A question about ENB

[Hyneria]

Hey there. I have a question for these of you who use ENB.

 

Normally my game rarely goes below 60 FPS, and this is with a decent amount of mods, maxed settings and a lot of HD textures. But when I use ENB it plummets to an average of 20, about the same that my Oblivion install with ENB.

 

The thing is that in Oblivion I rarely get more than 30 FPS, so the difference isn't that huge, but here the FPS difference is obscene. On top of that no matter what present I use I get the same FPS range, be Sharpshooters or the "extreme performance" versions of ENB project.  Turning off DOF and SSAO barely do anything, as I gain 3-4 FPS at most. Heck, if I uncheck all the options the FPS remain almost the same.

 

So, any idea what's up? It feels like something other than the presents is destroying my FPS, and I don't get what it might be.

[Ark of Truth]

Using a ENB is pretty resource heavy as the effects are running at all times.

 

What are your computer specs CPU, RAM and GPU wise? It sounds like your PC can't handle the amount of work it has to do.

[MikeMetal]

There's no way he can't handle an ENB if his game barely gets below 60 fps maxed out with HD textures..

 

Topic at hand, I'd also be interested in this. Since a new enb version (can't remember which), they work like crap on my system. I've used an enb with 0.112 .dll version and worked great, usually only ~5 fps loss rather than ~15-20 I get with new released ones on similar settings.

[Ark of Truth]

I have 50fps eve3n with graphics mods and ENB installed.

[Arcanic_Eye]

Well are you using the latest binaries? And I recommend using ENB's other than sharpshooters that can support up to v0.220 because I've had the same problems as you before with sharpshooter or any old ENB but now that there's extra boosters my game can run even K ENB Extensive which is a monster of a performance hog, at about 25-35fps.

[johnnyboy88]

That's not unheard of. There are a lot of factors involved with running ENB.  From your computer hardware specs, to drivers, to OS, to mods installed, to enb effects active. Just run a search on the enb forums you'll see plenty of people with the same result.  My recommendation is to try a different preset.  There's another thread on this forum discussing "performance" enb's. You could also try not using a preset for testing.  Just run with Boris's default config and try turning on effects one at a time. But just so you know, even with all effects off, once you turn on enb through the gui or ini, useeffects=true expect at least 20fps hit just for turning it on. Then once you start turning on effect you'll receive even more fps loss.

 

Those that claim they only get 5fps hit I remain skeptical. Not saying it isn't true, but they are few and not the norm.

enb performance forum

[Hyneria]

Using a ENB is pretty resource heavy as the effects are running at all times.

 

What are your computer specs CPU, RAM and GPU wise? It sounds like your PC can't handle the amount of work it has to do.

 

AMD FX six core at 3.30 GHz, 8 gb in RAM and my card is a GeForce GTX 650 DirectCU with 1 gb DDR5. I am on Windows 7, too. But like I said before, my issue is -how- my resources are hogged down. It doesn't matter what ENB I use or what effects I have on it has the same result.

 

 

 

There's no way he can't handle an ENB if his game barely gets below 60 fps maxed out with HD textures..

 

Topic at hand, I'd also be interested in this. Since a new enb version (can't remember which), they work like crap on my system. I've used an enb with 0.112 .dll version and worked great, usually only ~5 fps loss rather than ~15-20 I get with new released ones on similar settings.

 

 

She and yes, I find it crazy I can get 60 FPS on exteriors and yet with ENB it goes down like crazy.

 

 

Well are you using the latest binaries? And I recommend using ENB's other than sharpshooters that can support up to v0.220 because I've had the same problems as you before with sharpshooter or any old ENB but now that there's extra boosters my game can run even K ENB Extensive which is a monster of a performance hog, at about 25-35fps.

 

 

That's not unheard of. There are a lot of factors involved with running ENB.  From your computer hardware specs, to drivers, to OS, to mods installed, to enb effects active. Just run a search on the enb forums you'll see plenty of people with the same result.  My recommendation is to try a different preset.  There's another thread on this forum discussing "performance" enb's. You could also try not using a preset for testing.  Just run with Boris's default config and try turning on effects one at a time. But just so you know, even with all effects off, once you turn on enb through the gui or ini, useeffects=true expect at least 20fps hit just for turning it on. Then once you start turning on effect you'll receive even more fps loss.

 

Those that claim they only get 5fps hit I remain skeptical. Not saying it isn't true, but they are few and not the norm.

enb performance forum

 

I've tried like a dozen binaries already (as several enbs need specific binaries) but the problem is that I have the same issue with them all. I first tried Sharpshooters and I figured out it might be a bit too much for my card, so I tried another and another and the same kept happening.

 

No ENB: 60

Sharpshooters: 20 FPS

Realvision: 20

K ENB: 20

Skyrealism: 20

Goddess ENB: 20

ENB project max quality: 20

ENB project extreme performance: 20

SSAO, DOF and bloom disabled: 20

 

This is what is making me so confused. I'd understand the FPS loss if I were using the highest quality ENBs, but I get the same result regardless of which one I use. Even if I disable SSAO, SSIL and DOF I get a 4-5 FPS gain, when supposedly I should have a big difference. It almost feels as if something capped my FPS at 20 something when using ENB.

[johnnyboy88]

Well, the enblocal.ini does have an fps limiter option inside it.  But I don't know of any enb presets that come with it enabled. If in game and you disable the enb via shift+f12 does your frame rate increase? also try opening the gui via shift+enter and disable the "useeffects" and see what happens.

[Hyneria]

Well, the enblocal.ini does have an fps limiter option inside it.  But I don't know of any enb presets that come with it enabled. If in game and you disable the enb via shift+f12 does your frame rate increase? also try opening the gui via shift+enter and disable the "useeffects" and see what happens.

 

Yes. When I use shift+12 my game goes back to 60 FPS. Also, I've disabled all the useeffects via gui and there isn't any particular difference. Like a 4-5 gain without SSAO/SSIL and DOF on busy areas. Which is all kinds of crazy since I get the almost same exact performance using Sharpshooters or the hightest quality preset from ENB Project, which I've heard are the most demanding ones.

[johnnyboy88]

Well, I'm out of ideas. I would recommend posting in the enb forums then. Because it sounds like the limiter is stuck on somehow. If every single preset you tried is capped at 20fps that seems really strange. With a different preset you should be getting different fps numbers even if they are low. You could try a different video card driver I suppose, might be some incompatibility there.

[Arcanic_Eye]

Yeah I'm out of ideas too. Really, it's strange because your specs are pretty high, I have a GT620 with 3.0 GHZ, 1gbVRAM and I'm running things well enough with over a hundred mods running.

[Uno]

That's not right, I guess you have V-sync activated (which cause bad performance in my machine, for example) or the Fps limiter is set to low, or maybe the adaptative quality option is on (dunno). Anyway. ENB always will take the half of your frames.

[arisov]

Do you remember about changing value in "VideoMemorySizeMb" line in enblocal.ini, according to your pc specs? If you do just ignore my post.

[Shaydow]

Do you remember about changing value in "VideoMemorySizeMb" line in enblocal.ini, according to your pc specs? If you do just ignore my post.

 

This was what I was thinking and was going to respond. It's VRAM+RAM-2048

 

So for you it's 1000+8000-2048 = 6952

 

I have 2 gigs VRAM and 8 gigs ram and I set mine to 6144 and it works well. I also run Aero and have a LOT of background programs running usually as well, so I thought setting it to use 6 gigs was about fine.

[Hyneria]

Tried the VideoMemorySizeMb thing, installed HiAlgo and did several ini tweaks I found online. Now my game without ENB runs at 70 FPS on exteriors yet it still goes down to 20-25 FPS with ENB turned on. It is seriously driving me crazy

[Honesty]

Nice to see you posting/again, Nightwynd.. I remember you back on hongfire....

I don't use ENB's myself (not yet anyway) but you mention you only have 1Gb vRAM? Is that enough for ENB? I'm surprised you run 60+ FPS at all with only 1Gb vRAM and all those re-textures...

[Schmendrick]

 

Do you remember about changing value in "VideoMemorySizeMb" line in enblocal.ini, according to your pc specs? If you do just ignore my post.

 

This was what I was thinking and was going to respond. It's VRAM+RAM-2048

 

So for you it's 1000+8000-2048 = 6952

 

I have 2 gigs VRAM and 8 gigs ram and I set mine to 6144 and it works well. I also run Aero and have a LOT of background programs running usually as well, so I thought setting it to use 6 gigs was about fine.

 

 

I belive it should be (1+ 8 - 2) x 1024 = 7168, as a GB is equal to 1024 MB

[johnnyboy88]

Actually that formula is not correct anyway. I don't know how it got started. Or how it gets thrown around as fact. If it was such a simple formula it wouldn't need to be a variable and Boris would've coded it in. This comes straight from Boris the creator of ENB.

 

That formula is not correct, but it's fit to most players who have 8 gb of ram and it doesn't matter when 16 gb (as it's too much). Perfect value can be found with other software, don't remember how it's named for casuals, "shared video memory" i guess. Anyway real video memory give best performance, but available video memory is bigger than physical always.

http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2429&p=39137&hilit=VideoMemorySizeMb#p39144

 

**Edit. --

How to find your shared and available video memory:

 

All Users -- (should work for everyone) Right click desktop click "screen resolution". click "advanced settings"

http://www.wincert.net/tips/microsoft-windows/windows-7/2675-how-to-check-graphic-card-memory-on-windows-7

 

Nvidia users can also right click the desktop. Open Nvidia Control Panel. Click on the "Help" menu and "System information".

[BigOnes69]

Do you have the new GeForce experience installed ? You have to disable the Game optimization in Geforce experience for each game.

Also you need to go into GeForce control panel 3d settings, manage 3d settings, program settings tab. Add Skyrim, NVSE, and any other short cut for starting game. (also for fallouyNV, Fallout, and Oblivion) Scroll down to power management mode and change to prefer maximum performance.

Also with some of the Enb's you have to disable antiailising and several others setting for each game profile and let the Enb profile control it. Not going to explain each one.

The number one hitter I had on performance was GeForce experience overriding the Enb preset in all the games.

[Hyneria]

I've been around I've just been sticking to Oblivion until now.

 

 

Nice to see you posting/again, Nightwynd.. I remember you back on hongfire....

I don't use ENB's myself (not yet anyway) but you mention you only have 1Gb vRAM? Is that enough for ENB? I'm surprised you run 60+ FPS at all with only 1Gb vRAM and all those re-textures...

 

Yeah, I am surprised too since I never managed to get my Oblivion install to get that high (Better Cities would make it go down to 10 FPS in some areas), but I guess is also due to Skyrim having a better multi-core support. Here I am using all the textures in this pack http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20801/? and I never gone below 60 FPS in exteriors and in dungeons sometimes I get spikes up to 100-ish according to fraps and the ENB FPS counter.

 

Hence my annoyance at ENB eating such a huge chunk of my FPS. However, after a few more tweaks (and stopping my antivirus from scanning the skyrim folder) I managed to run Project ENB's Cinematic at 30-35 FPS while using the full graphics option. So I guess I'll be happy with this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I belive it should be (1+ 8 - 2) x 1024 = 7168, as a GB is equal to 1024 MB

 

 

I'll give it a try!
 

 

Do you have the new GeForce experience installed ? You have to disable the Game optimization in Geforce experience for each game.

Also you need to go into GeForce control panel 3d settings, manage 3d settings, program settings tab. Add Skyrim, NVSE, and any other short cut for starting game. (also for fallouyNV, Fallout, and Oblivion) Scroll down to power management mode and change to prefer maximum performance.

Also with some of the Enb's you have to disable antiailising and several others setting for each game profile and let the Enb profile control it. Not going to explain each one.

The number one hitter I had on performance was GeForce experience overriding the Enb preset in all the games.

 

Actually yeah, I do! I figured out it would help since it supposedly "optimized" the performance. I will disable it and see what happens.

[johnnyboy88]

Here's another quote from Boris

VideoMemorySizeMb - this is very unique for each system. What you wrote is correct, but not for users like Goliatron. Other d3d9 mods, web browsers, many other software want to use vram too and bad drivers add more headache. Almost all systems have vram available greater than physical vram, but some users reporting driver errors when vram is completely filled up with data (above i wrote why). If system is clean and only game is running, this value can be very huge, for example 16384 should work for rig with gf660 2 gb + 16 gb ram. But! If you have 6144 for 4 gb of ram and 2 gb vram, don't even think about running something else while playing, because there is a huge chance that non local video memory (ram actually) size will reduce because of other application and you will get very low performance or CTD.

http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2291&p=35654&hilit=VideoMemorySizeMb#p35654

[BigOnes69]

Is your problem fixed?

[Hyneria]

Not yet I still get like a 50 FPS loss but I've kinda learned to live with it.  However, all what we did optimized a lot the game it seems. If I don't have ENB on I get over 120 FPS at times in caves and indoors and outdoors is always 60-70.

 

But like a lot of people say, Skyrim is not a FPS, so I guess the FPS loss won't hurt

[Hyneria]

Okay, I tried windowed mode with a smaller resolution and I got like a 20 FPS increase. I have no idea if is because of my screen having an odd native resolution since full screen should have better performance IIRC.

[Shaydow]

I know you answered this but I recently discovered something you may find interesting ( and by recently I mean RIGHT NOW and remembered this post ).

 

I run a GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Long ago when Skyrim first came out I set up my graphics ( this was before ENB, Skyrim patches, etc ) using the nvidia control panel. Now lately I've been getting irked at my low FPS performance, namely anywhere from 13 - 22 FPS, 22 being inside :/ . SO I decided to buckle down and see what was the dealio.

 

Well just now I had a revelation. In Nvidia Control Panel under Skyrim Settings ( Manage 3D Settings ), I turned OFF Ambient Occlusion ( I figured why have it on when I can just control it through the ENB right? ). Now mind you, I had tried turning OFF Ambient Occlusion through the ENB control panel, and it netted me MAYBE 2 FPS, so I didn't think it was what was causing my issues, and it wasn't. At least it wasn't what was causing my problems with it on THROUGH THE ENB. Turning it off in the Nvidia control panel, but leaving it on through ENB, shot my FPS up almost twice as much, with NO visual quality reduction at all! I couldn't believe it, but it worked wonders.

 

Screen shots :

 

Ambient Occlusion on in Nvidia Control panel and off in ENB :

 

 

Ambient Occlusion on in ENB and off in Nvidia Control Panel :

 

 

As you can see, there is no difference in Visual Quality, and if you look in the top left you can see my FPS counter.

 

Hopefully this can help you, or anyone else having this same problem.