CTDs all over the place

[JVorn]

So I got everything just the way I like it (full STEP, some ENB blah blah) and it looks beyond amazing, and I'm getting around 30 FPS so that's nice.  However, ever since I got to the max setup I like I literally crash every 5ish minutes.  After doing some Skyrim Performance Monitor runs I saw it could be related to the oft-discussed mystical 3.1 GB RAM limit of doom.  Here are the screencaps of my runs, what do you think?

 

w/out ATTK Power Loader

 

w/ ATTK Power Loader

 

As you can see I'm hammering my GPU and VRAM, but when that evil yellow line crosses the 3 GB threshold is when it gets hairy.  Do you guys have the same experience? I know from the threads I've seen in here there doesn't seem to be an accepted conclusion but am I SOL and just need to bail on some mods?

 

EDIT: Forgot specs: i7 Sandy Bridge, 16 GB RAM, 1.5 GB VRAM Nvidia GeForce GTX 580

[Flytrap]

Hey, there. I'm in the same boat as you. I'm running into this as well and have been hawking these boards to see if anyone comes up with a fix. But in the meantime, I started being able to stay very near but under 3 GB by switching all of my 4K texture packs down to the 2K equivalents. Now, the only 4K textures I run are Trees HD and Vurt's Hi-Res Pines feom Skyrim Flora Overhaul that I resized down to 4K. This was the only change I was able to make that affected SYSTEM RAM usage. I run in 1920x1080 with an i7 3820 + 2x 680 4GBs in SLI, and I can max those cards out with AI, draw distance (NOT uGrids!), heavy grass, ENB, etc, all I want, but once I hit 3.02GBs or so of system RAM in Skyrim Perf Mon, it's over. Mod Organizer says I'm at 321 mods including all of the patches and such, and it runs very stable if I keep under that magic 3 GB line.

 

I made several test saves in problem areas (Pelagia Farm to Whiterun, Guardian Stones to Riverwood, mountain pass leading to BFB from Riverwood with the troll, entering every building in Riverwood one after another (fills up cell buffers), entering and exiting the Bannered Mare, same for Bleak Falls Barrow) and just kept switching 4K texture packs for 2K ones until I could pass each test reliably without CTDs. Now, I very rarely get one, and the few I do get are worth it to me to keep the hi-res trees because I use Skyrim Bigger Trees, so I see a lot of tree trunks and giant pine branches up close when tromping through the woods.

 

Oh yeah. I also deleted the iPreloadSizeLimit=xxx from my INI because it made me crash when entering Bleak Falls dungeon.

 

Some random screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/iYNUi

 

Hope this helps!

Flytrap

[JVorn]

Thanks for the reply!  I was afraid my only option was to downsize the texture packs, but your screens still look great!  What mods do use? I have a full STEP + Sharpshooters ENB and it doesn't look that nice! :P

[Ezekiel33]

nice pics by the way!

[Flytrap]

Thanks! I'm really enjoying it (finally!). Most of my mods and STEP deviations are listed in my other post in the 3.1 CTD thread. It is basically 95% STEP 2.2.3 with Skyrim Bigger Trees, the Summer, Overgrown, and Hi-Res Pines (resized down to 4K) optional files from Skyrim Flora Overhaul, Realistic Lighting Overhaul, Climates of Tamriel, and SkyRealism ENB Cinematic preset with the saturation turned down just a bit to compensate for RLO.

 

Happy modding!

Flytrap

[JVorn]

Thanks! I'm really enjoying it (finally!). Most of my mods and STEP deviations are listed in my other post in the 3.1 CTD thread. It is basically 95% STEP 2.2.3 with Skyrim Bigger Trees, the Summer, Overgrown, and Hi-Res Pines (resized down to 4K) optional files from Skyrim Flora Overhaul, Realistic Lighting Overhaul, Climates of Tamriel, and SkyRealism ENB Cinematic preset with the saturation turned down just a bit to compensate for RLO.

 

Happy modding!

Flytrap

Thanks! So most of the bigger texture packs you took the mid range options or did you use that utility that re-sizes the packs? Also, any thoughts on ATTK Loader? If It seems to help, in my second performance screenshot it took much longer to hit 3.1 GB and the only difference was the loader.

[Flytrap]

Only thing I resized was Vurt's Hi-Res Pines. They come in 8K size, and I noticed a difference in performance around Riverwood after resizing them without losing much quality. Everything else that had a 2048 option, I picked that instead of the 4096 option. The exception is Trees HD, and you can see the tree stump and trunk up close in the screens. Well worth it, plus I never CTD in the woods. It's mostly in towns. If I had to guess, I'd say there's a lot of additional textures that get loaded into RAM around cities, whereas in the woods, it's the same ones used over and over. I got some missing textures when sorting through a ton of gear and crafting in Riverwood today, so that kind of backs that theory up to me. Those menus load a bunch of new items into RAM as you scroll through them.

 

I tried ATTK, and it did improve my Skyrim PerfMon numbers while in a single cell, but it didn't help with the CTDs at all because it all of the textures were still going into RAM at cell changes. I would see 5-10% lower usage on some things, then go into the Bannered Mare or something, and RAM would bounce up all the way up from 1700 MB to 3025 or so and crash anyway. I didn't really notice a performance difference in practice because it because I've already maxed out everything I know to do and my rig still runs at 60 fps most of the time; however, YMMV based on your rig/mods/settings. RIght now, I have it uninstalled, but I will def try it again if crashes get more frequent.

 

The other thing that clears ram is the pcb command, but it's a chore to watch RAM and use it regularly, especially since I use the Xbox controller primarily. I have also read to only use it in interior cells, and that it may break scripted scenes in the area, so be careful. Also, that was not very helpful when I was crashing in exteriors. :)

 

-Flytrap