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Spent three weeks modding Skyrim... but need a PC upgrade now

1K views 49 replies 13 participants last post by  AcEsSalvation 
#1 ·
Yup, that's a lot of mods. Sadly it seems my dated PC can't keep up, but I've put in too much effort at this point to let it go that easily!

The problems I'm experiencing are:

1. long load times (3-5 minutes!)
2. very low FPS when first loading into the game world (5 FPS or less)
3. FPS improves after initial freeze, but still not playable because if I move the camera too much it locks up for a split second

I'm not really super well versed as to what those things mean about my hardware, but I imagine I'm being either RAM or CPU bottlenecked, since in theory my 770 should be okay. I'm mostly just using texture mods, maybe I just installed too many (the majority are 2048x2048); I do not have an ENB installed. If anyone has any idea about what I should be buying, I'd love the advice!

It's kind of funny in a way that a three year old game is forcing me to upgrade, haha.
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#2 ·
I think your right, it's probably CPU and RAM. Is your GTX770 2gb or 4gb? You are playing at 1080p?
 
#3 ·
Yeah, the 955BE can start to become a bottle neck unless you start OC'ing to say 3.8 or 4ghz.
Also, if your specs in your signature are correct, why not get 8gb of 1600Mhz?

It could also be dirty files, using LOOT and tes5edit helped me a ton with performance and cleaning up master files. Right now the biggest fps killer for me is Just in time scripts for dynamic lighting in skyrim.
 
#4 ·
I think cpu and ram are a major issue, but your VRAM is possible an issue too if your 770 is the 2GB card. I would pick up some more ram if you can and try overclocking you cpu and gpu then go from there.
 
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#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BinaryDemon View Post

I think your right, it's probably CPU and RAM. Is your GTX770 2gb or 4gb? You are playing at 1080p?
It's a 2GB card, and I'm playing at 1080p.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boinz View Post

Yeah, the 955BE can start to become a bottle neck unless you start OC'ing to say 3.8 or 4ghz.
Also, if your specs in your signature are correct, why not get 8gb of 1600Mhz?

It could also be dirty files, using LOOT and tes5edit helped me a ton with performance and cleaning up master files. Right now the biggest fps killer for me is Just in time scripts for dynamic lighting in skyrim.
Ah about 3 years ago I tried OC'ing it and I nearly killed it, smelled like it was burning and all that fun stuff (can't remember what I did wrong, but it was a noob mistake). I'd love to OC it but I'd rather be careful since I wouldn't be surprised if I damaged it that last time.

They are correct, and cool, I'll do just that. Would this one be fine?

Yup, I ran LOOT and TES5Edit, everything's clean.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by criminal View Post

I think cpu and ram are a major issue, but your VRAM is possible an issue too if your 770 is the 2GB card. I would pick up some more ram if you can and try overclocking you cpu and gpu then go from there.
Bummer, just bought that card a few months ago, would suck to have to upgrade that again so soon, haha. I guess I'll buy the RAM and overclock the GPU, then cross fingers and hope for the best.
 
#6 ·
Definitely upgrade your CPU and RAM. Preferably an Intel Haswell build (ASRock or Gigabyte Z97, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 or faster, i5 4690k overclocked as much as possible), unless you can make the splash to Haswell-E. Your GPU should be fine seeing as how you're at 1080p.
 
#7 ·
Are you using a enb and how many texture mods are you using?

For load times: an SSD will fix that; or if you have enough ram you could just load the game into the ram.
Your GPU should be fine but if you're running a ENB you might not have the horsepower for it, depends though. That's the lass thing on the list to cross off unless you went crazy with the texture mods and skyrim.ini tweaks.

The CPU is likely the culprit, if you dont want to spend insane $ on a CPU and still need a new one look into the fx 9370, its a good little chip that runs a tad bit hot, with a water cooler I have no issues getting it to 5.0 on the OC.
 
#8 ·
Hm, alright, sounds like I need to do a bit of research before buying anything since I take it I need to upgrade everything, from what you guys are saying. I'll go haunt the Intel subforum, thanks!

(And nope, not using an ENB, just textures.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DIYDeath View Post

For load times: an SSD will fix that; or if you have enough ram you could just load the game into the ram.
Hmm, would loading the game into RAM impact performance (and would 8GB be sufficient to do so?). I don't really feel particularly inclined to buy an SSD, since I've never felt the need for one. This is really the only time I've ever had slow load times, so I imagine it probably isn't the HDD's fault?
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AOwpr View Post

Hm, alright, sounds like I need to do a bit of research before buying anything since I take it I need to upgrade everything, from what you guys are saying. I'll go haunt the Intel subforum, thanks!

(And nope, not using an ENB, just textures.)
Hmm, would loading the game into RAM impact performance (and would 8GB be sufficient to do so?). I don't really feel particularly inclined to buy an SSD, since I've never felt the need for one. This is really the only time I've ever had slow load times, so I imagine it probably isn't the HDD's fault?
I don't think 8GB would be sufficient. An SSD probably would help, although I'm honestly surprised that it's loading slow for you. Even with a ton of mods, Skyrim has always loaded quite quickly for me on HDDs (though I haven't had it on an HDD in almost two years).
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by boredgunner View Post

I don't think 8GB would be sufficient. An SSD probably would help, although I'm honestly surprised that it's loading slow for you. Even with a ton of mods, Skyrim has always loaded quite quickly for me on HDDs (though I haven't had it on an HDD in almost two years).
Hmm, I guess when I'm back home I'll try booting it up with textures disabled and see if the load time / general performance improves. If not, I guess I might as well just build a new PC at this point, lol.
 
#11 ·
You would want 64gb of ram if you wanna load it from ram. Ive not got much input other than what everyone has said. I would sell your mobo, cpu and ram. Then figure out how much more money you want to put in and get the smartest thing for that budget. Which we can figure out after that. Also thanks for the list of mods.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AOwpr View Post

Hmm, I guess when I'm back home I'll try booting it up with textures disabled and see if the load time / general performance improves. If not, I guess I might as well just build a new PC at this point, lol.
Give us a mod list/load order. It'll help us see what's going on. Right now we are all just speculating on the most common factors.

An SSD helps immensely with Skyrim load times. If you do go that road get a small one for Skyrim+your OS and use your existing HHD for everything else.
 
#13 ·
Holly that' an absurd amount of mods
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And yes. please do yourself a favor and get a 4790K z79 mobo and 8GB of ram.. you can try to check out the forum for people selling combos to get Haswel-E... it's day and night different from what you have
 
#14 ·
Get rid of mod 141, carluax. It ruins games.
Jarl of Ivarstead was made by a moron who crammed hundreds of spawns in Riften, an area thats notorious for being hard on the pc so I'd also suggest removing that or opening the mod up in CK and deleting those "red skull" spawn points. It's a shame because the mod itself is good quality - it's just that he didn't think things through and is unwilling to fix the issue because Bethesda doesnt let him monetize his mods (again, he's an idiot).

You may need a better GPU for that. A 770 will not cut it with that many mods in HP for sure and maybe with vram - this is totally dependent on your skyrim.ini tweaks though.

To say more I need your skyrim.ini file, I need to know if you've set up multi core functionality, etc.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rbby258 View Post

You would want 64gb of ram if you wanna load it from ram. ... Also thanks for the list of mods.
Oh WOW that is a scary amount of RAM, lol. Didn't even know that was possible in home setups, guess I'm really out of date.

Glad you like the list.
smile.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by DIYDeath View Post

Get rid of mod 141, carluax. It ruins games.
Jarl of Ivarstead was made by a moron who crammed hundreds of spawns in Riften, an area thats notorious for being hard on the pc so I'd also suggest removing that or opening the mod up in CK and deleting those "red skull" spawn points. It's a shame because the mod itself is good quality - it's just that he didn't think things through and is unwilling to fix the issue because Bethesda doesnt let him monetize his mods (again, he's an idiot).

You may need a better GPU for that. A 770 will not cut it with that many mods in HP for sure and maybe with vram - this is totally dependent on your skyrim.ini tweaks though.

To say more I need your skyrim.ini file, I need to know if you've set up multi core functionality, etc.
Ah wow, I was really looking forward to Jarl of Ivarstead.
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I'll try fixing it via Creation Kit, if not I guess to the chopping block it goes.

As for my Skyrim.ini, I actually haven't edited that much at all, here's a screenshot.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AOwpr View Post

Oh WOW that is a scary amount of RAM, lol. Didn't even know that was possible in home setups, guess I'm really out of date.

Glad you like the list.
smile.gif

Ah wow, I was really looking forward to Jarl of Ivarstead.
frown.gif
I'll try fixing it via Creation Kit, if not I guess to the chopping block it goes.

As for my Skyrim.ini, I actually haven't edited that much at all, here's a screenshot.
Before you do any upgrading you should optimize your ini.

http://itcprosolutions.com/skyrimguides/tweak_guide.htm

and see how it turns out.

Also: do you use enb and skse?
 
#17 ·
The biggest issue is the RAM. The game is trying to figure out what needs cached to the limited amount of RAM you have. The game itself might not use that much, but it's also having to fight your OS for room as well. I would definitely start there. Your CPU might have a low framerate trying to load allt hat, but it's the RAM that's hurting you the most.
 
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#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by DIYDeath View Post

Before you do any upgrading you should optimize your ini.

http://itcprosolutions.com/skyrimguides/tweak_guide.htm

and see how it turns out.

Also: do you use enb and skse?
Oh this is amazing, I wasn't even aware you could modify that file for performance. This is really cool.
biggrin.gif


I do use SKSE, but I don't currently have an ENB installed (I might later on if I end up solving my current unplayability one way or another).

----

I tried launching Skyrim with all the textures disabled + with lowered settings on top of that, but had the same result, which leads me to think that this is probably a RAM issue moreso than CPU or VRAM (I doubt it would be CPU, since I was in a non-crowded area outside of Solitude, maybe 5 NPCs in total). I just ordered a set of new RAM, so I guess we'll know for sure later this week. I'm tempted to say that if that isn't the issue (and if the Skyrim.ini tweaks don't work either), I probably installed something wrong? Neither LOOT nor TES5Edit report any issues, but I feel like that's the most likely culprit. Might need to revise my install order in Mod Organizer or something.
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AOwpr View Post

Oh this is amazing, I wasn't even aware you could modify that file for performance. This is really cool.
biggrin.gif


I do use SKSE, but I don't currently have an ENB installed (I might later on if I end up solving my current unplayability one way or another).

----

I tried launching Skyrim with all the textures disabled + with lowered settings on top of that, but had the same result, which leads me to think that this is probably a RAM issue moreso than CPU or VRAM (I doubt it would be CPU, since I was in a non-crowded area outside of Solitude, maybe 5 NPCs in total). I just ordered a set of new RAM, so I guess we'll know for sure later this week. I'm tempted to say that if that isn't the issue (and if the Skyrim.ini tweaks don't work either), I probably installed something wrong? Neither LOOT nor TES5Edit report any issues, but I feel like that's the most likely culprit. Might need to revise my install order in Mod Organizer or something.
I'd suggest also using enb or enboost because it helps the game allocate memory better. With a 770 pick a performance friendly enb though.
Yeah there are sooo many tweaks you can do to the .ini file, You can cripple any card with tweaks in there, easily if you want more graphic fidelity.
 
#20 ·
Ah yeah, I am using ENBoost, just no actual ENB. I was afraid I was overcommitting with the texture mods so was holding off to see how my GPU ran before stressing it further. Looks like I had bigger issues, though, haha.
 
#24 ·
The next step is probably getting a new CPU. My 8350 at 4.5GHz had issues with my small list of mods. One of them being WarZones, which has a heavy strain on AI. Graphics wise, that's going to be GPU grunt. I've had a 1GB card run the 4096x4096 texture pack get maxed out on usage before VRAM was an issue.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AcEsSalvation View Post

The next step is probably getting a new CPU. My 8350 at 4.5GHz had issues with my small list of mods. One of them being WarZones, which has a heavy strain on AI. Graphics wise, that's going to be GPU grunt. I've had a 1GB card run the 4096x4096 texture pack get maxed out on usage before VRAM was an issue.
War Zones is the reason why you're having issues. That mod is pure awfulness. Uninstall it, download Civil War Overhaul and Immersive Patrols instead.
Read the comments of the mods you use, people will tell you in droves if the mod has been abandoned/causes problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AOwpr View Post

Well, I'm still debating building a new PC for fun. Would be good to have a spare for when people come over, lol.

edit: made a spreadsheet with two possible builds! Would appreciate any input you guys might have: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14en0IkCmQEffKFPfNO4YnHNL_a3S-_kwgfOhiqfIOUU/edit?usp=sharing
The more expensive one is better but if it's a spare machine then why build something expensive? Build a skeleton and pass parts from your good build onto the second computer as you upgrade.
 
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