting iMinGrassSize to 30 or 40 under [GRASS] in skyrim.ini
* DynDOLOD - try lowering the object generation level.
* If playing at high resolutions such as 1440p and above, consider dropping resolution to 1080p/1200p

* Use performance version of Vividian ENB
* install lower texture sizes where available
* be sure to lower shadow quality to 2048

* set the fShadowDistance to 4000

* lower the shadow resolution to 1024 instead of 2048

* Don't look down from Dragonsreach on gildergleam

* Do NOT stray from SRLE mods
 
* Use DDSopt to cap all textures at 1k and .5 normals
* Use Vanilla Reduced Textures  http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14504/?
* Use Bethesda Performance textures http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43921/? and http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/42360/?

* Don't use ENB (causes stretching of parallax enabled meshes)
* Don't use parallax mods

* If you have trouble with SMIM chandelier and ELFX install patch http://www.nexusmods...?id=58061&pUp=1

* Try using sheson's memory patch (already done if follow SKSE.ini tweaks)

Not everything seems like something I want to try.  Any feedback constructive or otherwise is welcome!

Edited March 30, 2016 by DocHammoc

[Bundy714]

Strange no one has replied to this post.....so I'll give it a go.

 

Nothing eats FPS like an ENB, so I use I Cant Believe It's Not ENB v3 SweetFX instead.  It looks pretty darn good, has close to zero FPS impact, and avoids another issue I have with ENB's, in that you get one that looks great outside, but then it doesn't look so good in interiors or dungeons.  And it's easily turned on or off by hitting the scrollock key IF you have an issue in any scene/or location.

 

I'm also not a stickler for the highest resolution on everything.  It just depends on what it is, but a lot of times I go with the 1k textures and they look pretty darn good too.  On certain things I go with the 2k textures, but not many things.

 

And I also avoid parallax, even though I was led to believe it isn't very memory intensive.....just because I personally don't get that much out of it, and it sometimes makes square stones in roads look like wavy distorted shapes.  Its a personal preference, but I just don't see it as necessary, and if it's not necessary, I'd prefer to load my PC down doing more stuff that I get more out of.  I really don't know if avoiding parallax is necessary or not, I just do it out of an abundance of caution.

 

Of course run sheson's memory patch and ENBoost without the graphics option (If you decide not to run an ENB).

 

I get that you want to use your 3 monitors in surround mode, and with that many pixels, I'd think you'd need a beast of a card to run an ENB with that kind of setup.  Think about it, that is a LOT of pixels.

 

I don't have a beast of a computer, I have an I5 3570k cpu, a Radeon HD 7950 with 3gb of vram, and 16gb of system ram. But I only use one monitor at 1920x1080.  I could probably use higher resolution textures, but I'm a miser with my ram.....I want to play Skyrim, not push it to it's limits until I have issues.  So I take a pretty cautious approach.  Good luck!

Edited April 18, 2016 by Bundy714

[hishutup]

How are you even able to get away with 2GB.

When I had my 6970s I was pretty much stuttering with the the HDDLC a 1080p.

[DocHammoc]

How do I .. not sure that I am!  When I start getting 20 FPS average my game becomes unplayable during intensive scenes.  I'm pretty stubborn and can often tolerate poor FPS for an otherwise great experience.

 

Yes, ENB sucked down my FPS from 49 to 32 at 4065x800.  If the remaining mods don't suck much more I may be okay till I get my next gen Pascal Nvidia card. 

 

I've tried "I Cant Believe It's Not ENB v3 SweetFX" (or equavalent) a while back and also the unique hialgoboost to dynamically reduce resolution.  I think it's better to simply reduce resolution as I have but I prefer the ENB too much to not use it.  You can hit shift-F12 to turn it off .. and still get the enbboost/memory patch thing, not sure if that helps performance though.

 

I more concerned now to get a stable mod set.  If I can and still have performance issues i will reduce resolution again.  You would be surprised how good it looks at lower resolutions.

 

I haven't found using 1k textures vs 2k or whatever makes a noticeable difference .. or parallax.  Skyrim Flora Overhaul .. only 1 FPS.  I'll post back if I find anything else that takes me down a lot.