I do not use 4k textures*, totaly overkill and very taxing, its just for "screen archers", i use 1-2k, mostly 2k, thats fine and 4 times higher than Vanilla. In term i use 4k textures, i would need a 3-4 GB VRAM card first, thats certain. I own a 64 bit system, my sig is ... right below. *Actually that counts for land mods of all kind. I may use 4k for character or dragon textures but thats a exception, landmass would be way to taxing at 4k. There is indeed some dragon textures out there considered to be the best textures ever made and they are between 4k and 8k (up to 8k with occlusion effects adding a layer of deepness, thats crazy), a really huge resolution with a rate of detail rarely ever seen on any game or graphics at all. But using such textures i will have to suffer on cell-settings, i only use 36 grid standart setting but it can handle those super high res dragons without problems in exchange.
The STEP project is well known to me but it lacks many of the mods i would enjoy to use. In theory mods can be "cleaned" using TES5edit but some mods do not require cleaning and it may not be a good idea, because they already has been cleaned and it is not always recommended and of course additional work which is able to break a lot in term user is inexperienced. I use the TES5edit in order to sort load order, i would rather use a patch in order to merge files, which is kinda the stuff STEP is doing, for increased compatibility and lesser or no conflicts.
STEP isnt merging everything, they just try to make a "lore friendly" approach it seems.
As far as i know the game can already utilize more than 2 GB simply (usually 32 bit systems wont allow above 2 GB for single application, simply by design and totally outdated nowadays) by throwing out the system so it doesnt take away the 32 bit space or something like that (i dont have exact knowledge how they do it), so i dont need a "adress fix", it was done by Bethesda themself but its also done by the SKSE which is basically doing a memory hack. The VRAM is big potential because it can pick up space without hurting the 32 bit adress space. Usualy on "non unified" systems (most PCs are not unified) the VRAM is copied twice, main and VRAM, that is very ineffective but the issue of non unified system. However, as far as i know the new GPUs are able to handle most of the data without splitting and sharing the data (just a minor amount is shared), but im really to less knowledgeable to tell the details how it works.
You can read it at the autors note "
no longer needed", because it has been patched by Bethesda on a newer version.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/134/? However, its not the pinnacle... the SKSE may expand it even more.
Although... CTD or stability itself is a conflict related problem because mods either not cleaned or incompatible... but the
performance is a issue that is mostly memory related, in that term the GPU is not fully utilized anymore, a perfect working GPU should always be above 90% load, unless the FPS cap is enabled (60 in usual). Bad scripts may lower performance but even worse... it can cause CTD. Conflicts... well its basically the term when 2 or more mods are trying to access the same ressource, in that term the engine may become unstable or even CTD instantly. But there is internal and external conflicts possible, conflicts a mod is creating by itself or when paired with other mods... so the conflict situation is a rather messy thing and one of the stuff hardest to solve i feel. Best way to prevent: Look out for compatible mods (with each others) and hopefully carefully cleaned of "internal conflicts". However, even Bethesdas main game isnt free of bugs and conflicts... thats why so many "unofficial patches" has been released. But have to be careful because those patches may not create a conflict with the main game but with mods that are designed without the patches in mind.... Easy? Well no... its simply modding. Compatibility is most important... and thats the spot many mods are lacking because created by individuals not trying to work together...
When im modding i try to avoid such conflicts as much as possible and i try to get mods that had a lot of finetuning, but not always possible because simply "under development".
Load order is the easyest thing to manage... all it takes is a short run on TES5edit and it will check for missing ressources, the true mess is the possible conflicts. Usualy the Nexus manager is sorting the order correct but not always... so i always let the TES5 run the files... sometimes Nexus manager was screwing up.
Regarding the scripts and that they are not a problem isnt entirely how i think. Scripts are putting load on the engine and the engine isnt without bounds... it got certain limitations and it can become unstable when to many scripts. Luckily a script extender is able to help out on many issues but the engine itself got many limitations and scripts that are going past its natural capabilitys are causing high stress and can decrease stability, even with the support of SKSE it is still additional stress and even more possible odds, not even Bethesda themself are able to remove "all the odds"... and they should be able to know theyr work (ok im not that sure...).
I guess i already told, my system is running at up to 7.5 GB pagefile and 2 GB VRAM, in total 9.5+ GB RAM used on all ressources, so you see without a 64 bit system i may be totaly busted... because when the pagefile have to be stored outside RAM area, there is nothing that can make the game playable anymore. I have already seen the main RAM hitting the 8 GB mark
without any background tasks, so the myth some player are shouting "
no game is using more than 8 GB and no one need 16 GB, it is simply not true".
