Performance Recommendation: Pre v0.143 + HiAlgo or Something Newer?

[mikegray]

Hey guys!

 

I'm trying to put together a nice, gameplay-oriented Skyrim setup. If you check my sig, you'll see that I have a nice rig - the overclocked 290x gives me some nice performance AND lots of VRAM. I'm running a Dell u2711 2560 x 1440 monitor.

 

I've started with a complete core STEP install, with about half the Extended elements. I ran vanilla AND all mods through ddsopt - 1024 max exteriors, 2048 max interiors. I also have CoT,  Supreme Storms and ELFX installed.

 

Without ENB, it plays superfast, buttery smooth. But after installing RealVision B, performance version, My FPS can fall to about 30 in the Morthal swamp. That's not horribe, but I want to try to demanding mods like Civil War Overhaul, and I really want smooth play,

 

So ... I'm looking for some recommendations. 

 

- It COULD be that I'll find a setting that is slowing me down - like, the wrong AA stuff or maybe some .ini file shadow settings or a mess-up in enblocal.ini. But I think I'm OK, basically. Or maybe I got too greedy with the pretties (I've got Wet & Cold in and Flora Overhaul alpha 2 - albeit ddsop'd).

 

- How about going back to an older ENB and combine with Hialgoboost. I've had FANTASTIC experience with that mod, and I hardly notice the resolution drop. Unfortunately, compatibility with ENB has been broken since v. 0.143, which is pre-ENB Boost. What do you guys think? Is ther an older ENB preset you'd recommend?

 

- Or is there some other performance-oriented ENB preset (with CoT and ELFX compatibility) that you would recommend?

 

 

[Aiyen]

If you got a 290... then do not touch hialgo boost... the only time you would EVER want to touch it is if you are on an age old laptop... on any modern system it is just more trouble then it is worth. Especially when you mix it with other hook based software such as ENB. 

 

30 FPS in morthal swamp is quite respectable... it is a really badly optimized area, and if you just throw in more stuff there then it will kill anything. So you should not base your entire gameplay on just that one area.. if you get 30 fps there but on average 50 everywhere else then I would classify it as "butter smooth". You are most likely not going to be spending several days of your play-though in just the swamp anyways. 

Also you are running at 1440p I assume... at that resolution then you will be really hard pressed to get the most badly optimized and detailed areas of skyrim above 30 in general. 

 

Also with that much memory then ddsopt is ... essentially pointless for your performance. You would be able to run with 2k basically everything and not have any memory related issues. 

 

As for ini´s then make sure you do not go over 2k in the shadow resolution... 4k is just pointless and woefully full of potential super slowdowns. 

 

As for other ENB presets.. then vividian, skylight are what I normally suggest since I am selfish and stuff! :) 

[mikegray]

Thanks man!!

 

About Hialgo and all: I guess I have a hangup about FPS. It really bugs me when the play isn't responsive - particularly after taking some time off to play a few other games (like Witcher 2) that have a more responsive feel. Playing Witcher 2 felt like driving a Ferrari. At 60 FPS, Skyrim felt like a decent family sedan; at 30 it feels like a dump truck! (Also, somewhere around the low 40s, the game starts to have a little bit of a "flickery" thing, that bugs me.)

 

Anyway, on ENB: If I traipse around that Morthal swamp with no ENB, I hardly drop below 55 FPS. Sinking all the way down to 30 seems like too much of a sacrifice.

 

Quick question about shadows - does that go for iShadowMapResolution, too? It's currently set to 4096.

 

Anyway, I'll definitely keep trying stuff - I just had a look at your presets, and I'll definitely give them a whirl. 

 

(Two side questions: A. Does the water mod matter much? I notice that your Vividian ENB is tuned for Pure Water; I'm working with Realistic Water 2. B. What's the lowdown on ELE? I currently have ELFX only, but I'm willing to try it out.)

[Halde]

Well Civil War Overhaul is not passively demanding. It's scriptintensive and you will get an FPS drop during the battles, but during normal gameplay, it's obviously not something you will notice.