Tweaking Skyrim ini files still necessary?

[lipplog]

Does it still improve performance applying certain tweaks to either the skyrim.ini or skyrimprefs.ini files like the ones suggested HERE and HERE?

Or does applying the cloud profile and game optimizer do this automatically now?

[Ralf]

Shadows should work just fine, not sure why they didn’t for the author of the reddit post you linked. So normally you shouldn’t need any shadow related ini tweaks. In regard to mods I would generally recommend to install not too many of them. With all the nice things available I understand that it’s tempting, but at least graphics enhancing mods often degrade performance, which should be avoided.

The one extra tweak I would recommend is forcing transparency antialising in the graphics driver control panel. Helps a great deal with foliage in Skyrim.

You might be able to gain a few extra FPS with some more arcane ini tweaks, but I honestly would rather spend that time playing instead of tweaking to gain 5fps.

BTW:

After setting up a new machine with a GTX1080 last weekend Skyrim was one of the first games I tried. With that machine an unmodded Skyrim finally worked quite nicely at 1600×1200 using the “High” options preset in the Skyrim launcher on Vive doing nothing else than FOV/Optimizer and transparency AA in the graphics driver.

I always was sure the CPU was the limiting factor in Skyrim, but apparently I was wrong. A faster GPU helps a great deal.

[lipplog]

Thanks Ralf! Great news about the 1080! I just got a 1080 FTW myself but haven’t gotten the same stellar results, which may in fact be because of my i5 4670 3.4Ghz CPU. What CPU are you using, if you don’t mind my asking?

[Ralf]

An i7 6700k at default speed. Maybe you are expecting more than what is OK for me. What I get with the 1080 is a ~60% boost compared to a Rift/Vive minimum specs GPU (GTX970). Since I didn’t really expect any improvement at all due to the wrongly assumed CPU limitation that was a quite nice surprise.

With a 970 there are some difficult areas with dense vegetation that bring the frame rate down to about 30fps at high settings on Vive, which means the OpenVR runtime likely starts to flicker. With the 1080 you should get a high enough frame rate to avoid that more or less everywhere, but you still won’t get 90fps on the outside map if that is what you were hoping for. Not using Geometry 3D and high settings.

It also might be important to note that I used the “High” settings preset, not “Ultra”.

And just in case (because of your other recent question): also make sure to leave Fluid Sync at the default (enabled) on Vive for Skyrim! Disabling it raises the workload on the direct mode/timewarp render thread, which can reduce the achievable game frame rate considerably, especially in difficult situations. That’s the main reason why disabling Fluid Sync is only recommended for games that can reach 90fps easily on Vive.

[lipplog]

I’m considering one of two upgrades to improve the FPS for my Vive/vorpX:

1. Buy a SECOND EVGA 1080 FTW card for an SLI setup. Or…

2. Upgrade my i5 4670 3.4Ghz CPU and MSI z87 G45 motherboard to something like you have.

So just to confirm… If I buy a second 1080 FTW card, and it boosts my Skyrim on a traditional display from a 200 to 400 FPS average, then theoretically it should boost my Skyrim on the Vive from a 50 to 100 FPS average, no?

Or do you think a processor upgrade would do more to improve performance? I know most games are not effected by CPU, Skyrim being an exception.

[Author]

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