I've got a 2015 laptop with a GTX 960M and I want to finally play through Skyrim with some mods, but I don't want my game running at 15 fps. Should I just stick with visual mods or are there performance mods I should grab first? What's a realistic amount of mods for my setup?
You don't necessarily have to choose between visuals and performance - the smart move is grabbing performance mods *first*, then layering in lighter visual stuff afterward. Start with things like SSE Engine Fixes and a decent ini tweak guide (there are solid community ones out there), then maybe add texture downsizing mods and weather/lighting tweaks that won't tank your framerate. Realistically you're probably looking at 30-50 mods total if you're careful about which ones you pick, but honestly even 15-20 well-chosen ones can make a huge difference over vanilla without turning your laptop into a space heater. The GTX 960M isn't amazing but it's not hopeless either - just skip the ultra-detailed 4K texture packs and ENBs.
A GTX 960M is right on the edge of playable, so the performance mods everyone mentions are your foundation - but here's what actually made a difference for me: dropping your resolution to 1600x900 or even 1280x720 feels way less painful than you'd think, especially on a laptop screen, and it frees up room for maybe 40-50 solid mods instead of limping along with 20. Once you've got your performance baseline stable, grab some lightweight texture replacements and weather overhauls that won't tank your framerate. I'd test with maybe 30-40 mods total before pushing higher - boot up a new character, spend an hour in different areas, and see where your fps actually sits before loading up another 20.
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