Starting Skyrim on PC Options

[Renee]

Yes, it looks like it's finally happening. It's raining and lovely outside, and is supposed to do so all through Sundas. I mean Sunday. And I am going to maybe start Skyrim on PC tomorrow.

So what I want to do here is to collect any advice the community here at Chorrol feels like contributing. For instance: I still want to install my game outside of Program Files, right? That sort of advice. I have heard that modding Skyrim is different from Oblivion.

What's the best (easiest, actually) mod manager to use? That's a good place to start. OBMM isn't as fancy as Wrye Bash, for instance, but I still use OBMM most of all because it does what I need it to do. And so I am assuming Skyrim also has several mod managers to try using, right?

I'm pretty excited about my first character. I already know a lot about him, since he is based on a character one of my friends from high school (1980s, lol) created. The only tricky thing is this character will be Asian, and I'm going to want some Asian face-tweaking mod, because I could never create this guy with vanilla tools on Xbox (yes, I tried). Anybody know a mod that adds some Asian elements to faces?

[Renee]

Finally got Skyrim working on PC last night. Oh yeah. I haven't created a character yet, I just wanted to see if the game would start, if I did things right.

One of the things I noticed: FPS. I've got Fraps running, but even if I didn't I was noticing how much FPS (frames per second) was bouncing around, just during the carriage ride. Nothing crazy; it's not like the images on my screen were stop-starting or anything such, but after figuring out how to get Oblivion running nice and smooth, it's something which I now notice.

So I have two questions.

1). In Oblivion I use a 4GB patch mod + OSR (Oblivion Stuttter Removal) to get my game running with minimal hitches. I typically have it set at 33 fps while in towns and outside, and sometimes I will switch to 60 fps while dungeon-diving. Is there a similar program (or set of mods) for Skyrim?

2). Some people say it's impossible to tell the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps. I disagree. 60 fps is heavenly. I can always tell the difference while playing Oblivion (assuming I've got OSR set to allow 60 fps) but the problem is Oblivion cannot maintain a solid 60 fps most of the time (not with the Ultra settings I have on), which I think has something to do with the fact that it can't utilize more than one core of a processor.

So my question: is it possible to get Skyrim working at 60 fps at all times? I noticed during that carriage ride that FPS was bouncing in the 30s and 40s. When I got Skyrim installed, I also noticed it automatically set the game for ULTRA settings, but maybe VERY HIGH would make things smoother.

Damn. Three questions. Sorry. This third question is optional, because it requires research, maybe.

3). Here is my computer's specs. It's got an Nvidia GT640 card. Let's say I installed a more powerful graphics card; a GTX 760 or something. Do you think this would allow more headroom for ULTRA settings + 60 fps, since Skyrim can utilize more than one core?

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Dec 23 2014, 05:53 PM