Skyrim has been an odd experience for me, whilst my computer easily beats the recommended settings, it has been a jerky, erratic and low FPS experience in towns and especially Whiterun. TESVAL did improve it significantly but still there were spots where the whole experience was a juddering mess.

Then I uninstalled the Acceleration layer and dropped this mod into my directory:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2398851

The results are astounding, I gained 10 fps more in the most intensive scenes and cities, and whilst exploring the wilderness, a healthy and welcome 50-60 FPS. So far, everyone has noticed a good improvement in FPS, and some report that a previously unplayable game has now become playable.

I know some might look down on linking a steam forum thread, but everyone who plays skyrim on here and else MUSt TRY THIS MOD.

However, it's not compatible with all mods, or known how many. So please uninstall them first.

For lower end users, this mod also makes the game much better:

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=47

Worked wonders on my mate's laptop with 3gb ram, a 8600 gs, 2.0ghz core2duo and windows xp. Seems ok with mods, so far.


Hope this helps you guys out.

I'll try that "low-end user" one tomorrow - or weekend : my P4 3.06GHz that HyperThread's a second core (albeit badly) barely manages 800x600 on low graphics. Playable, but fights get juddery a bit >.<

Is this the performance mod that breaks scripted events? if it's not, have you noticed any side effects to using it?

I get a pretty consistent framerate on High, but Very High has really crazy results with the FPS dropping very slow to shooting super high.

I don't have a problem with skyrim getting 50-60FPS - the biggest problem I had was that it tends to crash to desktop after a few (maybe 8-12) alt tabs, which is supposedly fixed by the unofficial 4gb mod - which I never tried.

Skyrim is playable with a Pentium 4? I have a 3.2GHz myself, but I never dreamed of even bothering to attempt Skyrim. I imagine it looks ugly as sin, though. Wouldn't want to play a nice looking game like that on anything running a Pentium 4, I'm sure. What possessed you to pay $40+ for a copy of Skyrim? Myself, I'm not even sure I'll get a new machine before the day Skyrim GOTY goes on sale for $10 or so.

Maybe it's just me, but I found that the Acceleration Layer mod made my game more stuttery. After turning it off it's smooth again.

But that's just my experience, most of the comments seem to be good.

They've officially enabled 4gb+ in the last mini-patch anyhow so if your game is up to date and you have the memory, Skyrim should use it. Can't say I've noticed much performance increase from it though. Not tried the above link as don't feel I need it yet. Remember the official mod tools are out soon which'll hopefully reduce any issues/conflicts with updates or broken game files etc as a result of mods.

The 4GB thing isn't really supposed to improve performance. It improves stability. I didn't have any problems with vanilla, but once I installed a few mods the game started crashing a lot. That's what the 4GB fixes.

Don't talk to me about ugly until you've played on a ZX Spectrum 48K with godawful colour-clash sprites and 8 colours!

What's wrong with that? ZX Spectrum is awesome, and even at it's worst, it's certainly a lot cleaner looking than, say, Borderlands on lowest settings at 640x480. It's just a jumbled, pixelated, sluggish mess. Same with Sanctum, but much worse. Unreal engine games don't seem to scale down well at all. >_>

Nah, this mod is based on that, but uses different code and so far has no bad side effects whatsoever. All users are reporting stable gameplay, proper quest loading and no bugs whatsoever.

Whoever made the mod (Bethesda thread in steam link) has done a much better job then the people who made the acceleration layer.

I reckon you'd probably get a playable experience, the comment section has users with really low spec computers gaining a playable experience with this mod.

But, install both and IF the skyboost mod plays awful with the low res mod, then install the acceleration layer since you will get a better experience and performance then vanilla.

Thanks :) I'm downloading the mod right now to try it out on my laptop and see if it works.

I gave it a shot. I didn't monitor my FPS, but it has improved the speed of the game. On High the game is pretty silky smooth. I can play on Ultra but I still get random slowdowns inside buildings/caves if I look at things.

It could also be a coincidence, but I notice more issues with NPC's. I did a scripted event in Windhelm, and the NPC's kept freezing in place. Lydia is also having a much harder time walking around. Could be a coincidence or it could be because of the mod.

Nothing breaking at the very least.

Well strap me sideways with a wet kipper!

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!

No laggy fights any more - at least with upto 4 or 5 bandits, anyway. Not run into a dragon yet.

Loving this!