Yeah, I prefer uGrid 7 but FPS is on the lower end of the 30s here.

I've done my own testing on ugrids and it matches up with other's results. It is hugely CPU bound!! I'm on a 4ghz i5 750 and getting around 30-50 outdoors and in cities at ugrids 7. At 9 it was like 20-30. I managed to increase gpu load tho by going with 4xSSAA and turning up other settings, but I still get random stuttering. I just went down to 8xMSAA and it seemed to be a little smoother fps although gpu load was like 60% instead of 80+.

I'm probably going to end up going back down to ugrids 5 tho since there's not many places you can see far enough to really notice the draw distance and then just crank the shadows up.

There are some misconceptions in this thread.

The most glaring being:

If the CPU load is lower than 100%, the game can still be totally CPU limited. The reason is, that you only see the overall CPU load over all cores. If one single thread is running all the time, i.e. is using the maximum single core power of the CPU, you won't be able to see that on the TaskManager.

Example: Let's pretend for this example, that Hyperthreading is disabled. And lets run one single thread that causes 100% load (you can simulate that with Prime95). On a dual core CPU, you will see a 50% load on each core in the TaskManager. The single thread is distributed over the two cores, but even though only 50% of the total CPU power is used, that single thread can't run any faster. On a quad core, you'd see 25% on each core, and also an overall load of 25%.

The same problem is happening with Skyrim. If you set a high uGrid Value, one single thread is actually using all the power it can get. There are other threads, which don't cause any slowdown (because they are running in parallel on other cores), but this one thread is limiting the overall frame rate.

So the constant bashing of the engine and Bethesda's skills is absolutely uncalled for. Yes, you could argue that they should try to paralize the work that one thread to many threads, but that sounds much easier than it is in reality. Since you have to split the workload and the data somehow, collect the results and synchronize those threads, you might end up with a lower overall performance in many cases.

Skyrim is absolutely CPU bound, especially when using strong graphic cards, and most certainly when using high uGrid values. The only way to increase the performance is to overclock the CPU, because then you get a higher calculation power for one single thread. On my good old i940 running at 4.2 GHz, I get a reasonably good performance.

correct grestorn

I've kept my ugrids at 7 solid/stable and getting typically 45-60fps even with 3.8gb worth of HD Textures being used. and Skyrim using about 3.4gb out of it's 32bit maximum addressable memory space..

hit 2.3GB physical ram usage and an additional 1.1gb used via swap/page/virtual memory according to the tools that are monitoring.

Vram is pegged lol...

I don't see any major CPU limitiations until i kick it to ugride 9..... one thing i know for a fact now is that the higher the ugrids.. obviously the exponential number of scripts that will be triggered and ran.... for example animations for various things like waterfalls and so forth.

Not only that, but animals spawning, and other npcs that randomly show up and how they will interact with each other.

Even dragons spawning further away.

There is a WHOLE LOT of extra work being added with each jump in ugrids.

Basically run ugrids 5 for most people..... and only a few specific people running very highend systems or crazy overclocks for ugrids 7 without any noticeble impact. Even on my machine ugrids 9 makes things start nashing their teeth..... ugrids 11.... awesome to look at.... but totally not playable.

Absolutely spot on.

Easy solution, change the workload of the CPU onto the GPU...

As much as I love what can be acheived by this; A much larger and more detailed long distance draw.
While it might be too late, for those who have already made the change.
It's not worth it. I wish I hadn't made the change now. Since I now can't revert back to ugrid 5 for a smoother performance for better close range improvements.

Any attempts to try to change it back corrupts my core game files (Red tint on load screens) then eventual CTD and I have stream based re-install (I'm glad thats an option now) to get it working again.
So yes I am stuck with a ugrid of 9. While it looks good I'd wish I hadn't tweaked it. It's too late now I've do a good 75+ hours on this charactes and a good 60 hours since I changed it.
While it's stable it has reduced the ability for my system to stay stable with lots of texture mods. I could not face restarting this character now. I'm not ready to start over again.

Using the setini thing did not work for me. I've done it more than once following those instructions and either I'm managing to do it wrong each time, or I got a stubborn system.

Oh yeah, there's just nothing as simple as that.... NOT!

Indeed dont use the Vram on ur GPU but let it load thru ur CPU cause its console based, more efficient, right ??

The method for returning back to default values doesn't work anymore because the new Skyrim.ini, generated through 'saveini', is now saved in the data folder. When I copy this file into my 'My Documents/My Games/Skyrim'-direction it doesn't work and I get a CTD while loading the savegame.

Is there any other method for returning back to default?

This is what I send to one guy who posted the same problem (copy pasted it from inbox):

Hi man, it is possible to revert back to ugrid 5.

First of all try using patch 1.1 since that one is better to revert to ugrid5 without having the problem of the red color. After that download the ugrid5.txt from this site, it even has some instructions on how to do it: http://donotargue.co...-makers/skyrim/

Ill explaing how I can revert it back:

Put the ugrid5.txt in ur skyrim folder where TESV.exe is located.
Than load your savegame game where it was (so if u play at ugrid9, leave the skyrim.ini file at ugrid9).
In game use the console, by pressing ~ Than type: bat ugrid5 and press enter.
After that u will read in ur console something about compiling an .ini file.
Important dont exit yet, now save ur game and exit the game.
Now you have to change ur skyrim.ini file and change the ugrid to 5.
If everything is correct u should play now with ugrid5 : ) )

Good luck and let me know if it works or ur still having some problems!!


Edit:

I see the link I gave u is down, so basicly just make a .txt file by going to notepad and paste this text into it, and name it ugrid5. This will be than ur ugrid5.txt which u have to put in ur skyrim folder (where TESV.exe is located).

setini "ugridstoload:general" 5
setini "bMouseAcceleration:Controls" 0
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientZPosRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientZNegRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientYPosRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientYNegRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientXPosRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
setini "rUIMistMenu_AmbientXNegRGB:Interface" 255,255,255
saveini
refreshini

The link got shortened...

Indeed my mistake ^^

http://donotargue.com/cfg-makers/skyrim/

PURE AWESOMENESS!!!!
the link to the laa 4g seems to not work properly.

I had been messing with "stock" graphics, within the application itself, and found some interesting things out also....

my computer preforms better with fxaa and fade distance enabled, still with the gamepad off i get better graphics with less glitches, but not what my system can handle.

i'm just playing it safe atm. with the 5,7,9 changes i'm not willing to go that far at this time, but i do agree seeing the giants campfire that far away should be possible, i've got the actor target distance set up so they are just visable at a "realistic distance" and those who have the magic on them seem to stay more visable a bit further, i'll post a skeet shoot i did on youtube after i finish it...

i'm not going to digress lols...

@qwato: Ok I tried it, but only with Patch 1.3 because I don't know how to get back to Patch 1.1 and it didn't work.

Hmm did u saved the game and checked if the skyrim.ini file is at uGridsToLoad=5 ? And did u load the newly saved game after too?

The console said to me that the compiled script couldn't be saved and it generated the 'saveini' INI file in the data folder.

1 second gonna check it out now what i will get

alternative way to revert back would be to load the game...

make sure to load the save you want..

alt tab out of the game... manually modify the skyrim.ini file to ugrids 5 and the correct cell buffer.. save the file...

alt tab back into the game and use the console typing "refreshini" give it a moment.. and then attempt to save a NEW game....

So iam back and it worked for me just now, but then again I do this on patch 1.1 since 1.3 doesnt work for me with the 4gb loader.

On the console i get after typing "bat ugrid5": The ingame settings have been refreshed from the Skyrim.ini.

So basicly it changes this.ini file while in game and by saving it, it remembers as well to use it for the next load.

@DHJudas: This worked. Thank you so much! The simpliest solution is always the best solution. ^^

So edit that file. That's what I had to do when I used saveini. It got placed in dD- Realistic Ragdoll Force.INI. I had the red overlay issue, but after editing the appropriate lines out in the dD- Realistic Ragdoll Force.INI it's back to normal. Ugirds is also there, everything is.

Good luck.

*Note: Your "dD- Realistic Ragdoll Force.INI" may be different. A mod installed at ini. I've seen other mention different named inis in the Data folder as well. The Realistic Water mod ini was one.

P.S.

Too late.

your welcome

+1 this i what i done and all works well , came down from ugrids 9 to u grids 5 then up to ugrids 7 all good at ugrids 7 from ugrids 9

guess i'll make the work around part of the first post for those that need it...