¿So how does Skyrim look with most of those fancy mods?

[Aquanox]

Ever wondering how does Skyrim look with all those mods and updates?

Here's my experience. I have the following mods applied (Including the High Res Textures released yesterday)

High Res Textures (of course)
High Res Weapons
Improved Eyes
Improved Sky
Improved Water effects
Improved Lighting
No more blocky faces
Pretty female faces
Better Inventory
Map with Roads

And the result is:

[Cybertox]

Looks very nice, whats your framerate with all those mods? Could post your specs as well pls.

[Aquanox]

It's actually super smooth in open areas but for some reason, terrible inside towns... as if there was a bottleneck. I'll disable them one by one (there's a mod manager that easily enables/disables them) so see what's the one stealing those FPS.

It looks astonishing however.

My specs:

Core i5 2500k
8GB RAM DDR3 1600mhz
Radeom HD 5870 Crossfire(x2)
Playing @ 1080p, max settings.

[Cybertox]

Yeah with two gpus this game should work dcently.

[Mikael]

Yeah with two gpus this game should work dcently.

It's not very taxing on the GPUs, though. A single HD 5870 is good for 1920x1200 with Ultra settings, 4xAA/8xAF and 90 degree FOV. It's expected, though, since it's a console game with pretty small enhancements on the PC version.

The performance problems with Skyrim were largely solved by the 1.4 patch, which enabled proper CPU optimizations.

[Aquanox]

I'm not sure about that. It looks a LOT better than the consoles version. I actually hate watching it on consoles... can't stand the low res, jaggies , framerate, etc...

A single 5870 is not enough for this game (with mods that is)... probably for not taxing areas it is.

It's not very taxing on the GPUs, though. A single HD 5870 is good for 1920x1200 with Ultra settings, 4xAA/8xAF and 90 degree FOV. It's expected, though, since it's a console game with pretty small enhancements on the PC version.

The performance problems with Skyrim were largely solved by the 1.4 patch, which enabled proper CPU optimizations.

[Vulgotha]

I have many of those mods installed as well, I run things without a hitch until I enter particular places. Like Whiterun for some reason.

I also agree with Mikael, it is not a very GPU intensive game.

[Mikael]

A single 5870 is not enough for this game (with mods that is)... probably for not taxing areas it is.

Yeah, the main problem with mods is probably the 1GB VRAM that most 5870's have. Here are a few results from my rig that I posted on another forum. It's without mods, but with a few ini tweaks that add significant detail, most notably setting uGridsToLoad to 9 instead of 5. Coupled with 90 degree FOV and a few other tweaks, it's a good deal more demanding than out-of-the-box, but still runs fine on my now pretty dated rig (framerate can be seen in the screens).

Hardware
Core-i7 860 @ 3.6GHz
8GB DDR3 @ 1640MHz
Radeon HD 5870 1GB @ stock

Software
ATI Catalyst 11.12
Skyrim 1.4 beta

Mods
None

Ini tweaks
uGridsToLoad=9

bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=70000.0000

fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=28000.0000

Skyrim settings
Ultra
1920x1200, 8xAA, 8xAF

Performance
See screenshots below for FPS.

[sneezymarble]

Behold! PCFTMFW!

[itachi73378]

Behold! PCFTMFW!

I don't even have skyrim, but you just ruined it for me.
It looks AMAZING! I don't know if that is pre-rendered or a photo real mod.

[gangsta_795]

Darn those are some good looking caps

[sneezymarble]

I don't even have skyrim, but you just ruined it for me.
It looks AMAZING! I don't know if that is pre-rendered or a photo real mod.

Those aren't my shots. They're from various ENBseries mods plus a bunch of other mods (HD textures, better faces, etc). I'll post some of my own later. The game is playable with the graphics and enhancements you see in those screenshots. With the single GTX580 system in my sig I can play the game at 1080p with ENB mods, official high resolution textures DLC, community HD textures, SSAO, 16xAF, FXAA, 2xMSAA + 2xSGSSAA, and every slider set as far as it will go. I lock the framerate at 30fps because it can swing a lot at those settings and so far I haven't seen it dip below that.

[John25]

Those aren't my shots. They're from various ENBseries mods plus a bunch of other mods (HD textures, better faces, etc). I'll post some of my own later. The game is playable with the graphics and enhancements you see in those screenshots. With the single GTX580 system in my sig I can play the game at 1080p with ENB mods, official high resolution textures DLC, community HD textures, SSAO, 16xAF, FXAA, 2xMSAA + 2xSGSSAA, and every slider set as far as it will go. I lock the framerate at 30fps because it can swing a lot at those settings and so far I haven't seen it dip below that.

Damn I really wish I played the PC version instead of the PS3 version

Would a Superclocked GTX570 card be able to play at those settings ???

[itachi73378]

Damn I really wish I played the PC version instead of the PS3 version

Would a Superclocked GTX570 card be able to play at those settings ???

presumably yes. May not be every thing to the max though

[sneezymarble]

Damn I really wish I played the PC version instead of the PS3 version

Would a Superclocked GTX570 card be able to play at those settings ???

I would think so. Just don't use MSAA and SGSSAA. Use only the built in FXAA or an FXAA or SMAA injector. If you're still struggling then turn of SSAO. SSAO and MSAA + SGSSAA cause a pretty big performance hit.

[John25]

I would think so. Just don't use MSAA and SGSSAA. Use only the built in FXAA or an FXAA or SMAA injector. If you're still struggling then turn of SSAO. SSAO and MSAA + SGSSAA cause a pretty big performance hit.

Thanks for the Reply. ,Vulgotha has the same Card and im sure he said he Overclocked his card even more and was getting close to a 580 card results. Maybe I could tweak my card a bit if I have to lower any settings too much ,I got a AMD 1100T CPU & 8 gig DDR3 1600 MHz RAM so should have no issues on that front

[sneezymarble]

Thanks for the Reply. ,Vulgotha has the same Card and im sure he said he Overclocked his card even more and was getting close to a 580 card results. Maybe I could tweak my card a bit if I have to lower any settings too much ,I got a AMD 1100T CPU & 8 gig DDR3 1600 MHz RAM so should have no issues on that front

You should be fine. I should note that I play the game with a 360 controller, and thus locking the framerate to 30fps isn't a problem. If you're playing with a mouse and keyboard I think you'll notice some mouse lag with the framerate that low.

[John25]

You should be fine. I should note that I play the game with a 360 controller, and thus locking the framerate to 30fps isn't a problem. If you're playing with a mouse and keyboard I think you'll notice some mouse lag with the framerate that low.

lol I can't get used to mouse & Keyboard no matter what so will be using a 360 Controller also ,Il grab the PC version once I got all the PS3 trophies.

[Valefor]

Behold! PCFTMFW!

Stunning. Not sure how that mod will run on a 5850, but I'll give it a go.

[Morganator]

Behold! PCFTMFW!

Mother of god.

Seriously. What the fuck was I thinking getting it on the 360?

Will my setup work?

AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 @ 3.4GHz
2 Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 with a total of 4GB GDDR5 ram
16GB of DDR3 Patriot Sector 5 ram @ 1600MHz
2 128GB SATA III 6.0Gbits/s SSD hard drives running in a Raid 0 setup
10x BD Rom/Writer optical drive

[BoyBettaKnow]

I have a feeling your computer would fly through this game

[sneezymarble]

These are from my system this time. The ones I posted before were taken from a bunch of different posts from several users on the ENB forums.

Anyway, 1080p, 16xAF, 2xMSAA, 2xSGSSAA through inspector, FXAA, skyrimlauncher settings as high as they'll go, and high quality SSAO forced through inspector. In addition to the official high resolution texture DLC, I'm also using the 2K textures mod and a few other high resolution texture mods (water, foliage, trees, etc). Finally, I'm using ENBPM for bloom, light adaptation, lens flare, depth of field, color correction, and a few other little graphical tweaks.

It's remarkable that the game is playable at those settings on my system, which, aside from the GPU, is pretty dated. In most areas I get above 30fps. There are a few places where the framerate dips into the 20s. I actually prefer a lower framerate (24-30fps), because I think it gives a cinematic feel to the game. With a little motion blur it'd be perfect.

[itachi73378]

Cool stuff.

[*goo]

This is as good a thread as any to post in.

Skyrim is now supported on Steam Cloud.

Sweet.

(I never knew until now).