Gaining some FPS with SRLE...

[Jverv]

So over the last week I have attempted to gain a bit more FPS due to my game being almost unplayable. I wanted to report my findings hoping I can help others. I have a 2gb GPU but a 4.8ghz CPU. You can see the rest of my specs below. I want to point out that I have many additions to SR:LE including most of REGS, Perma, sound additions, plus some script heavy mods for immersion. So that adds to some of my performance issues. To be honest, we probably all use more then just SR:LE because being a mod user and a "Skyrim Perfectionist" is addictive so I'm sure many of us try and push the game as far as possible.

 

First off I followed almost all of Nearox's amazing guide when I put together this profile in MO and so have many mods optimized and most textures at 1k max. It's a great guide in general and can help everyone gain a bit of FPS without noticing a quality loss. It's not completely updated but you can use common sense to fill in the gaps.

 

After using the guide, there are a few essential mods that help FPS without much noticeable quality loss;

 

Skyrim Performance PLUS

 

Insignificant Object Remover

 

No Guard Torches

 

The next one is what made me attempt to optimize a bit more it's: Skyrim Performance Booster. I know people might not be to keen on this, but I can honestly say I gained about 10 FPS using it. It is dependent on your setup I believe but again I had success. It's pretty simple to use, you just add it to the STEAM folder and run the batch. It runs for less then a second on my system. From what I gather she just deletes some grasses from the base game.

 

I use Weather Control Center (which is off Nexus for some reason) because some of the weather crushes my system, I love COT but I have to go to clear weather when doing important things. Destroys immersion, but until I upgrade my GPU it is necessary unfortunately. You can also just use the console to set clear weather. Do a quick Google search (or ask the Oracle I say) for how to. You can also turn off ENB like I suggest below until the weather passes.

 

I had JK's Skyrim but dropped it because of FPS loss. It's a great mod and I'm willing to trade in other areas on my next play through because it really is so well done. I don't use enhanced blood textures, footprints, EFF, face to face, wet and cold holiday's and a few others. Again, it's all personal preference and trade off's. I will probably add them back in the future and drop other things. I have Dynamic Things, Animations, and other fairly script heavy mods so I play around with set ups to see what has an affect on scripts. Once frostfall updates and wet and cold, I'm sure that will allow a bit more wiggle room. 

 

I tested both the medium setting and high setting on the new Dyndolod, and found that I only lost 1-2 FPS on high so I'm sticking with that setting for now. I think Insignificant object remover helps a bit there. Who knows though.

 

My ini settings are fairly simple but have been put together after about a year of playing and tweaking. They work well on MY system but who knows for others. I'll give you the most noticeable changes;

 

Skyrim ini:

my FOV is set to 81

iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7

iMinGrassSize=50

 

 

Skyrimprefs ini:

fShadowDistance=4000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

 

SKSE ini:

iTintTextureResolution=1024

 

Enblocal ini: Most settings are fairly generic but I do run in windows mode

[WINDOW]
ForceBorderless=true
ForceBorderlessFullscreen=true

 

Most of these settings are in Nearox's guide. My graphics card setup is based upon STEP's suggestions.

 

I turn off background processes when I play and set Steam to offline mode. I also use Game booster 3.

 

So what is my FPS after all this testing? I was in the teen's before some of the additions above in outdoor areas. Now I'm getting 25 plus or minus in most outdoor areas. Which is not great, but it is the limitations of my graphics card. 20-30's is playable if this is the only game you are playing at current and have no comparison. Indoors can be fine and is in the 40's-50's.

 

If I hit a trouble area, I will turn off ENB (shift f12) until I'm through the area. ENB is by far the most crippling part of most set ups and SRLE is no exception. I can get into the 70-100+ FPS (144 hz monitor) in indoor areas with ENB off but the visual quality is staggering. 

 

There is probably more tweaks because it adds up over the years, but this is the most basic stuff I can think of. If you have comments or suggestions please add them to help move the topic forward!

 

Thanks, hope this helps people!

Edited April 15, 2015 by Jverv

[perkymcgiggles]

Grass on Steroids is a performance saver for me.  Make sure to edit the .ini appropriately according to the description.  The grass density looked like it increased for me while making my frame rate more stable.

 

Aside from that, I had to disable the graphical portion of ENB.  I kept it for the memory fixes, but other than that it does nothing.  Skyrim doesn't look AS pretty, but having 60FPS stable makes the game more enjoyable for me.  I think I'll need SLI to make an ENB playable at my resolution (2560x1600).  

[Neovalen]

Grass on Steroids is a performance saver for me.  Make sure to edit the .ini appropriately according to the description.  The grass density looked like it increased for me while making my frame rate more stable.

 

Aside from that, I had to disable the graphical portion of ENB.  I kept it for the memory fixes, but other than that it does nothing.  Skyrim doesn't look AS pretty, but having 60FPS stable makes the game more enjoyable for me.  I think I'll need SLI to make an ENB playable at my resolution (2560x1600).  

A single 980 won't do 60fps outdoors, but it does a constant 45+ smoothly. Indoors is always 60fps minimum.