Getting an Nvidia GPU for the first time! : V

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:43 am

Are there any advanced tweaks I can make in the Nvidia Control Panel to optimize Skyrim?

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:02 am

There is a Nvidia tweaks guide, and there is the Skyrim Tweak Guide 2.3. But personally i wouldn't try those out.

The most of them will ruin your game. !!!!

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~~What's your Nvidia GPU ????~~

What's your system specs ??? (CPU-GPU-RAM)

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:37 am

If you pc is capable, Nivida has what is call a GeForce Experience. Go to the Nivida website, under drivers, and have them scan your pc, and they will up-date the drivers. Also do a search on the Nivida site for the GeForce experience. I have it on mine, and it will set the settings for you for the game. I do not recommend tweaking the Nivida settings at all. A big mess up. I did that once, and ended up re-setting my pc back to factory mode. Listen to Mark41 on that.

When I have the NMM manager up, with the list of my mods, instead of going to Launch SKSE, I go to Launch Skyrim. Steam sends up this box where you can adjust your settings. After getting the GeForce experience, I have to reset my Texture to medium instead of high. On the advanced tab, make sure your Object is set to at least 10 or more, and your grass is up to 6. Otherwise you will have no grass, and some items will not appear until you are almost right up on top of them. Depending on your tv, the medium texture will seem like high. Hope that made sense.

http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/download

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:36 am

Well, about Nvidia Experience, lots of people encountered problems with that Utility...

Only saying....http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?s=9180f3b83ce8d299d8d4413c16af8395&&app=forums&module=extras§ion=legends#

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:00 am

Thanks for the info Mark41. I have been using it, and had to change the textures to medium, and the object to 12 and the grass to 6. For 2 hours I tried to figure out why I had no grass, until I realized that the setting was at 0. I was so excited that I finally had grass with my first grass mod.

We recently purchased a new tv, about 5/6 months ago, and it is a super hdmi with 1080p led. When playing, the textures are so sharp I have to turn it down to get it to look better. I port the game to the tv and use it as the screen. 55 inches is better than 17 inches. lol Because of the new tv I have to play with the textures on medium, and also my pc is about 4 years old. My graphics card is only a GeForce 530 2gb, and if I get another, I have no idea what to get, or if the pc can handle it. It is an Intel I7, with 1Tb. It is an XPX 8000 from Dell.

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:36 pm

Yes, don't use it for AA. In fact, the less post processing you do of the game the better.

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:43 am

I downloaded your manual. Your Mobo is pretty basic, but has 4 memory slots and 4 SATA connectors. (that's good). It's a P55 (socket1156) chipset. That was a good chipset for a couple of years. You even have a RAID 0 and RAID 1 support.

Your Ram can goes until 1333MHz but that's not bad at all. However you can upgrade your Ram until 16GB. (on a 64-bit system of course).

Your i7 can't be compared directly with any newer generation i-series CPU's but it's fast enough for the most today games.

That's what worries me is the PSU. Its a 350W PSU.

Specs should be close to that:

The stock 350W PSU has two 12V rails as follows:

+12VA rated at up to 12A

+12VB rated at up to 18A

12VA and 12VB shall not exceed 300W

You should have 1 PCI-e 6 pin connector too.

--------------- After all this

If you want to change your GPU, you should consider to change your PSU as well. Considering the stock PSU that this system has, any known PSU vendor would be more that enough, justifying a GPU change.

How high would i go: Not higher than a GTX 660 or X9 270X. So spending at least 250 bucks, you should good to go, for the next 2 years or maybe longer... (also depends on your personal game requirements)

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ah, not to forget i thing it's XPS 8000 AND not XPX 8000. (so eventually a typo, i guess...)

CONGRATS FOR YOUR NEW TV...ENJOY IT. !!!! :wink:

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:43 pm

Thanks Mark41. We are enjoying the new tv. According to Nvida's scan of my pc, they recommend a Geforce GTX 570, 560 or a 550ti. I looked up the card and I almost fainted at the price. I play Skyrim with medium texture, and it looks like it s on high. I do not have any of the un-official patches, nor do I want them. I tried the un-official patch, and did not like it and did not like the way it changed things. I un-installed everything and re-did it all without it.

I included a list of the mods that I use, for now I have reason to become a vampire. I can become a vampire through the Darkwater Sanctuary, even though it is not a Vampire Lord, and even get cured of it through regular means. I can also become a werewolf at the same time. No thanks to that. Because I became a vampire through the Sanctuary, I do not have the dreaded line down my gals face.

Spoiler

Adobes – Player homes
1. Breezehome FullyUpgradeable – Sku11M0nkey
2. Darkwater Sanctuary – DarkFox127
3. Hassildor – Player home for Vampires - Elianora
4. Hjerim Expansion – bLaCkShAd0w (install after quest)
5. House for witches and druids – Mielikki – Elianora and Nahkin
6. Markarth Abandoned House Cleaned – Psylvemom (install after quest)
7. More plants and recipes for Heathfire including Dawnguard and Dragonborn – Rowan Thomas
8. Unlimited Bookshelves – da5id2701
9. Vindrel Hall Reborn – Venatoris
10. Winterhold College Improved – SkullM0nkey

Animals, creatures, mounts and horses
1. Better horses – LtMattoo
2. SkyTEST Realistic animals and predators – Eta Yorius
3. Slimmer horse shape – IceKK

Animation
1. Fores New Idles in Skyrim – FNIS - fore
2. Fores New Idles in Skyrim – FNIS – addon for spells – fore
3. New Animation for magic casting – xp32

Armour
1. Black mage armor – Reko
2. Blood witch armor – Zerofrost Satyr
3. CBBE Dragonborn armors – Frigus
4. Dawnguard and Dragonborn Armored Circlets – Banit0
5. Immersive Armors – Hothtrooper44
6. the Roadstrokers Rogue Sorceress Outfit – the Roadstroker
7. Witchplate – Telthalion

Audio, sounds and music
1. Immersive sounds – Aural assortment – lazygecko
2. Immersive sounds – Magic – lazygecko
3. improved combat sounds – judgefredd
4. Sounds of Skyrim – The dungeons – Cliffworms
5. Sounds of Skyrim – The wilds – Cliffworms

Castles, palaces, mansions and estates
1. sixy mannequins – Vyktoria – ch0k3h0ld
2. Fort Dawnguard No Cobwebs - GyntRyles

Cheats and god items
1. Levelers Tower - Resources – Willie Sea
2. Levelers Tower – ESP – Willie Sea

Cities, towns, villages and hamlets
1. Understone keep fountains and rubble – Venatoris

Clothing
1. Cloaks of Skyrim – Noodles
2. Hoods and circlets – shinytickles
3. Left hand rings – duggelz
4. NM Jewellery collection – newmiller
5. Vampire Beast Blood Ring left hand – jjeeff185

Environmental
1. W.A.T.E.R. water and terrain enchancement redux – SparrowPrince
2. Glorious Grasses – Jack254

Gameplay effects and changes
1. Alternate start – Live another life - Arthmoor
2. Join the Dawnguard as a vampire – Llywela Greyleaf (install after getting quest to find moth priest)
3. Predator vision – vampire and werewolf and khajiit – Gopher
4. Run for your lives – Arthmoor
5. Vampire No sun damage – cloaks helments and hoods – Hobbs
6. When vampires attack – Arthmoor

Guilds and fractions
1. Glorious Fort Dawnguard – Dahveed
2. SkyHaven Temple Glory – devil0929

Hair and Face Models
1. ApachiiSkyHair full – apachii
2. Hair Pack – newemind43
3. Lovely Hairstyles – sn00p
4. Ponytail hairstyles – Azar
5. Pretty lips – Danariel
6. The eyes of beauty – Gabriel Mailhot
7. True eyes – JimtownIrish

Immersion
1. Brighter torches with bigger radius – Khyron
2. Enhanced Lights and FX – anamorfus
3. Guard dialogue overhaul – Eckss
4. Point the way – Arthmoor
5. Real shelter – full release – standard – Robinsage

Items and objects – player
1. Ultimate Assortment – Favoredsoul

Landscape Changes
1. Forested Skyrim - Xilocient

Magic – gameplay
1. Destruction reloaded – WizardWhitenoise

Models and textures
1. Calientes female body mod – Caliente
2. EotW Mage Dawnguard DLC Textures Remastered – EcthelionOtW
3. Natural eyes – low res – nevenbridge

Quests and adventures
1. The Paarthumax Dilemma – Arthmoor (install after quest)

User interfaces
1. EzE’s Colored map markers – xEightballx
2. RaceMenu – Expired

Visuals and graphics
1. Better dynamic snow – SparrowPrince
2. Skyrim Landscape Overhaul – C0331 AKA private

Weapons
1. Ghosu – Auriels crossbow and swords - Ghosu
2. Ghosu – Auriels quiver replacer – Ghosu
3. Immersive weapons – Hothtrooper44
4. narrow glass and eleven swords – Nergal
5. No more dangling swords – Abakus

Weapons and armor sets
1. Miraaks gear overhaul – Chpettmd
2. Witch battle armor and weapon – NewerMind43

But so as to not digress the thread, I was hoping that my pc could play Skyrim, and I am glad to know that it meets the needs. I like the GeForce Experience, and it seems to be working for me, for I am lucky to have any CTD's. Maybe once a week, but that is because I tried a new mod or something. I have not tried any new mods for over 2 weeks now, and I have not had any. I do have to be careful about Elianora's mods, for they will cause me to CTD because they are ultra high in texture and my graphics card says no.

Forgot to mention. The hard drive has been recently replaced with a better one.

» Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:47 am

Preferably first stick to tinkering the settings within Skyrim itself where you can, and resort to tweaking the nVidia control panel only if you feel that you absolutely have to. Do not force a setting through the Control Panel, if you can effect the same adjustment through game settings. There is always a chance, that the game might react in additional, supplementary ways to game settings, beyond what their immediate description would suggest. In such cases it might cause undesired side effects to force such a setting one way in the game and another way in the Control Panel. V-Sync comes to mind.

However, one Control Panel setting may be potentially interesting, called Maximum Pre-rendered Frames. Like the name says, it deals with how many rendered but not yet displayed frames can be in the pipeline. If this is too small, smoothness may suffer. If it is too large, the game may appear to be laggy. Still, I have never seen any good description of how it exactly works, and how the number of frames is defined or counted, nor am I sure about what the default value would be. If I remember correctly, in some earlier driver versions (or was it on Windows XP?) the default was shown to be 3. If you have issues relating to smoothness or lag, you may try tinkering with this, but even so, I would hesitate to try anything other than 2 or 3. If you have no such isues, it may be wisest to leave this untouched.

At any rate, you fail to provide any really useful background information about your starting point apart from asking your question. Therefore, writing this may be a waste of time for both of us, but if you have preciously had an AMD GPU, make sure to thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly, remove its drivers before installing the nVidia GPU.