Skyrim really can't use more than 2 gigs of RAM? : V

» Tue May 29, 2012 2:27 am

First of all i beg you a pardon for my poor english.
So as i get it right PC version of Skyrim is just a console port without any changes. "Pure" game without any *.ini tweaks and mods (like hi-res textures) uses about 800-1000 megs of ram and never more. And there's no point of using different LAA patches (like 4 gb launcher) and stuff because usage of ram by executable would never reach 2 gigs (i'm using hi-res textures and ini tweaks like uGridsToLoad set up to 10). Tried to apply LAA now game crashes when RAM usage gets to 3.25 gb.

» Tue May 29, 2012 2:25 pm

Can use 4 if you've aloud Steam to update it, or are using the relevant mods

» Tue May 29, 2012 11:30 am

It does use more than 2. Before the update it capped out at 1.98GB memory under properties. Now under load in game my physical ram usage goes up to 2.6 sometimes. I have never seen it touch 3 though. Even with 10 dragons and about 30 land units on screen at once near whiterun.

» Tue May 29, 2012 6:32 am

"Pure" game without any *.ini tweaks and mods (like hi-res textures) uses about 800-1000 megs of ram and never more. And there's no point of using different LAA patches (like 4 gb launcher) and stuff because usage of ram by executable would never reach 2 gigs (i'm using hi-res textures and ini tweaks like uGridsToLoad set up to 10). i made a video where i've captured crash when TESV.exe reaches ~2 gigs with task manager on background and game running in windowed mode.

Your game is far from "pure." You're using an invalid uGridsToLoad setting (must be an odd number) and any number above 5 will introduce instability. High resolution textures will consume VRAM, not system memory, so you won't see an appreciable increase in system memory usage with texture mods. Finallly, no LAA mod is necessary with version 1.3.10 or later, as support for Large Address Aware has been added natively to the executable.

» Tue May 29, 2012 10:16 am

Beat me to it on the invalid ugrids, only thing I'll add us that I run 7 completely stable and 9 us stable as well, but not worth the fps to me.

» Tue May 29, 2012 6:40 am

I probably should have said that increasing uGrids above 5 may lead to instability. A setting of 7 is probably safe for a lot of users. Settings above that cause increasingly high performance hits and really begin to cause instability problems. Settings above 9 are probably best reserved for taking screenshots.

I just started using uGridsToLoad=7 with uExterior Cell Buffer=64, but I have a moderately capable system. Still, if I encounter problems, the first thing I'll do is revert to the default settings.

» Tue May 29, 2012 9:35 am

I had uGridsToLoad set to 7 and uExterior Cell Buffer at 64 for ages without issue, then the game started to misbehave. I reverted to uGridsToLoad 5 - and removed several mods - before eventually realising that the "save file bloat" bug was the real cause of my game's instability. 1.4 has fixed that and I plan to try uGridsToLoad 7 again, as it was a significant improvement over the default.

» Tue May 29, 2012 4:34 pm

Be wary of changing UGrids, the tweak guide has some tips for that setting ... http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide

uGridsToLoad=5 - This variable does not exist and need to be added to bottom of the [General] section of the Skyrim.ini file to be implemented. It controls the radius around the character within which the engine loads up the most detailed objects, characters and terrain. It can have a substantial impact on both image quality and performance. Any value assigned to this variable needs to be in odd increments, e.g. 3, 5, 7, 9, 11.

While altering this variable is tempting given the image quality improvement it provides, you should experiment with any uGridsToLoad value in various areas, particularly those where you usually experience the lowest FPS. The default of 5 is already a good compromise of performance and image quality, but if struggling for FPS, you can drop it to a lower value such as 3, though Bethesda strongly advises against this as it may lead to game instability.
Importantly: Aside from lowering performance and causing potential instability due to the greatly increased resource usage when raising uGridsToLoad, if you save a game after you have altered this value, the new value will be incorporated into your saved game. This is worth noting because the game only allows you to load a saved game which has an equal or lower uGridsToLoad value than your current value; you will not be able to open a saved game with a higher uGridsToLoad value. This means if you lower your uGridsToLoad value again, you won't be able to load up the saves which used the higher value. So you should extensively test any change to your uGridsToLoad before committing to saving the game. If you need to revert a change in uGridsToload in an existing save game follow the steps below:

Start Skyrim and load up a saved game.
Use ALT+TAB to switch out of Skyrim and back to your Desktop.
Edit the Skyrim.ini file as normal, modifying the uGridsToLoad variable to the desired lower value. Save Skyrim.ini and close it.
Use ALT+TAB to switch back to Skyrim.
Open the Command Console using the tilde ~ key and type refreshini.
Save your game to a new save slot, and it should now have the correct new uGridsToLoad value.

uExterior Cell Buffer=36 - This variable controls the number of world cells (controlled by the uGridsToLoad setting) that are buffered to RAM to provide smoother transitions and improve stability. The general rule for the optimal value to assign to this variable is to take your current uGridsToLoad value, add one to it, then multiply it by itself. For example, if you set a uGridsToLoad value of 7, change uExterior Cell Buffer to 64.

» Tue May 29, 2012 7:01 am

Well, thank everybody for paying attention. Crashes/freezes really happen at 1.98 gb. Actually hi-res textures really increased RAM using from 900 to 1.3-1.5 gigs (not only VRAM). Only after that i tried to do something with *.ini files.

Importantly: Aside from lowering performance and causing potential instability due to the greatly increased resource usage when raising uGridsToLoad, if you save a game after you have altered this value, the new value will be incorporated into your saved game. This is worth noting because the game only allows you to load a saved game which has an equal or lower uGridsToLoad value than your current value; you will not be able to open a saved game with a higher uGridsToLoad value. This means if you lower your uGridsToLoad value again, you won't be able to load up the saves which used the higher value. So you should extensively test any change to your uGridsToLoad before committing to saving the game. If you need to revert a change in uGridsToLoad in an existing save game follow the steps below:

Now this is what i wanted to know, because nobody have mentioned in their copy pasta tweaking articles about lowering value and my game now works only with 10,11 and 13.
But what about memory usage? I tried to update to 1.4 beta 20 through steam but game is still 1.3.10. I removed game completely and reistalled it again with beta update (steam downloaded something for ~160-170 mb) - 1.3.10 anyway. How can i make it work?

» Tue May 29, 2012 3:32 am

Your game is far from "pure." You're using an invalid uGridsToLoad setting (must be an odd number) and any number above 5 will introduce instability. High resolution textures will consume VRAM, not system memory, so you won't see an appreciable increase in system memory usage with texture mods. Finallly, no LAA mod is necessary with version 1.3.10 or later, as support for Large Address Aware has been added natively to the executable.

Incorrect. All textures are first loaded into general system RAM, and then from there to VRAM as needed.

» Tue May 29, 2012 5:36 am

this was the top rated/top listed search result by google for a good month.... seems that beth's forums are no longer considered a valid source for skyrim related things.. and tends to show everything else first.

either way..

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1274926-ugridstoload-skyrimini-comparisons-and-explanation-default-57911/page__p__19290105#entry19290105

» Tue May 29, 2012 10:42 am

Seems like now i understand everything. Sorry for bothering you. I just didn't know what was real problem and what should i find in google. Okay, i added /LARGEADDRESSAWARE string into launch parameter field (or how it would be in english) in steam and changed uGridsToLoad to 11 (now lower value causes crash for me, 10 is unstable) I'm standing near Windhelm and RAM usage is about 2.4 gigs (if somebody interested).
Offtop: But i have one more question. What about update? Game version and TESV.exe supposed to be different after i update to beta? I updated mine but it still 1.3.10. But i noticed that perfomance increased.
UPD: removed all saved games and tried to start new game with ugridstoload=9. After choosing "start a new game" game freezes when TESV.exe reaches 3.3 gigs (3.330.792 kb)

» Tue May 29, 2012 2:08 am

why are you putting /largeaddressaware as a string into the launch parameter.... o.O

additionally there was 2 seperate and identical guides in how to revert to a lower ugrids with any saved game.

Lastly.... not sure about your new game bug.. some others are having it.. but personally can't seem to reproduce it.

» Tue May 29, 2012 8:10 am

why are you putting /largeaddressaware as a string into the launch parameter.... o.O

Nevermind, it works and that's all :biggrin:

Made some changes with sound parameters and everything is running well now. Memory usage is about 1.5 gigs at the very start of the game.
UPD: i have another question. Can game use more than 3.25 gb or RAM? Mine freezes at 3.330 megs

» Tue May 29, 2012 4:54 am

I probably should have said that increasing uGrids above 5 may lead to instability. A setting of 7 is probably safe for a lot of users. Settings above that cause increasingly high performance hits and really begin to cause instability problems. Settings above 9 are probably best reserved for taking screenshots.

I just started using uGridsToLoad=7 with uExterior Cell Buffer=64, but I have a moderately capable system. Still, if I encounter problems, the first thing I'll do is revert to the default settings.

Sitting at gridstoload=11 here
No problem.

» Tue May 29, 2012 1:45 am

UPD: i have another question. Can game use more than 3.25 gb or RAM? Mine freezes at 3.330 megs

If I remember correctly, it can only use 3.5GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS, and uses a full 4GB with a 64-bit OS.

» Tue May 29, 2012 6:39 am

Sitting at gridstoload=11 here
No problem.

I 'm very interested to see your INIs for comparison purposes. Could you post them (using the spoiler tags) please?