High Resolution Textures - FPS Hit?

[tehpandemic]

As per the title, it's just a quick question. I have an AMD R9 290(non-x) 4GB.

 

If I were to absolutely pump the game full of 4k and 2k textures, (providing I don't hit my VRAM limit) will it affect my FPS?

 

I'd experiment and mess around with it myself to find out, but I haven't been around my PC for a few days, and it'll be a few more before I can get back on.

 

I have done a search, and people have stated that they have had hits while some haven't. I guess results are per card and system?

[Halde]

Well big body textures such as STEP mod Better Males can take up 300MB on high resolutions. 

But I'm not sure if the limitations of Skyrim will allow for you to have 2k-4k textures everywhere and still allow for a stable game.

But there is actually no reason to run around with such big textures. Gopher made a comparison video of Skyrim HD 2k(Full) and 1k(Lite) textures and Skyrim Realistic Overhaul. Between the 2k and 1k exterior textures, the difference was only noticeable on if you litteraly stood still and observed the objects in 1st person view(and even then, it was hardly noticeable). There obviously was a difference with Realistic Skyrm Overhaul, but that's due to a different style of texture.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Halde

[Octopuss]

If I were to absolutely pump the game full of 4k and 2k textures, (providing I don't hit my VRAM limit)

You can stop right there.

I have the same kind of card you do, and use mostly 2k textures, with very few 4k ones (really an insignificant number). I even went through my mods and replaced certain 2k ones with 1k versions when possible and appropriate (from my point of view) - and yet, the average VRAM usage is like 3,5GB. And I am not even sure whether some are not already offloaded to ENB at that point (if I even understand correctly how it works). Whenever I fast travel anywhere near Windhelm (outside of city), I instantly hit 4GB and the game lags the sh*t out of me (until some textures are dropped or whatever happens in the background).

 

Long story short: NOONE is ready for 4k textures yet.

[Halde]

Are you using 4k textures for outside areas? That sounds tough.

 

Try get a GTX Titan Z. 16GB VRAM!

[tehpandemic]

I'm not actually using 4k textures everywhere xD, basically, if I were to use as many as possible (as long as I stayed within 4GB of VRAM!) would I take any FPS hit of some sort?

[Nearox]

VRAM does not affect FPS a whole lot, unless you are near or over the max, in which case VRAM will be offloaded to RAM, which can cause stutter and FPS drop. 

 

What resolution do you play on? If it is 1080p, I wouldn't bother with 4k textures as it is barely noticeable.

[tehpandemic]

Thanks, that's what I wanted clearing up. No I'm not using 4k textures nor do I really plan to, I know it's for screenarchery at this stage. It was just hypothetical, I use 1k mostly.