50fps STEP recommendation for vanilla...

[violetarc]

Hey all,

 

I'm trying to establish a very solid vanilla setup as my baseline and I am having trouble with this sentence in STEP: "If there is not a minimum of 50fps in all areas, then reduce the Launcher settings accordingly..."

 

I have 1gb vram and not the greatest processor. Regardless, when I first installed skyrim, it recommended "high" setting for me. Now I have worked my way down to Medium and lowered all kinds of things in Launcher and I am still getting mid-20s in Riverwood. I see very little stuttering or other gameplay issues (and didn't see problems in High settings either), so I am wondering... do I really have to go all the way down to Low settings to get 50fps in "all areas"? If I am not seeing a gameplay problem, should I be shooting for 50s or will 30-45 be OK (which is what I get in most every other areas (60 in dungeons).

 

Also, I haven't done any ini tweaks yet because I am trying to follow the STEP guide the way it is written...

 

Thanks.

[Besidilo]

The guidelines were for vanilla Skyrim and are largely outdated and system-specific, IMO.

[frihyland]

Actually the goal is never to drop below 35fps, you are misreading that quote out of context.

 

What I wrote, in context, goes something like if you have higher than 50fps in all areas than you are ok to up your settings and use higher res textures until your fps is at 50.

 

The opposite corollary should be in their as well, stating if your fps is not at least 35 you need to lower the texture res and settings until you achive 35, that part may have gotten lost in the rewrite if you are not seeing it.

[violetarc]

Actually the goal is never to drop below 35fps, you are misreading that quote out of context.

 

What I wrote, in context, goes something like if you have higher than 50fps in all areas than you are ok to up your settings and use higher res textures until your fps is at 50.

 

The opposite corollary should be in their as well, stating if your fps is not at least 35 you need to lower the texture res and settings until you achive 35, that part may have gotten lost in the rewrite if you are not seeing it.

I should have provided the page number and section details - sorry about that.

In the newest version of the STEP guide, page 12 Section 1.B.2 it states the following:

1.B.2. Establish Baseline Vanilla Performance

Fine-tune and test settings; remember to create save games in populated areas such as Riverwood and Whiterun to use as staging areas for screenshots and FPS comparison. Save this data for later comparison after each stage of tuning later in this guide. This is an important step, as THIS IS THE BASELINE VANILLA SETUP! If there is not a minimum of 50 FPS in all areas, then reduce Launcher settings accordingly, as forthcoming adjustments and mods will tax performance substantially, depending on choices made. For more comprehensive instructions, visit the Mod Testing Guide.

So, my question was dealing strictly with whether or not I *need* to be at 50 fps in all areas in order to even begin modding my game with core mods. In other words, I'm ready to say to myself, "I see no performance issues and my game seems very stable. My FPS is running around 40-50fps in most areas, but drops to 25 in very demanding areas. I consider this stable and will proceed from here." But STEP is telling me I shouldn't proceed unless I am at 50fps in all areas.

 

I know systems are vastly different and some people even with beefy boxes can't get consistent fps in certain places, so I wondered what those of us with mid-range machines should do here. I'm probably gonna call it "good enough" where I'm at, but I am interested to hear more.

 

Thanks.

[frihyland]

I'll repeat my advice above, install STEP until you reach a minimum of 35 fps then stop. I would first try out installing just the lowest res versions of all core mods and retest to see if you are still above 35, then add/delete mods till you hit a minimum 35fps threshold.

 

The reason for this is if you are below 35fps just walking around, later in the game when a ton of scripts are running and you get jumped by a bunch of monsters your game will probably grind to a halt. FYI dropping 25fps is not normal, you might want to try the adjusting your settings and testing so you understand what settings affect your fps the most. First thing to do is turn off SSAO completely.

[violetarc]

I understand now.

 

But how do I turn off SSAO? I have an ATI card and I thought that was an option for nvidia users?

 

Thanks!