Performance trouble, though not gamebreaking(I was used to much worse)

[Halde]

Hi all!

 

So I have had some performance issues ever since I installed STEP. I acquired a decent gaming laptop in October last year:

 

GeForce GTX 760m 2GB VRAM

i7-4702MQ 2.2GHz Turbo Boost mode 3.2GHz

8GB DDR3 RAM

1920x1080 resolution

 

I do not have a single graphic mod outside of STEP where I have all, except Skyrim Realistic Overhaul(I do use all the Lite versions the Skyrim HD, optimized with DDSopt),Skyrim Flora Overhaul, The Skyrim Distance Overhaul and the newly added aMidianborn Content "something"(can't really remember the name).

 

I have optimized all the vanilla and highresolution textures of the DLC's. I have optimized all the suggested mods in the DDSopt guide.

My uGridstoLoad is =5(I think. I have the default setting, which I believe is 5).

 

I wanted to ask which mod I could remove that would make a performance boost, and hopefully not be too noticeable. I was thinking about some of the many different Enhanced Terrain mods, since the FPS hit is hardest when I my vision is not blocked by, say a nearby mountain(which makes sense I suppose, with the vanilla game as well). Also, FPS drops when I am in foggy or bleak kinda climates. These are not constant but are often found in the area that Markarth resides in, which I can't remember the name of(or for instance, the area after the Bandit tower during your first walk to Ivarstead to meet the Greybeards, often appear bleak and foggy/smoggy)

 

I might just overestimate my computer, but when I minimize the game and check, my CPU is at least never really burdened that hard. And I find my GPU decent as well(highend laptop GPU actually).

 

Mainly I want to emphasize on the removal of mods that might not do a whole lot(at least for close view) but tends to eat up the FPS of mediocre laptops.

 

~Sincerely

 

Halde

[EssArrBee]

Have you run the benchmarks? Should be easy to do with all the mods already installed. You can just disable everything and then enable one section at a time, benchmark, repeat.

 

Also, What AA settings you running? Maybe use SMAA injector on high or medium. One other thing that really is a big burden to laptop cards is resolution.

 

As, for the few spots where FPS drops, well, that is Skyrim. You really can't get around that with a 760M/i7 system. You can't even get around that this a 780m. 

[DoubleYou]

Sounds like about right for your specs to me.

[Halde]

I have AA on 4 I think and AF max. The rendering is absolutely horrible if it's not.

 

I will try benchmarking, and no, I haven't tried that.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Halde

[phazer11]

You'll simply have to turn your game resolution down to 1600x900. I have to do that on my laptop, if I want anything over 40 FPS. I have a GTX 670MX 3GB and all the GTX 760M is, is a gimped version of the GTX 670MX. They changed it from a 192-bit interface to a 128-bit interface, and dropped the amount of VRAM from 3GB to 2GB, they also disabled a cluster of the CUDA cores (I want to say either 96 or 192 can't remember). So you'll probably have to drop your resolution to either. 1366x768 or 1280x720.

[Halde]

But wouldn't that be a problem? My screens standard resolution is 1920x1080, and it's a 17.3" screen.

[Halde]

Yea, it looks absolutely horrible if I just turn down the game resolution to 1600x900. This was with a 1920x1080 screen resolution, so I'll try turning that down as well and see if it changes.

[Halde]

Well turning down the resolution on the screen and ingame, certainly helped a bunch. I can hardly see a difference actually.

[phazer11]

To have the game render at a different resolution while staying fullscreen (with desktop screen resolution @1920x1080) you have to input the dimensions in your Mod Organizer .ini's for Skyrim. If that doesn't work I can't walk you through it at the moment the keyboard on my laptop is being replaced.

[Halde]

Yea I did that. I'm using borderless fullscreen though, due to having some weird kind of lag(not FPS drop) when in fullscreen. But if I turn my screen resolution down to 1600x900 and turn ingame resolution to 1600x900 it is nice. Better FPS and hardly noticeable at all.

It looked horrible only when my game resolution was 1600x900 and my screen resolution was 1920x1080.

[phazer11]

Interesting.

Well, enjoy. Let us know how it goes.

[Halde]

Could someone list like the 10 most performance heavy mods of STEP, not counting Skyrim Realistic Overhaul and Skyrim Flora Overhayl?

[Halde]

!Just on top of your head mods. I'm not asking for an actual researched list.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Halde

[DoubleYou]

Better Males (heavy on vram)

Serious HD (heavy on vram)

Skyrim Distance Overhaul (heavy on engine)

Static Mesh Improvement Mod (heavy on poly and vram)

Ultimate Hd Fire Effects (heavy on vram)

Wet and Cold? (heavy on scripts?)

 

There really aren't many.

[Halde]

Thank you, I love you!

[phazer11]

Don't forget Enhanced Blood.