Recommended upgrades for Skyirm with STEP

[nico53laval]

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP, ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

[Farlo]

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

I'm not that familiar with AMD CPUs, but that one seems decent (especially with your OC) and your graphics card is pretty good. How much VRAM does it have? If it's only 1GB then that's probably your issue, especially if you're using the highest resolution mods you can. Other than that, RAM is really cheap at the moment so it couldn't hurt to bring your total up to 8GB for when the VRAM runs out.

 

If you have the space/cash, adding Skyrim to an SSD will definitely help, and might even improve FPS depending on how much is being cached. I don't think you can just copy the files over and run it though, you probably have to re-install Steam to the new drive letter, install Skyrim through that, and then copy over all the mod resources (Data folder, SKSE files) and anything else non-Vanilla. There might be tools to ease the transferring process, but I haven't used any, so remember that Google is your friend.

[frihyland]

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

Theres a wiki page on this subject as well as quite a few threads if you search.

[rpsgc]

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

Trust me, your CPU is holding you back.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_CPU_Scaling/16.html («-- that's with an AMD FX-8150 @ 3.6 GHz)

 

To move Skyrim to an SSD, use Steam Mover

https://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

 

P.S.: Adding an extra 4GB of RAM (total 8GB) wouldn't hurt either. I'm playing Skyrim with all settings maxed and dozens of texture and re-texturing mods and that leaves me with only 2GB of free RAM out of 8GB. So, yeah, that could help too.

[nico53laval]

Then I'll have to find 400 bucks to buy me a 2500K :/ for moving Skyrim to the SSD, I should have said that I use a cracked .exe to get rid of the auto-updating so does it change anything?

[rpsgc]

Then I'll have to find 400 bucks to buy me a 2500K :/ for moving Skyrim to the SSD, I should have said that I use a cracked .exe to get rid of the auto-updating so does it change anything?

 

If you just drop the .exe in the Skyrim folder and it's done then it shouldn't be a problem.

[Besidilo]

 

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

Trust me, your CPU is holding you back.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_CPU_Scaling/16.html («-- that's with an AMD FX-8150 @ 3.6 GHz)

 

To move Skyrim to an SSD, use Steam Mover

https://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

 

P.S.: Adding an extra 4GB of RAM (total 8GB) wouldn't hurt either. I'm playing Skyrim with all settings maxed and dozens of texture and re-texturing mods and that leaves me with only 2GB of free RAM out of 8GB. So, yeah, that could help too.

 

STEP mods put more strain on the GPU than CPU, the game has been optimised to put more load on the GPU since its launch, with several patches. I wouldn't think CPU is a deciding factor here, a Phenom II X4 should certainly cope with Skyrim just fine.

 

SDD is certainly a good addition though.

[rpsgc]

 

 

I've got an OCed Gigabyte Gtx 670 (1360 MHz core and 6492 for the mem max) and a Phenom II *4 965 BE @3800 MHz with 4 gigs of RAM. I'm sometimes dropping under 60 FPS with STEP ultra settings (high shadows) + 2* SSAA performance ambient occlusion. What component do you think is to blame and what should I do to resolve this (small) issue? Also, I wanted to buy an SSD to fix the painfully long loading times, can I just copy over Skyrim from my HDD to the SSD for it to work with skse?

Trust me, your CPU is holding you back.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_CPU_Scaling/16.html («-- that's with an AMD FX-8150 @ 3.6 GHz)

 

To move Skyrim to an SSD, use Steam Mover

https://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

 

P.S.: Adding an extra 4GB of RAM (total 8GB) wouldn't hurt either. I'm playing Skyrim with all settings maxed and dozens of texture and re-texturing mods and that leaves me with only 2GB of free RAM out of 8GB. So, yeah, that could help too.

 

STEP mods put more strain on the GPU than CPU, the game has been optimised to put more load on the GPU since its launch, with several patches. I wouldn't think CPU is a deciding factor here, a Phenom II X4 should certainly cope with Skyrim just fine.

 

SDD is certainly a good addition though.

 

So what if they strain more the GPU? If the CPU is weak to begin with, the game will suffer. Almost 20fps less than a Sandy Bridge CPU is what any sane person would consider "a deciding factor". I posted proof of that. Where is yours?

 

This is a GTX 670 we're talking about here, not some budget video card.

[nico53laval]

Well, maybe it's my RAM. When I am outdoors and go to the task manager I get 80-90% of RAM usage (I've got 4 Gigs). My game folder weighs 17 gigs.

[Farlo]

Well maybe it's my RAM. When I am outdoors and go to the task manager I get 80-90% of RAM usage (I've got 4 Gigs). My game folder weighs 17 gigs.

Then a bump up to 8 (only $25 for a 4GB stick on Newegg) will surely do you some good. I have an i5 2500k, AMD 6870, 8GB RAM, and a normal HDD and with all of the highest resolution files possible I'm doing 40+ fps everywhere.

 

17 Gigs is nothing, I'm pushing 21! :D

[nico53laval]

 

Well maybe it's my RAM. When I am outdoors and go to the task manager I get 80-90% of RAM usage (I've got 4 Gigs). My game folder weighs 17 gigs.

Then a bump up to 8 (only $25 for a 4GB stick on Newegg) will surely do you some good. I have an i5 2500k, AMD 6870, 8GB RAM, and a normal HDD and with all of the highest resolution files possible I'm doing 40+ fps everywhere.

 

17 Gigs is nothing, I'm pushing 21! :D

 

My issue isn't that I get under 40 FPs. That never happens. My issue is I drop to 40 with Vsync on and when I disable Vsync I get a whole lot of tearing. To put it simple, my problem is stutter, not big FPS drops. Kinda weird.

[Neovalen]

Stutter generally indicates a lack of VRAM no? A standard GTX 670 has 2GB by default, Skyrim can sometimes be in excess of this... are you using all the heavy versions of your texture mods?

[nico53laval]

Stutter generally indicates a lack of VRAM no? A standard GTX 670 has 2GB by default Skyrim can sometimes be in excess of this... are you using all the heavy versions of your texture mods?

Well I'm using only the graphic mods from STEP (the creator runs the game with all these mods smoothly with a 560Ti) so I don't think that's a problem. Many guides say Skyrim simply uses all the available VRAM for caching.

[Neovalen]

Even with just STEP installed if you use ALL 2048 or 4096 texture packs you can bet you'll hit a VRAM cap in some areas. Right now I'm using 1024 versions of everything available to do so because I'm using 1GB of VRAM and still get stuttering if I turn on ANY AA and can easily cap out 1gb even without it. The creator of step does use a 560Ti but he also shrinks all of his textures to 1024 using Texture Optimizer in order to run properly.

 

Fortunately for me, relief comes soon. My dual 4gb 670's arrive on Monday so then I can think about updating.

[skwareballz]

Even if you load up on powerful GPUs with lots of VRAM, Skyrim will still be CPU limited due to the heavy scripting involved. If you use a lot of mods that have add to the CPU's workload, like Economics of Skyrim, then you will still get performance issues regardless of VRAM. In other words, it is just as wise to upgrade to Ivy Bridge as it is to upgrade to Kepler.

[rpsgc]

Well maybe it's my RAM. When I am outdoors and go to the task manager I get 80-90% of RAM usage (I've got 4 Gigs). My game folder weighs 17 gigs.

8GB of RAM these days is a must have. Take advantage of the low prices and upgrade.