If I stick to vanilla settings (ultra) is 2GB of VRAM enough to run the game? Card is GTX 965m.

For Vanilla? Plenty with a large margin. 2GB is enough even for multiple mods, some texture packs, and ENB etc, though it may not be enough for the most demanding ENBs with multiple very high-resolution texture packs.

That's way more than enough. My ancient machine has 1GB of VRAM and it has been enough for (light) graphic enhancing mods.

Now that statement is true for the standard edition of the game. The upcoming Special Edition will kick the requirements much higher and 2GB may become a bottleneck for graphic enhancing mods.

Will I get a locked 60FPS with a 965m?

I don't see why not.

Being that this is a laptop, that means a lot of background apps typically. As with all other Bethesda Games, this is CPU demanding, more so than the graphics. If you have performance issues, try the game first under a strict clean boot before you try other troubleshooting.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

I have only 1 gig VRAM and I don't have any problems at all running Skyrim with up to 150 mods. (None of them are graphics mods, though.)

What specs, settings and GPU? And what FPS?

I'm using a ton of 2k/4k texture replacers and graphics mods etc and I peak at 73% usage on my 4GB card so approx 3GB vram used.

So 2GB is plenty for vanilla @ ultra with headroom for a few mods also.

VRAM is only one variable. Best bet is to post what laptop you are using or planning to use. Google the laptop + skyrim or the GPU + skyrim.

I would primarily stick with 1k textures for environment. Weapons and armor you could probably get away with 2k without issue. Stay away from 4k, will probably be too demanding and the noticeable quality difference over 2k won't be that much.


If you use SMIM go with the lower poly count meshes as well. You'll still get good quality use from them and shouldn't see a big hit to your fps.


Also be sure your using the SKSE memory patch and ENBoost memory patch as well to get the most stability out of your game.

The amount of VRAM is irrelevant..I'm surprised so many people in this thread are ignorant of this fact...


What matters is the clock speed of your card, the quality of VRAM, etc..I know many cards with 1gb of VRAM that outperform 2-3gb cards bc the 1 gb card is just better.

That's not necessarily true.


Amount of VRAM is certainly not the most important part of the equation, but if a frame requires 1.5GB to render and your card only has 1GB, you're going to run into problems. Even if you have enough for one frame, if you don't have enough to handle everything else that may be coming into and out going out of view as the camera moves, you'll have stuttering.


I haven't gotten the impression that anyone who's posted in this thread thinks VRAM is any more than that, so I'd be wary of accusing anyone of ignorance without a specific comment to point at.

*sigh*

If I ran my Skyrim setup on a 1GB card, even one that is 10x more powerful than my current card the game (If it even managed to load) would be a stuttering unplayable mess.

Your statement of fact is demonstrably wrong.