Skyrim + ENB - Graphics Card Thread

Neil79 · 20 Oct 2014 at 22:50

Has anyone played Skyrim with the latest texture mods and ENB? I get frame rate drops into the 30's with an ENB and wondered what sort of FPS people were getting with a 970 or 980!

Really considering it later this year

topgun06 · 20 Oct 2014 at 23:13

I might be able to let you know once my 970 arrives

Getting ENB to work property was one of the things which prompted me to take the plunge for an upgrade.

MasterOC · 20 Oct 2014 at 23:32

What CPU are u running , I don't play the game at all but understand is CPU bound . May be that your bottlenecking , may be going over the vram limit and or the game dosnt support SLI very well if you use sli. Check with one card and then retry othar than that I'm unsure

Disco_P · 20 Oct 2014 at 23:45

Depends on which ENB you are using. With a GTX 780 at 1440p I always have to "tame" my ENB of choice by changing settings here and there to help with performance. Most ENB authors don't really care for performance so a lot of things are left at the max quality setting even if they do nothing in game.

Neil79 · 21 Oct 2014 at 00:14

topgun06 said:
I might be able to let you know once my 970 arrives

Getting ENB to work property was one of the things which prompted me to take the plunge for an upgrade.

Nice! Same here :

MasterOC said:
What CPU are u running , I don't play the game at all but understand is CPU bound . May be that your bottlenecking , may be going over the vram limit and or the game dosnt support SLI very well if you use sli. Check with one card and then retry othar than that I'm unsure

i5 2500k at 4.7

With every upgrade of GPU the frame rates have gone up and up

wunkley · 21 Oct 2014 at 10:59

Skyrim with a good enb with all the bells and whistles on is one of the most punishing tests for any GPU out there.

I need to use both my 780ti's to maintain 60 fps (at 1440p) and even then there are dips into the high 40s at rare times. I should add this is usually odd choke points in the game that aren't GPU related.

Quite often, especially in tree and vegetation areas both my GPUs are pegging along at 90 odd% usage!

SLI is your only option at the moment if you want decent fps with skyrim enb and the best visuals.

~>Dg<~ · 21 Oct 2014 at 11:07

just look at 780ti benchmarks. it will be nigh in same.

Neil79 · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:23

So basically two 280x's?

Ayahuasca · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:24

I've seen a friend with SLI Titans struggle with certain ENB combinations installed. As someone already said above, most aren't optimized for performance and certainly aren't when mixed together.

~>Dg<~ · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:25

Neil79 said:
So basically two 280x's?

yes its roughly twice as fast.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:25

You have to be careful about the load order of mods too -it can cause performance issues.

Goose · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:27

Disco_P said:
Depends on which ENB you are using. With a GTX 780 at 1440p I always have to "tame" my ENB of choice by changing settings here and there to help with performance. Most ENB authors don't really care for performance so a lot of things are left at the max quality setting even if they do nothing in game.

Without wanting to go too off topic what sort of settings do you change increase performance? I always turn off Depth of Field and Ambient Occlusion but for a lot of ENB's its still not enough.

Neil79 · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:34

Cheers guys! Some thinking to do then

Devious · 21 Oct 2014 at 12:37

Ive run the Skyrim Serenity ENB with a 780, then 780TI then 780 SLI and now 970 SLI and ive got a bunch of saves I always compare Fraps FPS screenshots.

All were playable without Ambient Occlusion on though the one 780 could drop a little to the 40's.

Even with Ambient Occlusion on, the single 780TI stood its ground well against the SLI 780 & 970's with the 780TI having higher minimum framerates and the SLI's slightly higher max framerates.

Like Wunkley said there are places where the game chokes and doesnt utilize you CPU or GPU's to the max. Lowering the shadow distance improved it somewhat.

Spudley · 21 Oct 2014 at 13:21

Not sure if this is any help as I dont have ENB installed but i do have some graphical extras added & other mods, anyhow this is what I get using these settings (pretty much maxed everything)

frame rates vary between 150 - 200\sec having a quick wander about.

oh & I'm using a 980 Strix.

May just have to install ENB as its a old game I've just reinstalled to have a comparison look at with this new rig, Man it runs 1000x better than my old one

Neil79 · 21 Oct 2014 at 13:34

Install an ENB and come back

Good fps though :O

~>Dg<~ · 21 Oct 2014 at 13:36

yes ENB with all mods on will be nothing like that fps

Spudley · 21 Oct 2014 at 14:25

On it & working down the list of extras, will report back if it all works & the game loads, this is a lot of tweaking, I have my reservations as have had mods **** up before.

Fanatic · 21 Oct 2014 at 15:08

And I thought going over 60FPS in Skyrim caused loads of problems with the game engine

.

Spudley · 21 Oct 2014 at 15:22

Well, its installed & I'm scratching my head a little, it may be because ive disabled/removed some of my old fx tweaks & started putting on the newer enb stuff but so far, it runs FASTER :eek:

same res, engine settings changed as per ENB recomendations ( it changes all the pref ini's ect on its installl ) & I'm now getting this!!