Skyrim on Windows 10

Raidriar77

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Apr 18, 2017
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Hi,

Gonna be buying a PC within a few days and need to know whether or not to downgrade the windows 10 install it comes with to windows 7 in order to get the most out of Skyrim. The rig I am looking at has an 8GB GTX1080, but I have heard that when playing Skyrim windows 10 limits the VRAM usage to 4GB, which is problematic if playing with intensive graphical and gameplay mods (which I highly intend to do). Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Solution


No, your activation key will be for a copy of Windows 10 and you won't be able to activate Windows 7 with it.
You can buy Windows 7 and just install that clean when you get your new PC. It's on sale now!140$ for full dx9 support ;-).

You really don't need to worry about going with Win 10. Remember that Windows 7 left mainstream support (feature updates) in January 2015 and won't even be getting security updates (so, obsolete like Windows XP) as of January 2020 - less than three years.

Dom_79

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You can't downgrade a copy of Windows 10. You can only downgrade Win 10 that was a free upgrade from Win 7 (or 8/8.1 I think as well).

That 4GB limit is going to be on every game that uses DX 9 on windows 8 and up, so just a heads up that it's not just a "skyrim" thing ;)

Also reading through this thread it seems as though it's not that big a deal.

Hope this helps a bit :D
 

Dom_79

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No, your activation key will be for a copy of Windows 10 and you won't be able to activate Windows 7 with it.
You can buy Windows 7 and just install that clean when you get your new PC. It's on sale now!140$ for full dx9 support ;-).

You really don't need to worry about going with Win 10. Remember that Windows 7 left mainstream support (feature updates) in January 2015 and won't even be getting security updates (so, obsolete like Windows XP) as of January 2020 - less than three years.
 
Solution

Raidriar77

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Apr 18, 2017
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Shit. So that would leave me stranded with new games then...

No perfect solution, as windows 10 is underwhelming. But I guess since it is the future, and the PC I aim to buy is coming with it installed, might as well just stick with it. Thanks
 

Dom_79

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You do understand that you can still play these games that can only access 4GB of 8GB of your 1080's VRAM, right?

just making sure because it seems like you think you can't play those games that use DX 9. You can, they just can't take advantage of mods that had allowed DX 9 to use more than 4GB of VRAM under Windows 7.

So, games are still completely playable and as fun as ever. They just don't benefit from a very specific VRAM mod ;)
 

Raidriar77

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Apr 18, 2017
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Thanks again man. Think it will be enough even with some graphical mods? The gameplay mods are covered by the CPU I imagine but it is the graphical stuff I worry about
 

Dom_79

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Oh yeah, you'll be fine as long as you don't get into trying to mod every single texture in the game to the sloppiest, largest 4k textures you can find on nexus ;)

Even then, the hardware you'll likely be using will be on par or better than the best X series Intels and SLI/Xfire GPUs of Skyrim's time (2011) so you'd see at absolute worst (with just massive amounts of texture mods) some small micro stutters when in open areas/areas with lots(huge) amounts of objects/NPCs.

Unless you mod your view/load distances but I hear people don't really do that much in Skyrim :lol:
 

Raidriar77

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Apr 18, 2017
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Oh yeah, you'll be fine as long as you don't get into trying to mod every single texture in the game to the sloppiest, largest 4k textures you can find on nexus ;)

(Nah, just gonna stick to 2K textures; Noble seems pretty good)

 

Mookeylama

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Aug 30, 2012
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this sucks! i've been modding skyrim for 4 years and just got it as i want it. then days ago, my pc caught fire because of faulty house wiring. so was gonna build the ultimate. i7-7700k, 1080ti ect. but skyrim will only use 4 gb of the 11gb on that card??!
what if i buy both Win 10 and 7, install each on different ssds. would that work? will win7 even work on a Kaby Lake 7700k??
 

Dom_79

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You should start your own thread.

Not only Skyrim. ANY game that uses DX 9. It's not that big of a deal to not be able to use more than 4GB of video RAM (VRAM).

This "problem" that you are panicking about been around for YEARS. Since Windows 8. Have you heard people losing their minds because they couldn't get Skyrim to use more than 4GB VRAM under Windows 8/8.1?

Of course you haven't. Not for years since people went about showing how Creation Engine doesn't scale that well using more than 4GB VRAM in any case. And that's the same reason why it doesn't really matter under Windows 10 either ;-)

You'll be fine. The game will work fine. Everything will be fine.
 

Mookeylama

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Aug 30, 2012
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actually i've been hearing people gripe about this for a long time. the advice is to just not use large textures...but that defeats me buying an 11gb gpu lol. hell, Skyrim Performance Monitor showed me using close to 4gb back in like 2012 when i'd just started modding (on gtx 670 4gb), so i'd say it's pretty easy to hit that cap without even trying. ENBoost and memory logs show i regulary reach over 4gb

i think what i'm gonna do is get a i7-6770k, and a z270 mobo, then dual boot on a large ssd or even m.2. my skyrim game file is 130+gb (told ya i'd been modding it for years lol. it runs stable tho)