Hello everyone,

I have finally been able to upgrade my GPU from a GTX 560 Ti to a GTX 770 (with 4GB vRAM! ). So I finally want to install some graphic mods other than the official High-res texture packs. I'm aware of things like Flora Overhaul, and ELFX, but I never delved into texture mods. Is there anything I can use as a base texture pack, and then combine other stuff I find interesting?

I've been looking at http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.6, and the http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/? mod looks good - but what are my other options? What's everyone's favorite graphic mods? What are my other options?

Also, are there any ENB mod that would look well with ELFX + Climates of Tamriel? I'm planning to use those two as my light mods.

Lastly, I'm returning to Skyrim after more than a year. I've been looking through the RELz threads, and I see some interesting stuff; but to avoid missing anything, what major mode releases have occurred lately?

My favorite general world texture replacer is Skyrim Realistic Overhaul. It isn't on TES Nexus so you have to Google for it. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35507/? is also an excellent base replacer. I also like http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40512/?, but there are other choices for parallax as well. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8655/? is another recommended base install although it is of course a mesh replacer rather.

Then there is a ton of excellent replacers for other stuff. I'll just mention one more: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24909/?, focusing on armors and weapons mostly.

Use a mod organizer such as NMM, Wrye Bash or MO. It will make it easy to try out replacers without hassle.

Personally, I don't like any ENB preset but I like ENB. I'm using my own tweaked variant. Anyway, you'll need ENB for parallax and also for its memory patch if nothing else.

Also, you'll need sheson's memory patch, which is included in SKSE.

I also like ELFX and CoT. For CoT i'd recommend the http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39799/?.